How to create a masterpiece juniper

Woocash

Omono
Messages
1,607
Reaction score
2,262
Location
Oxford, UK
While looking at Junipers, I found myself on the Bonsai Bark blog and came across this beauty by Naoki Maeoka. Possibly my favourite Juniper that I have seen.
7478C7EC-B89D-4BCB-9C0F-6EC2796BC56F.jpeg

It has a lovely balance to it, from the shape of the canopy, to the mix of deadwood and live veins all wrapped up in some Studio Ghibli fantasy stylings. Perfection.

I’m not asking for intimate detail on styling the foliage (though go ahead if you are so inclined), but I am wondering how you would create the bones of a tree like this? How do you create the live veins? I don’t necessarily mean how to find them, but how to isolate them from nursery stock or equivalent (I assume this has been in bonsai training since propagation as opposed to collected). How old would a piece like this be, for example? I guess I don’t understand how junipers grow and at what size or age veins separate themselves from each other.

Also, like this one from a photo by Jonas Dupich (don’t know if it’s his or not), the twists were obviously created so how does one manipulate the vein here? Do you literally twist the tree from youth or cut a spiral and wait for the sap to divert?
CD1AD735-759F-4AF5-8E7B-3A89ACF9DEE1.jpeg

Lot’s of questions, but hopefully the general enquiry makes sense. I want to manipulate live veins on junipers. How is this done? Thanks people.
 

eryk2kartman

Chumono
Messages
616
Reaction score
516
Location
Ireland
USDA Zone
8b
Most of the time it looks to me like they are Tanuki, really nicely made, thats why you see the veins wrapped around but i could be wrong.
but at the same time i saw some videos showing the guy doing it by hand unfortunately i dont know the technique, ive no Junipers......
 

BobbyLane

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
6,058
Reaction score
17,659
Location
London, England
you can create live veins on most trees by peeling away sections of cambium. a sharp scalpel is good for this after the outlines are marked out with a pen. not all of what you see on masterpiece junipers is created, often they were collected with deadwood and veins already in place. this natural deadwood is hard to replicate.
 

Shibui

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
7,545
Reaction score
15,215
Location
Yackandandah, Australia
USDA Zone
9?
I don't think you actually create the live veins. You create the dead wood and the live veins are what is left over ;)

Creating junipers requires lots of time. Years of it all lined up end to end with small portions of activity interspersed.

Basically my approach is to start with cuttings. I actually root long, thin runners from the tips of shimpaku that gives me a 15-20 cm long rooted cutting about 3-4 mm thick.
Apply trunk wire then bend the trunk into contorted shape. The 20 cm tree wil now be less than 10cm tall. Leave it to grow. Remove wire after about 3 months or when you notice it marking the bark. Leave it to grow.
When the tip grows another 15 - 20 cm Apply more trunk wire and bend again. Leave to grow as above.
Repot as necessary to maintain good growth. Wire as necessary to create enough height in the trunk. Wire branches to match the trunk. Leave sacrifice branches wherever possible to add to trunk thickening. Even sacrifice branches can be wired in case you want to create shari from them when the growing is completed.
Leave to grow some more.
When the trunk has thickened enough to be able to remove some bark I begin creating shari.
Shari can be created in one go or over years. The latter gives added character as successive layers of wood show up in the dead wood shari.
Remove thin strip of bark along the length of the trunk. There MUST be a live connection between roots and all live branches so route of the shari needs to be planned well. Leave to grow.
Every year or so you can widen the shari but there are many years of growing before most junipers will look like those above.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
Messages
32,908
Reaction score
45,579
Location
Berwyn, Il
USDA Zone
6.2
I think I remember @Owen Reich talking about those little J's...oh yeah... It was in person at our show.

Deadwood doesn't grow.

The thing about Nursery Junipers is you have to grow it to be so large, that you can first create Deadwood, than also still grow the tree, and end up with Deadwood that doesn't get covered by live.

Reckon the top one was collected.

Sorce
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
In Japan the bonsai business is compartmentalized. One nursery might specialize in making cuttings, and bringing them up to the 5 year mark. Next nursery will wire twists and turns as mentioned above, and bring the junipers along to the 35 or so years old range. They would still be considered pre-bonsai at this point. Then the next nursery would do initial styling. That first by Naoki, is probably close to 100 years old if it is nursery material, or it could be much older collected material. Naoki is only the most recent one to work on it.
 

Woocash

Omono
Messages
1,607
Reaction score
2,262
Location
Oxford, UK
Awesome! Thanks very much guys. From the research I’d done it seemed that the live vein was in a set place, like a vein in a body, but that must just have been referring to collected trees or those with dead sections already. So as long there is a clear path from the roots to live foliage a vein can be formed.

I really like the idea of what the fella from Brazil did by growing a native juniper in the ground to a great size then grafting some Itoigawa or similar on. Can this be done with any species of juniper? Also, is there a particular species which is particularly prolific to serve as the trunk? J. Communis perhaps? It’s our only native so obviously is suited to the climate.
 

Shibui

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
7,545
Reaction score
15,215
Location
Yackandandah, Australia
USDA Zone
9?
Some junipers grow far faster than others. Fats growing species are not necessarily local species so look at the ones sold as landscape trees. They would be the best for this project.

Here's one I prepared earlier
IMGP6244.JPG
All the branches are grafted.
Started out as one of the upright conical ones with prickly foliage - not sure of the variety or species - The lower trunk was good but the growth habit hard to manage and prickly foliage a pain to work with.
Juniper approach graft original foliage.JPG

Some of the approach grafts in place summer 2009
PICT0370.JPG
 

Shibui

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
7,545
Reaction score
15,215
Location
Yackandandah, Australia
USDA Zone
9?
From the research I’d done it seemed that the live vein was in a set place, like a vein in a body, but that must just have been referring to collected trees or those with dead sections already. So as long there is a clear path from the roots to live foliage a vein can be formed.
There is quite a lot of this misinformation. Sap does tend to take the most direct route from roots to leaves but the trees have the ability to change sap flow paths if required so, provided the cambium is intact, you can make the initial shari almost any shape and the tree will adapt but there must be a continuous path of live bark connecting roots to leaves. Any roots that do not have connection to living branches will die. Any branches that don't have direct connection to one or more roots will die.
 

chansen

Shohin
Messages
361
Reaction score
358
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
USDA Zone
6a
There is quite a lot of this misinformation. Sap does tend to take the most direct route from roots to leaves but the trees have the ability to change sap flow paths if required so, provided the cambium is intact, you can make the initial shari almost any shape and the tree will adapt but there must be a continuous path of live bark connecting roots to leaves. Any roots that do not have connection to living branches will die. Any branches that don't have direct connection to one or more roots will die.

This. Also, you can't always cut the entire shari at once, because you may be crossing over connections between roots and branches. So they are done in stages to limit the probability of badness happening.
 

Woocash

Omono
Messages
1,607
Reaction score
2,262
Location
Oxford, UK
Some junipers grow far faster than others. Fats growing species are not necessarily local species so look at the ones sold as landscape trees. They would be the best for this project.

Here's one I prepared earlier
View attachment 310123
All the branches are grafted.
Started out as one of the upright conical ones with prickly foliage - not sure of the variety or species - The lower trunk was good but the growth habit hard to manage and prickly foliage a pain to work with.
View attachment 310124

Some of the approach grafts in place summer 2009
View attachment 310125
Cool, nice job! Looks like they’re pretty adaptable then. First things first, get me some landscape junipers and find a piece of ground I can commandeer for a decade or two! There’s a J Sabina ‘tamariscifolia’ I’ve got my eye on at a local nursery so I might get it and make my first proper foray into carving. Is there a time of year which is best for this type of work?
 

Woocash

Omono
Messages
1,607
Reaction score
2,262
Location
Oxford, UK
This. Also, you can't always cut the entire shari at once, because you may be crossing over connections between roots and branches. So they are done in stages to limit the probability of badness happening.
Good point, that certainly makes sense.
 

leatherback

The Treedeemer
Messages
13,937
Reaction score
26,876
Location
Northern Germany
USDA Zone
7
I really like the idea of what the fella from Brazil did by growing a native juniper in the ground to a great size then grafting some Itoigawa or similar on. Can this be done with any species of juniper?
As far as I know, yes. It is what we are planning on doing with the best of our training junipers. For the bigger junipers in my garden I work shari slowly. I know they can deal with sections of bark being removed and you can steer the way the live sections flow. I am however every time slightly anxious when I make the cuts.

Thing to keep in mind: The tree will find the shortest route between rout and branch quite naturally. So making odd spirals and shapes might only work in one go. The typical trick of cutting ovals out of the bark to get twisty veigns might nog be as effective if the tree decides to rerout a fairly straight path meandering between the ovals.
 

leatherback

The Treedeemer
Messages
13,937
Reaction score
26,876
Location
Northern Germany
USDA Zone
7
Maybe you have a tree that you will create a large yin on? Perhaps do a bit of a trial run creating shari and live veigns first for a few years? Experiment?
 

James W.

Chumono
Messages
730
Reaction score
846
Location
Augusta, KS
USDA Zone
6b
If one were to wrap wires around a juniper trunk and let them cut in would that created spiraled live veins? I'm thinking 4 or 5 side by side wraps of fairly thin wire.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,254
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
If one were to wrap wires around a juniper trunk and let them cut in would that created spiraled live veins? I'm thinking 4 or 5 side by side wraps of fairly thin wire.
I believe that will work. later remove the cutting in wire, and remove the bark underneath the wire.
 

Woocash

Omono
Messages
1,607
Reaction score
2,262
Location
Oxford, UK
Maybe you have a tree that you will create a large yin on? Perhaps do a bit of a trial run creating shari and live veigns first for a few years? Experiment?
That I shall do. I have a few that will require some deadwood so I’ll certainly get some practice over the intervening 30 years before my “masterpiece” is ready to go to town on. Difficult finding any over here that aren’t piddly little things or expensive “standard” style grafted ones. Best keep looking.
 
Top Bottom