WHOOPS! Left out a sentence...Last night I said I'd just purchased a 'Beni Hime'--when really, I'd gotten his Russian Cosmonaut buddy Yuri...

Lol that is clever...Yuri the Russian Cosmonaut. Yuri is a cute little guy BTW.

I prefer the first way with the gap showing. Of course, I do some bonsai stuff so I'm biased. I just think it has more character that way.

mattlwfowler--

That was my first instinct as well.

Well, that's how I'll pot him up then. Tomorrow, if it's not pouring. (I rather hope it IS pouring...we are in desperate need of rain...)

melanie

REMEMBER correct pronuciation is "Your E" "He May" NOT... Hi! ME! ( the Jesse jackson pronounciation)If I here that one more time i will burst ...It's "HE MAY"....David

Yes japanese has interesting pronunciation when converted to english. Why cant english just sound the way it is spelled?..regardless of language :(

Let me ask you this one david: how do you pronounce sango kaku?

sang-oh kah-koo or sahn-goh kah-koo

The first seems to be the consensus...but I was under the impression that sango is a japanese name that is pronounced more like the second.

At work we pronounce it sahn-go kah-koo...but then, I'm in NC. ;~)

And we pronounce Yuri Hime just as you described.

I will ask my wife the japanese speaker but on the Eastwoods cd which is usually right it SAAANgo KAku plain and simple ( slight pause very slight between the N and G ... with my intense dislike for this tree ( for my area!!) I have a bucnch of other pronuciations which would get me barred from the site... so I will not go there...David

Lol I'm not a big fan either. If it had a descent structure it would be fine...but it is too twiggy for my liking. Although I don't mind 'fjellhiem' since it is basically a shrub anyway.

I would display it with the gap in front. Maybe prune it to show even more 'leg' than is showing now. That's a nice looking tree. Show it off.

Prune it asymmetrically so that you show more leg, but at the same time have a branch cascading all the way below the pot rim.

That is a really pretty maple. Reminds me of my Kamagata, except yours is larger and fuller. I would display it so the trunk shows.

Kamagata has similar shaped leaves, but they have red tinges. It is also a dwarf.

Mikawa yatsubusa is another nice green dwarf. I bought mine as a first-year graft, and it is still pretty small in its second year. Right now, mine has a main stem about 12-15" long with what looks like a ball of leaves at the top. Hopefully it will branch out more in time.