Korean Hornbeam on a stand I designed

My Double Trunk Korean Hornbeam on a stand I designed.

This tree was a disaster when I got it at a bonsai nursery about 6 or 7 years ago. Actually, my wife found it on the edge of the property roasting in the August sun. All the leaves on the daughter trunk were burned to a crisp. Moreover, it had air roots, if you can believe it. That is, those roots that now form a fine nebari were much higher and you could see through them - as if the tree were on a tripod. It was a consignment, so I guess somebody wasn't too interested in it. The first thing I did, after driving it home, was get it into the shade and watered, and watered regularly, until the weather cooled. Then an emergency repot (of course it was pot bound) and severe root prune to bring the nebari back down to Earth. Most importantly, I made sure there was space for the tiny feeder roots to drink and grow. In addition to making the root pad about 1.5 inches thick, I cut scallops around the pad's edges for space. I dusted the entire root mass with hormone and replaced what passed for soil with my own mix, which, by some accident, corresponds approximately to both Walter Pall's and Julian Adams' soil preferences: 80% Turface (or equivalent), 15% milled sphagnum moss (which I create by rubbing the strands against a wire soil sizing screen over a pail) and about 5% rotted cedar bark. The sphagnum moss has antibacterial properties and has long been used as a wound dressing in the terrible wars we seem to have too often - before antibiotics were discovered. The roots certainly needed that help, along with the hormone. (Naturally, everyone has their own fave soil; I just wanted to level with you about what I did. Use what works for you.) I never thought I could get away with this sort of thing in late August (late March is my usual repot time), but it worked.