Style ideas for this juniper

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

Gabelo said:

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

Click to expand...

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.

I would cut the biggest branch off the top and wait for buds on the trunk.

Sorce

I would address the soil,glued on rock issue first if it were me. It's in muck and needs to be fixed before the tree dies. Then when it recovers,like next year I would wire the trunk and bend the shit out of it.
And keep it outside of course

What does this Juniper look like today...???

If not being kept in house and dead already best suggestion would be in late Feb/early Mar.(whenever end of winter in your area) to place in decent Bonsai soil and large growing pot or ground to develop trunk size. Keeping in small decorative pot trunk will not develop size needed for good tree as roots must feel free to grow.

Can someone else please take this one.....I'm burnt out....

I love the tape measure forcing me to do the math??&*%

The courteous thing to do is at least give the dimension of the tape case so I can include that in my cyphering.

@Smoke

Gabelo, You can start by studying posts like this: http://www.bonsainut.com/threads/bonsai-stick-figures-with-special-guest-rick-martin.25502/ This type of information is exactly what you need to help you get started and there are other posts like this on the forum as well. If you search for posts by Smoke and Sawgrass many informational threads will show up. There are more by other members but I can't recall them all off hand. Once you read them, you may be able to answer your own questions. I hope this helps.

Bonsai just don't happen by accident, you can get a tree to grow in a pot but actual bonsai, at least those that can be recognized as a bonsai, are dependent on working with a tree to create an illusion of a very old and ancient tree. In order to do this you need to understand that this illusion is dependent on the use of proportions where the trunk's thickness and the tree's height reside into the parameter of the max height of the tree should not exceed six times the diameter of the trunk, or less than three times the the diameter of the trunk. If the tree is too tall (more than six times the diameter of the trunk) the tree will look like any number Christmas tree shapes or road side plantings. If this is what you want go for it. If the tree is too short (less than three times the diameter of the trunk) the tree will look like an old bush that has been mowed over by a bush hog. So---with those things in mind evaluate your tree with those things in mind and let us know what you have discovered. Get back to us when done. Everything you are going to need to know and apply will be dependent on these findings unless you want to spend the next ten years trying to figure out this kind of stuff.