Yaupon holly cutback

It can take a long time to get a tree into rough shape, especially when making primary branches from scratch. Refining from takes even longer.

Now that my Yaupon holly has the basic silhouette I had in mind for it, the current goal is to create more mature looking branch pads. This is done through selective branch removal and cutback. As it’s been a while since the last major cutback, I removed more branches than usual, knowing that the tree can fill in quickly.

Yaupon holly – August 2015

Here’s a brief look at the cutback and thinning worked. For the smaller branches, I removed the old leaves.

Small branch

After removing old leaves

Longer branches were cut back to a roughly uniform size.

Longer branch

After cutback and removing old leaves

The result is close to last year’s cutback, but the silhouette is a bit smaller and there is more space between the branches.

After cutback

Looking from above, it’s easy to see the gaps between branches.

After cutback – view from above

I added the before and after pics to the thread on the tree’s development at Ask Bonsai Tonight.