A Shimpaku I need to do something with

[abugoogoo]

What's shakin boys n girls.
I picked up this up at Dragon Tree Bonsai sometime back n it's just been sitting here forever with me looking at it n trying to figure out what the hell to do with it as far as styling goes. It's way overdue for a repot I think, so I'm gonna go ahead with it, but I wanted to fish for some styling tips from any of the pros that care to chime in. I took a ton of pics so y'all could get a solid idea what I'm working with.
Many thanks!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Junipers do not like to be repotted too often. If the media still drains freely, and water does not pool on the surface of the media, there is no immediate need to repot. You can always put repotting of for another year.

Personally, I do not prune my junipers at all from 6 months before I repot thru 12 months after I repot. This has greatly increased my survival rate by leaving them alone before and after repotting. There are some that can get away with being more aggressive. In my climate it is best to leave junipers alone the year you repot. In California they are much more aggressive with Junipers, climate is everything. So if you repot, I do not recommend styling. If you style the tree, put off the repotting for at least 12 months, up to maybe 24 months.

Your foliage is all at the ends of branches. I would thin out the upper, and outer foliage to let direct sun hit the interior branches. This will stimulate back budding, and then you will have more choices in the future when you actually style the tree. But I would thin the upper & outer parts of this tree by at least 50%. Then put it back in the yard to grow a couple years. Maybe repot next year. Then in 2022 or 2023 it will be ready to come back to and style.

You have 3 major branches (sub-trunks) branching real low on the main trunk. I would probably reduce that number to 2 or maybe to just one trunk. Think about it.

Other than that I don't like doing detailed styling from photos. So I won't go beyond my general suggestions.
There is some potential there. Nice tree.

 

[Shibui]

In my area I can work junipers far more than Leo in N E Illinois
If you add a location to your profile others will be able to give advice better suited to your specific location.
I'm also reluctant to do styling from photos. It is not possible to get a real feel for the 3D movement of trunks and branches in relation to each other. Even harder with junipers where foliage hides much of the character.
I do like the aspect in your 4th photo as a possible trunk but that is only with the limited look you have provided. Always assess the real tree critically before following online styling advice as we may have missed key aspects.

Also agree with Leo about considering removal of one or more of the thick lower branches. Junipers frequently feature jin and shari deadwood and redundant branches provide excellent opportunity to add deadwood features.

If you follow most of the styling of collected junipers you will see that most make use of long branches by bending to bring the foliage into places where it is needed. Branches frequently cross through and around the tree to put foliage pads into the desired place. That's not always easy or successful but it can be a way to utilise long, bare branches. The other option as suggested is take the longer development option and encourage new shoots from the bare areas then develop the tree from those.

 

[abugoogoo]

Junipers do not like to be repotted too often. If the media still drains freely, and water does not pool on the surface of the media, there is no immediate need to repot. You can always put repotting of for another year.

Personally, I do not prune my junipers at all from 6 months before I repot thru 12 months after I repot. This has greatly increased my survival rate by leaving them alone before and after repotting. There are some that can get away with being more aggressive. In my climate it is best to leave junipers alone the year you repot. In California they are much more aggressive with Junipers, climate is everything. So if you repot, I do not recommend styling. If you style the tree, put off the repotting for at least 12 months, up to maybe 24 months.

Your foliage is all at the ends of branches. I would thin out the upper, and outer foliage to let direct sun hit the interior branches. This will stimulate back budding, and then you will have more choices in the future when you actually style the tree. But I would thin the upper & outer parts of this tree by at least 50%. Then put it back in the yard to grow a couple years. Maybe repot next year. Then in 2022 or 2023 it will be ready to come back to and style.

You have 3 major branches (sub-trunks) branching real low on the main trunk. I would probably reduce that number to 2 or maybe to just one trunk. Think about it.

Other than that I don't like doing detailed styling from photos. So I won't go beyond my general suggestions.
There is some potential there. Nice tree.

Thank you so much Leo, that's some solid and detailed advice.

 

[abugoogoo]

In my area I can work junipers far more than Leo in N E Illinois
If you add a location to your profile others will be able to give advice better suited to your specific location.
I'm also reluctant to do styling from photos. It is not possible to get a real feel for the 3D movement of trunks and branches in relation to each other. Even harder with junipers where foliage hides much of the character.
I do like the aspect in your 4th photo as a possible trunk but that is only with the limited look you have provided. Always assess the real tree critically before following online styling advice as we may have missed key aspects.

Also agree with Leo about considering removal of one or more of the thick lower branches. Junipers frequently feature jin and shari deadwood and redundant branches provide excellent opportunity to add deadwood features.

If you follow most of the styling of collected junipers you will see that most make use of long branches by bending to bring the foliage into places where it is needed. Branches frequently cross through and around the tree to put foliage pads into the desired place. That's not always easy or successful but it can be a way to utilise long, bare branches. The other option as suggested is take the longer development option and encourage new shoots from the bare areas then develop the tree from those.

Thanks so much for the help. I'm in South Florida, I put it in the profile now too.

 

[Shibui]

South Florida. That makes a big difference. You can probably follow the lead of those in warmer climes rather than the ones in the frozen north when considering time of year and what you can do with bonsai.
Over here I would be happy to prune and wire a shimpaku juniper at the same time as repotting it. Certainly in the same year will be OK

 

[abugoogoo]

So I decided to go ahead and repot this thing, because the water was indeed pooling, and it's just looking like a hot mess all around... awful color, lots of scales browning, all branches and trunks are really dry and brittle, etc. When I took it out, I found it has barely any root mass relative to the size of the pot, and was super compacted. I didn't do any heavy pruning, just wired some of the trunks to open it up to get some sun on the inside and see how it does. Also didn't trim any roots other than what came off with cleaning, because there's not much there.
Some pics included after cleaning and repot. At this point, I'm just hoping it survives.