Hi, my first bonsai

[BCS1980UK]

Happy Easter! Newbie bonsai enthusiast here!

I recently stumbled upon this awesome forum while diving into the magical world of tiny trees, and I just wanted to say how grateful I am for all the wisdom being shared here. You folks are amazing!
After months of reading, lurking, and binge-watching bonsai videos like they were Netflix thrillers, I discovered that the Waltham Forest Bonsai Club (based in London, UK) hosts monthly open workshops. And wouldn't you know it — the next one was all about repotting! Naturally, I dashed off to the local garden center during my lunch break, hoping to find a worthy candidate for the workshop. The pickings were slim (early March and all), but then I saw it… a sad, scruffy-looking Juniper Squamata sitting all alone for £9. Total underdog vibes. So I adopted it.



Fast forward to the workshop: I repotted my little rescue tree, and—miracle of miracles—it’s still alive and kicking! Today, I got brave and gave styling a try for the first time. Fingers crossed I didn’t butcher it too badly.



Looking forward to learning more and sharing the journey with you all!

Cheers,
Bruno

 

[michaelj]

Welcome to crazy! You're off to a better start than I got.

You butchered it fairly well for a beginner. Did you style it at the club? If not, bring it with you next time and see how many different opinions you can collect.

In the meantime, get a couple more trees, because this one is going to need time to grow out and recover from the repotting and pruning. In my experience, and that of many others, if you only have one or two trees, it's hard to resist the urge to overwork them early on.

 

[NeedlesAndLeaves]

Lovely tree for the money.
Yes you gave it a hard spanking if
I might use proper English. Leave it for recovery and imagine the future lines of the tree
In have a few of trees like those which are doing great by now and showing strong growth.
Give it time to recover.

 

[AshleyMammal]

Patience patience, that’s a lot of work for juniper in the space of a few days! Squamata seem to be a very hardy species so you stand a chance of it recovering - but please don’t be discouraged if it does pop it’s clogs, there will be a valuable lesson there.

The usual advice for Juniper is one insult (heavy pruning or repotting) per year and no more than 50% of foliage removed in one go.

 

[BCS1980UK]

Thank you all for your comments.
Yes, I am leaving the poor thing quiet now and looking for new victims, I mean, trees.

 

[JudyB]

You did well, finding a club to start your journey with, lots of us just started chopping with no plan.... You might want to put your location in your profile so it shows under your name, and people can give you advice based on your climate. Welcome!

 

[rockm]

Happy Easter! Newbie bonsai enthusiast here!

I recently stumbled upon this awesome forum while diving into the magical world of tiny trees, and I just wanted to say how grateful I am for all the wisdom being shared here. You folks are amazing!
After months of reading, lurking, and binge-watching bonsai videos like they were Netflix thrillers, I discovered that the Waltham Forest Bonsai Club (based in London, UK) hosts monthly open workshops. And wouldn't you know it — the next one was all about repotting! Naturally, I dashed off to the local garden center during my lunch break, hoping to find a worthy candidate for the workshop. The pickings were slim (early March and all), but then I saw it… a sad, scruffy-looking Juniper Squamata sitting all alone for £9. Total underdog vibes. So I adopted it.

View attachment 593265

Fast forward to the workshop: I repotted my little rescue tree, and—miracle of miracles—it’s still alive and kicking! Today, I got brave and gave styling a try for the first time. Fingers crossed I didn’t butcher it too badly.

View attachment 593267

Looking forward to learning more and sharing the journey with you all!

Cheers,
Bruno

Good for you finding a club and diving in. The club will multiply your knowledge and capabilities by ten. Many people don’t bother to do research or look for help. Some get stuck others quit because they get discouraged. A club will provide hands on experience that isn’t available otherwise