CA Juniper 1st Styling

[yenling83]

On Friday I had the privilege of a private lessons with Boon. We worked on a collected CA Juniper that I recently purchased from Muranaka Bonsai Nursery. Next spring I plan on grafting on roots to the live veins so I can shorten the tree and get rid of the straight base. Still needs alot of work.

Before

After 1st Styling

Most likely future-Virtual

 

[R_F]

Very nice! Thanks for posting.

 

[greerhw]

Nice work !

keep it green,
Harry

 

[bonsai barry]

WoW! I didn't see that one at George's. I've never learned how to find the live vein and carve around it. Looks like your lessons are paying off. I want to see this one in person.

 

[rockm]

I don't know....I understand wanting to shorten this, but somehow I don't think it needs it. Ever consider carving THROUGH the straight portion to create something of a window effect. Carved sensitively, I think that straight portion might be the highlight of the tree, and you wouldn't have to graft roots.

 

[Dwight]

it seems to me a ground layer would be easier , safer and faster than grafting roots. Put it back in the nursery pot , cut out a few notches where you want roots and plant it a few inches deeper.

 

[yenling83]

Thank you for the feedback and replys!

Dwight: that's what I thought too, but I know Boon has had great success with using root grafts to remove an upper section of Juniper. He showed me a couple that he had successfully performed and he will help me apply them. I would like to learn the technique Boon uses. I asked Boon what percentage of root grafts were successful and he replied, "root grafts are very successful when done correctly."

Rockm: Not exactly sure I can see it. I'm sure you can visualize something that would work very nicely, I just don't really think I could pull something like that off at this point.

Jeff: Yes, you should come by to check it out. I still have a bunch of your books and feel bad I have not returned them.

 

[Si Nguyen]

Nice work Yenling! The height of it seems ok to me. I wouldn't worry about trying to shorten it. About the only thing I could see differently is that the apex is a bit off-balanced. I would grow the apex over to the left side ( over to the center of the root base) a little bit more in the future. That's an awesome Cali! It is not easy to find a nice short and twisty one like this.