In bonsai there are so many things to worry about; horticulture: is my tree growing well or is it languishing in old soil;  Aesthetics: how can I make the next step to improve my tree?  In fact there are so many things that one can be concerned about that sometimes it seems that you just have to give up on perfection so that you can achieve greatness.  I think that one of the things that novices and seasoned pros can tend to forget, or never realize in the first place, is the relative importance of different aspects of bonsai design.  While ideally you would have everything in a tree perfect, that may take a long time, so in the interim you might want to choose which aspects are more important to you.
Take a step back for a moment and think about that Japanese maple or Chinese elm that you are working on.  Here are some of the things that you might be thinking about:

• Hey, it’s got a nice trunk, but all the branches are too small.
• I think those internodes are too long
• Uh-oh, there are three branches coming from the same junction
• Man, if only that one section was a little less straight
• Hmm…maybe I could improve the taper by cutting all these branches way back and starting over again!
• I wonder how I could get a branch to grow =right there=!

These are all valid things to be thinking about, but instead of worrying about all of them at once, think about this idea: You have to look at your trees everyday to water and take care of them, wouldn’t you like them to look as good as possible all the time?  If you cut off that third branch or those long internodes or that straight section you’re going to have less tree to look at.  And really, unless you are staring at the bare tree in winter or peering between branches, a few of these faults can be tolerated and corrected over time with proper technique.  That is why the silhouette is the most important aspect of the tree’s canopy.  Once you have the trunk and main branches in place, the development of the canopy, twigging and perfect branching, can take second position to filling out the silhouette.

Take a look at some photos of your favorite trees that you have seen in person (you have been taking photos, right?)  Now look at how important the outline of the fine branching or foliage is to the representation of the tree in two dimensions:  in short, it’s almost everything.  Your first impression of the tree is made by the outline of the crown and the character of the trunk and nebari.   Later you may walk up closer and peer at the branching to see just how finely it has been executed, but that all important overall impression of the tree is largely formed without noticing the minute details of the branch structure.

Now take a look at the trees in your back yard.  Realizing that you are very familiar with these trees, try to take a step back and forget about the details of the crown; then ask yourself these questions:

• Could I improve the first impression of this tree by allowing it to grow out to the outline I have in mind? (Then selectively branches can be cut back to improve refinement)

• Instead of pinching, can growing out and wiring a couple branches fill in some of the gaps?

Of course, there will be trees where allowing it to grow to the silhouette and then cutting back later will be a less attractive technique: if a tree is reluctant to bud back you have to make sure that you have interior growth to cut back to later.  Slow-growing trees will likely not benefit.  Filling out a silhouette and then refining the branches is not going to always work.

If you do decide to fill out the silhouette first, make sure you take the brave steps that will allow you to continue to refine the crown later.  Perhaps you have let a maple grow out during the season and then trimmed it lightly for the perfect fall foliage for a show.  Later that winter or the following spring you have to make the sometimes hard decision to remove those branch extensions so that in the next year you are still refining, rather than just wasting time.

So next time you are looking at your tree wondering about if an internode is too long, stop and consider whether that is the detail that is most important to you.

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