Japanese Garden Juniper 1 year

october

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Part 1

This is a Japanese garden juniper I have been training for 1 year.

I found this tree at the nursery. As you can see, it it essentially a straggly bush. Upon inspecting the interior of the tree. I noticed it had some nice potential. A nice trunk and good branch placement. Although it seemed like an untrained bush. I believe that someone may have been tending to this tree for a few years. They did not really train it, but it appeared that they may have done some pruning here and there because they knew that the tree might make a good bonsai some day. The tree itself, I would estimate it around 16-22 years old or so.

Pic 1 is the tree after I brought it home.

Pic 2 is the front that I initially picked. However, upon taking it to a workshop. My teacher and fellow bonsai artist felt that the other side should be the front. So essentially, what was the back, became the front. I could still change it because I had only made a few cuts to expose some of the trunk. Here is the old front, my initial front pic.

Pic 3 is the new styling with the newly picked front.

Pic 4 is the tree put into an oversized bonsai pot... So this is actually serving as a grow pot.

Pic 5 is the tree half way into the season. It was growing incredible well and took to all iits prunign and repotting without any probelms.. At this point, some minor shaping was done. The height is about 12 inches.


Continued......
 

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october

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Part 2

First pic is the tree at the end of the season last year.

The last couple of pics are the tree this year. I did some interior pad pruning... The interior of the pads are mediocre. There are some branches that are not mature and some that are. Some are mature in the wrong places. The tree will need to grow out before more work can be done..The tres looks messier now that the pads have been structured, but towards the very end of this season, they will neaten up a bit.. It has to look worse before it's better, I guess...lol..

Rob
 

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Dav4

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Hey Rob, glad to see you over here at Bnut. I just love the flow of the trunk on this one. Keep up the good work. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow at NEBG,

Dave
 

october

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Hello Dave. Good to hear from you..... and I will probably see you tomorrow.......

p.s......For those reading this post........ Dave is the bonsai artist mentioned in this post who picked the new front for this tree.... He was instrumental in this tree being put on the right path....

Rob
 

Bob

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You have a good eye for starter material. Are you getting them at a big box store or a bonsai oriented nursery?
 

greerhw

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Grest job Rob and Dave, I can't see enough good jini's. That is a 9, 10 if it were mine.......;)

Ciao,
Harry
 

october

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Hello Bob.......This tree came from a bonsai nursery. New England Bonsai Gardens. Before I bought it, I pulled back many branches and foliage and noticed that there was great potential in there...I was pleasantly surprised because there are not a real lot of japanese garden junipers without severe flaws. This one has some nice structure and no really serious flaws..

Unfortunatley, I think the "mallsai" has also added to the lack of interest in the procumbens.. However, there are some truly incredible procumbens that I have seen that any bonsai artist would be very happy to accept into their collection.

Thank you for the reply..

Rob
 

Bonsai Nut

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Another nice tree Rob. I would break up the apex so it doesn't look like one foilage mass, and reduce it by about 50%. That may already be on your list of up-coming maintenance :)
 

Martin Sweeney

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October,

BonsaiNut said "I would break up the apex so it doesn't look like one foilage mass"

I agree with the above.

Regards,
Martin
 

Vance Wood

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October,

BonsaiNut said "I would break up the apex so it doesn't look like one foilage mass"

I agree with the above.

Regards,
Martin

First of all I would like to state that this is a very fine little tree, and would only offer a couple of suggestion from my point of view. If you look at this little guy objectively the color and vigor of the very top portion of the tree is far better than the lower branches. You need to balance it out. As mentioned the top needs to be thinned out and opened up a bit to visually match the lower portions of the tree and to encourage the lower portions of the tree to put forth new growth. If the apex is left to push as it wants I am afraid that you man lose some of the beautiful work you have done on the lower portion of the trunk.
 

TimD

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Nice find Rob.
I gotta admit I usually just walk past those these days. :eek:


Yesterday was a blast. It looked like you two showed up at different times. :(
 

october

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I agree with all the advice in the thread and realize everything that was said... However, there are a couple of problems.....First, the main problem, the apex......What you are seeing is, in a sense, a "false apex" for lack of a better term....When initially styling this tree. It was deemed that the front was based on the the fact that the now front had a much better trunk/nebari. It gracefully winds up from the soil as opposed to the other side, which comes up from the soil in the shape of a sausage....lol..laying on its side.. Basically, I sacrificed a very nice apex for the nice trunk base..In other words, the apex, as viewed from the back, has a nice strong, single continuation of the trunk. The apex from the front view..does not have this, but rather a few or so small branches where the foliage is forming an apex.. I do intend to go into the apex further and see what I can do.. This includes reducing it's size.

Also, as far as coloring. Yes, there is a diffenece of color in certain nparts of the tree. This may be due to one or both of the following. Upon working on the tree a couple of weeks ago, I realized that it had some dead scale on it. I sprayed it with a home made soap solution pesticide. However, that might not be responsible for the sporadic color changes. I think it is just from when I pruned and opened sections up. Some is new foliage and of different color. I believe the tree will stabalize it's color in the next couple of months.

At this point.. I have the main sub-branching in place. Well, the sub branching that was old enough to put in place. I will be putting a shari at the base of the trunk this season and then I will spend the next frew years just refining the tree.

Thanks again for all the replies. I always appreciate them...

Rob
 
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