Emperor I [Acer Palmatum]

This JM is a little bit of a hack and dash bonsai for me in my early years to get something cheap of decent size to practice on. I got it in the fall of 2024 on massive discount at an end of season sale — I liked the base flare and thought the graft point wasn't horrible, and hoped it will smooth out if I was aiming for a larger sized tree eventually — and cut it back to get it down to a reasonable size and over wintered it in my garage.

It grew well last year, with many of my friends really liking the look of the tree when it was in full leaf — the August 2025 pic is after some pruning to let light into the interior so doesn't show how dense the leaves got at their peak.

That said I have always been pretty bothered by the proportions and lack of taper on the trunk while it is in it's winter silhouette. Last fall I removed the thick lower branches and am looking to regrow the lower branches with better proportions and movement.

I have constantly had thoughts about air layering the top/chopping just above the lowest new growth and regrow the whole tree from there to develop taper, but have put it off since it's has been one of my only larger trees that people seem to really like the look of in the summer. My hope is now that I am in a regular enough practice that I feel comfortable starting to collect better quality material to work with, in a few years I will have better trees and taking a step backwards in order to take a step forward with this one will be less drastic for the entire collection.

Ultimately I know this tree will likely never be a high level show tree or anything, but it has been good to practice on and looks good enough in the garden for now while I work on my long term projects. Any thoughts on the tree or my plans for it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!