Found some Blue Point(?) Junipers today

[Dauber]

Hi everyone! I've been searching around for some decent beginner material and I came across these Junipers. I realize that Junipers are probably not the best to start with, but there were plenty of these around, and some of them look decent to me. I'm not really sure what decent is yet, so let me know what you think. Thanks.
All of these were found under power lines about 5 minutes from my house. It would be a pretty "easy" transplant.
1) 2) 3)

Thanks again for any input!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

#1 has a really nice looking trunk shape where it curves off to the side. Also have some nice branches to choose what to do with afterwards.

 

[Dauber]

#1 has a really nice looking trunk shape where it curves off to the side. Also have some nice branches to choose what to do with afterwards.

That's basically what I was thinking. It has decent taper too, hard to see in the pictures. Out of the 30ish trees that I saw that were similar to number 1, this seemed to be the healthiest and most promising. Not sure what her underparts look like though...

 

[Orion_metalhead]

That's basically what I was thinking. It has decent taper too, hard to see in the pictures. Out of the 30ish trees that I saw that were similar to number 1, this seemed to be the healthiest and most promising. Not sure what her underparts look like though...

Yes, definitely check out her underparts before you make a commitment.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

In Pennsylvania, the only two native species of juniper are Juniperus communis (common juniper) and Juniperus virginiana (eastern red cedar). The common juniper tends to be wide bush or shrub, usually less than 3 or 4 feet tall. Common juniper makes a fairly decent bonsai. The eastern red cedar tends to be more tree like, with definite vertical leaders, often to 30 feet tall, occasionally more. From the looks, I think you have eastern red cedar.

The first and third trunks look interesting, I might consider them. However, they are likely eastern red cedar, and therefore a difficult species to bonsai. In the long run, especially if you are new to bonsai, you would be better off starting with a Shimpaku, or Juniperus procumbens. Both are relatively easy to work with.

If you do collect one of these red cedars, pot it up and let it recover for at least a year before working on it. read up in the meantime.

Seriously, you would be better served going to a garden center and looking for a Shimpaku, or Juniper chinensis. All the Juniperus chinensis cultivars make fair to excellent bonsai. Shimpaku, Itogawa & Kishu are the 3 cultivars that are most often used for bonsai. Pick up one or more of them to work with.

Also Juniperus horizontalis and Juniperus procumbens are also good for bonsai.

 

[Dauber]

Shimpaku, Itogawa & Kishu are the 3 cultivars that are most often used for bonsai.

I plan on checking out some nursery stock pretty soon, I'll look for those junipers when I'm there. I've been doing a fair amount of research and don't plan on digging anything up unless I'm pretty confident. Thanks a lot for the response, I appreciate the useful information.

Here's a picture of the foliage on those trees. The needles were sharp and pointy.