Gray owl,eastern red cedar juniper.

nagatay

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Option need.
Help with picking front. I see 2. Style maybe weeping. The needles drop.
 

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Leo in N E Illinois

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Often people make the mistake of getting overly concerned with picking a ''front'' with young material that is not really ready to be ''styled'' yet.

Also, it is your tree, not mine, you need to make the choices. The photos are not real helpful. See the photo tutorials in the resources sub-forum.

My suggestions would be to first explore the appearance of the nebari, nebari is the term for the zone of flare where the trunk flares out to meet the roots, including the top of the surface roots. Gently scrape away the top layer of soil and see where the roots actually start. Often the appearance of the nebari is the main feature determining what the ''front'' of the tree will be. Once you have seen the nebari, and perhaps photographed it, with young trees such as yours, you then bury the nebari again to aid further development. Bury the surface roots at least 1/4 inch deep. If you expose young roots, they will frequently die, or grow poorly in favor of roots further down in the pot, causing problems for nebari design later as the tree matures.

Second, before picking a front, you need to decide what size and style you would like this tree to be. If you want a 36 inch tall tree with a 6 inch diameter trunk, you won't need to do any choosing of front for quite a number of years, it just needs to grow. If you want a 6 inch tall tree, you are probably ready to do some branch selection and pruning. Only you can make the choice, you need to tell us what you want before we can give you useful advice.

Once you know what size you want, or general style you want, ask yourself whether the trunk is the diameter you want. Usually better bonsai have trunks that have diameters that are at least 10:1 height to diameter, thru 2:1 height to diameter. Most common is somewhere between 5:1 to 3:1. This means for a 10 inch tall tree you want a trunk that is 2 inches in diameter. So look at your tree, what is the trunk diameter? If it is less than desired, you have some growing to do first before starting to style the tree. Don't worry about picking a front until after the tree has the desired diameter.

There is more, please read through a number of the posts about junipers in the ''Juniper'' sub-forum of BNut.
Then take better pictues of your tree, and post them here with your new questions. And I am certain many of the BNut community will offer their advice.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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One more thought

Gray Owl is a cultivar of Juniper virginiana. As a general rule, J. virginiana is not the easiest of Junipers to use for bonsai. It prefers to be in very upright styles. I would not try to make a cascade with J. virginiana. There are also tricks about when to repot J. virginiana, they dislike being repotted. Use an all inorganic mix, so the next time you repot this you can leave it alone for 5 or more years at a time.

Read through the Juniper sub-forum and in particular look at the posts about J. virginiana, Eastern red cedar. Ignore the people that say ''it can not be used to make bonsai'', but do accept it is a difficult species to do bonsai with. It is not material for a new beginner.

The cultivar 'Gray Owl' may have some genetic anomalies that will make it easier to use for bonsai than its ''wild type'' parents, but I am not certain on this. Read and get ideas.
 

nagatay

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Thank you. Will read all the post you suggested. There was a post, about starting, but I can't find it. I have printed your post.
Pictures ??. Not very good at it. Thank you again.
 

nagatay

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I have measured the base 2" . I would like it to be about 10\12" . I think it would be easier to carry and work on in doors. It is very hot down here. Thank you again.
 

nagatay

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One more thought

Gray Owl is a cultivar of Juniper virginiana. As a general rule, J. virginiana is not the easiest of Junipers to use for bonsai. It prefers to be in very upright styles. I would not try to make a cascade with J. virginiana. There are also tricks about when to repot J. virginiana, they dislike being repotted. Use an all inorganic mix, so the next time you repot this you can leave it alone for 5 or more years at a time.

Read through the Juniper sub-forum and in particular look at the posts about J. virginiana, Eastern red cedar. Ignore the people that say ''it can not be used to make bonsai'', but do accept it is a difficult species to do bonsai with. It is not material for a new beginner.

The cultivar 'Gray Owl' may have some genetic anomalies that will make it easier to use for bonsai than its ''wild type'' parents, but I am not certain on this. Read and get ideas.
I am also i
One more thought

Gray Owl is a cultivar of Juniper virginiana. As a general rule, J. virginiana is not the easiest of Junipers to use for bonsai. It prefers to be in very upright styles. I would not try to make a cascade with J. virginiana. There are also tricks about when to repot J. virginiana, they dislike being repotted. Use an all inorganic mix, so the next time you repot this you can leave it alone for 5 or more years at a time.

Read through the Juniper sub-forum and in particular look at the posts about J. virginiana, Eastern red cedar. Ignore the people that say ''it can not be used to make bonsai'', but do accept it is a difficult species to do bonsai with. It is not material for a new beginner.

The cultivar 'Gray Owl' may have some genetic anomalies that will make it easier to use for bonsai than its ''wild type'' parents, but I am not certain on this. Read and get ideas.
I am also adding AI Keppler's beginners tips.
 

sorce

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I left my ERC alone this full year...and even with some poor growth due to what I believe do be tip blight. .....
It still threw a great new top set of radial surface roots and flared tremendously.

S
 

GGB

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My experience with ERC was vigorous growth, root and foliage. Very upright and needley, BUT grey owl seems more "meandering". I'd like to try the cultivar someday soon. It seems like the mature foliage comes along much faster than run of the mill ERC. I agree with Leo, definitely use inorganic soil. When they are young (in my experience) they will fill a pot with roots quickly and respond well to repots but I'm sure like all other trees they get fickle with age
 

defra

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Funny @sorce already said this in my thread of my own grey owl, there seem to be two different species to go with the grey owl name the ERC and juniperus virginiana "grey owl" they seem to be different.
Heres a thread on mine:
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/juniperus-virginniana-grey-owl.32484/

I know from my specimen that the foliage is kinda leggy and requires allot of work to tighten it up but it will never be as tight as the regular chinensis or shimpaku foliage so a slightly larger tree suits the species best
 

JoeH

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Funny @sorce already said this in my thread of my own grey owl, there seem to be two different species to go with the grey owl name the ERC and juniperus virginiana "grey owl" they seem to be different.
Heres a thread on mine:
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/juniperus-virginniana-grey-owl.32484/

I know from my specimen that the foliage is kinda leggy and requires allot of work to tighten it up but it will never be as tight as the regular chinensis or shimpaku foliage so a slightly larger tree suits the species best
sounds just like mine, it did take a slight root pruning well to get it to a training pot. I am still waiting for inspiration in its future direction. So far I am under the impression that it will be hard or impossible to form pads on it so it will have to be something different.
 

defra

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sounds just like mine, it did take a slight root pruning well to get it to a training pot. I am still waiting for inspiration in its future direction. So far I am under the impression that it will be hard or impossible to form pads on it so it will have to be something different.


It can be done, if you look in my thread the strong growing foliage is not leggy but nice tight scale foliage
The trick is to wire everything and make it point it up.
Then let grow untill the runners are about 2" to 3" long and prune them back continue
At least thats what i am instructed to do with mine by my teacher, a fellow student also has one that is some years ahead of mine and on his the pads slowly starting to take shape and tighten up :)
It just takes at least double the time as shimpaku or other tighter foliage juniper species
 

JoeH

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It can be done, if you look in my thread the strong growing foliage is not leggy but nice tight scale foliage
The trick is to wire everything and make it point it up.
Then let grow untill the runners are about 2" to 3" long and prune them back continue
At least thats what i am instructed to do with mine by my teacher, a fellow student also has one that is some years ahead of mine and on his the pads slowly starting to take shape and tighten up :)
It just takes at least double the time as shimpaku or other tighter foliage juniper species
lol, mine is doing nothing but pointing up. :) I have not looked at it in a couple months perhaps this am I will.
 
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