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Yaupon holly cutback

August 18, 2015 by Jonas Dupuich

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 - before cutback

Yaupon holly – August 2015

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

Before thinning

Small branch

After thinning

After removing old leaves

Longer branches were cut back to a roughly uniform size.

Before thinning

Longer branch

After thinning

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.

Yaupon holly - after cutback

After cutback

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

From above

After cutback – view from above

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

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Filed Under: Bonsai Development Tagged With: Yaupon Holly

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