Happy Ending to the Story
When something goes wrong, like when your bulldog breaks off your cactus, you can sit and cry or you can create a happy outcome, and today I chose to do the latter. [Pats self on back.]
Through a combination of ingenuity, creativity, and good ol' luck, I made the following moves in a kind of "musical pots" sort of strategy.
I took one of my old "bonsai" plants out of the bonsai pot because it doesn't really look like a bonsai anyway.
2. I put this bonsai wanna-be into a larger pot, along with my replanted (broken off) cactus, to create more of a full-looking potted arrangement.
3. I went to the plant nursery and I bought what appears to be a much better example of a bonsai-looking plant - chamaecyparis obtusa "Chirimen".
4. I used the now-empty bonsai pot and planted the new plant into it. The new bonsai plant was super root-bound.
5. After planting into the bonsai pot, it looks decent, although I might do some wiring on it later to make it more balanced.
