Juniper Parsonii - First post

[Floridays]

Hey all, new member here!

Over the past few months I've been reading, searching and scouring various resources to learn about Bonsai - it's origins, philosophy and techniques.

So much to learn!

So I tried a young tree, a $5.00 Juniper parsonii from the Depot.

Here's what I attempted:

To have some trunk movement
To alternate branches
To avoid straight branches
To create an apex shape

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome...and I have thick skin.

Scott
From the store-
View media item 3624Pruning 1 -
View media item 3622Some wiring -
View media item 3623

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce

 

[Floridays]

Thanks! Posting this was unnerving...it's kind of like me starting to ride a bike while the Tour de France is going on around me.

 

[sparklemotion]

I'm also a newbie, but here is some stuff that I have learned that you may want to consider:

What does it look like from the top? I (mostly) like the silhouette here, but from these pictures I can't tell whether the design is really 3 dimensional right now.

Related to that -- it would be nice to see pictures that aren't so backlit, to get a better sense of how the branches look as they leave the trunk.

What are some of your ideas for what you are hoping for the tree to do? I find it really helpful to see people's pictures of their trees where they've roughly sketched in (in MS Paint, or the like) some plan for future development.

What style are you going for with this tree? Obviously the formal styles are more like guidelines, really, but for newbies I think it is valuable to be able to say "my goal is an informal upright, but right now the tree needs X, Y, and Z to achieve that." Or, to say "My goal is an informal upright, but I really like this branch that is coming from the inside of this curve so I am working that in"

As far as constructive criticism (again, please take with a grain of salt, I'll be watching with interest to see if and why people disagree with me on this) -- your foliage seems kind of "jazz-handy" right now. On junipers, from what I understand, it's better to train the foliage on young trees to spread in a more horizontal plane, which will enable more sunshine to reach more needles. I like this article about that kind of training. I have also read that the "green clouds" look for conifer foliage pads is kind of passe, but I don't think it's a bad place to start for a young tree.

 

[Floridays]

Thank you for the feedback, yes I agree about the 2-D quality of it at this point. I think I took too much off initially (common beginner mistake) and it left me with a flatter plane. Lesson learned.

As far as the jazz hands (LOL) I totally see that. I just wasn't sure when to wire the finer pads...right away or wait a season?

Thanks again!

Scott