View attachment 109831 View attachment 109830 I am new to bonsai art and I got this comercial bonsai as a present and I am having trouble to decide what style should I do.In my opinion It seems that this bonsai never was wired and trained. When I see a juniper with this shape, I tend to think in a casacade style. But I am not sure if the trunk was left to grow to high in a straight position. Not sure if I will be able to bend it.
Any ideas to style this pre-bonsai? I will appreciate pics to help me to imagine the design.
Thanks
Well, common thought with theses seems to be to remove most of what the tree has into about three pads with very little foliage about a million miles away from the trunk, the tree usually shrivels up and in a couple of months dies...
Assuming this is not what you want to do? I would suggest prepping the tree to be able to make something out of it. Go through the tree and with each tiny branch of foliage, go through and remove about the first 1/2 " of foliage away from the trunk and major branches. Leave about a an inch or more of the foliage at the end. Remove all the new buds popping from nooks and crannies, and any other areas where you think you might not want something to grow from. This is called cleaning out the tree. It will start to force these tiny branches to grow into a branch that can be used and wired and give you something to worth with.
When first starting out, most people think you want to group big clumps of foliage on the main branches and form pads wirh these. Totally opposite. .. You want fine branches coming off of main branches with a pad of foliage at the end. Think of a lollipop... the stem being the finer branching, the foliage being the candy. Once these are estsblished, you then wire and position these finer pads into a grouping to make a larger pad.