Specialty Gardening: Hello and request for help on miniature garden, 1 by largosmom

largosmom wrote:
Hello, I've been a "Dave's" member for a bit over a year and this forum is a spot I have on occasion lurked. I've been considering developing a miniature garden in a Japanese style for a couple of years, and watched a program on HGTV about two weeks ago about a style called "Bonneiwa" which involves developing a scene in a Bonsai style. I realize this isn't strictly a "Bonsai" problem, but hope you'll still have some comments or thoughts on my project and how I might prune the plants in the scene. In my mind, I will have a little hill, with a Japanese maple, and maybe a miniature Japanese lantern. It will have a stream coming down the hill, which splits partway down. I will have three other plants, including one with a bit of gold in it, and one with a bit of red/purple. I want one other taller element but not as tall as the maple. If there is space, I may add a small arched bridge when I can find or make one.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_plants_other/article/0,1785,HGTV...

Anyway, I posted in the Japanese maple forum for suggestions on pruning the small maple I have in my container, which is a large terracotta bowl. I would also like to add a couple of evergreens to the container, and prune them in a Japanese style. I have a book titled "Niwaki" which provides some inspiration, but I am a novice with evergreens. I've cared for other Japanese Maples in containers, but not treated them as Bonsai, though I enjoy pruning them to highlight the movement in the tree's branches.

I'm going to post several photos of the plants I would like to add to the container. It is hard to tell, but the soil is intended to mound in the center. I don't plan to keep all of these plants in this container long term as I expect some will outgrow the scale, so may be replaced at some point in the future and the larger plant moved to a different container (maybe as a true bonsai?).

First is a Japanese Maple, which is a fairly young grafted plant which needs to settle into its graft. It's an Acer palmatum 'Mikawa Yatsubusa'. The other plants I have are a dwarf Hinoki Cypress 'Longheed', and a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Dust' and some moss and sedums for ground cover. I would like to prune the Hinoki Cypress in addition to the maple.

First question I have is do you think I should chop off the long branches on the maple? My first photos are taken prior to my attempting to tie them down using bamboo sticks to induce a bend in them. I'm undecided if this will look good. The next photos show the current postions of the branches.

I'll add the evergreen photos after the maples so bear with me if viewing this mid-post.

I appreciate your thoughts and have enjoyed looking at your projects!