After working my three stricta's i realized that i browse the barkweb quite allot and consume the info like a sponge absorbs water and also test out absorbed techniques on practice plants and timings for my climate.
On juniperus chinensis "stricta" i actualy dont find much or any info about them and no examples of high quality bonsai out of this cultivar anywere..
You begin to think that has a reason why you dont see much of a particular species cultivar around.......
beside that people keep telling me this species aint that great for bonsai and that they dont like to be wired but i got two of them wired two times now and they seem to do just fine !
They grow fast and backbud some so
To me this species are one of the best beginners practice plant out there
Here's my pro's an cons based on my third year caring for three trees from this cultivar
Pro's:
Cheap:
They are availible at every nursery here in the netherlands around december but often year around dor often no more than 10 €
Strong:
I got two pretty cut down hard at the start
And worked twice a year leaving them pretty sparce but they seem to grow strong after any time i work them.
Allot of pruning and branch selecting:
Due there conical shape and realy dense growth the interior needs a proper clean up
Reduce the bush in height and then the first real good practice starts....
After the height reduction and cleaning up ALL the dead needles in there you will be left with a couple trunks and branches with plums of foliage on them you gotta start selecting keeper branches so you gotta think allot about left branch right branch back branch and thick and slim branches in the way they should go from down to up equals from fat to skinny!
It realy makes you think about the good and bad things about loads of branches and make your desicion on that good and bads
When in doubt let them stay on pruning a branch can be delayed but when done it cant be undone.
The two i got realy helped me learn how to think about branch placements and how to devide them troughout a trunk.
allot of wireing:
If you work them early in the year and dont repo them you will be able to cut back a little more in june/juli and wire and style them trough out the following winter you probably have to do some trunk bending branch wireing and even wire some secondairies!
With the wireing comes
Shootselecting :
Once more think about left right and up and downwards growth remove unwanted growth !
always something to do if the urge of working a tree is pressent !
And its something that IMO realy is helping the tree :
You have to remove all the dead needles all the time it does looks like they like that and backbud at places where the dead stuf once was probably also the reason they are used as christmas decoration!
Thnx
@dirk hoorelbeke for giving me the advice on the cleaning of dead needles on my squamata it seems to work for this too!
Cons:
I didnt experience anything yet that is a con so far after the third year i have these
This is my experience with this cultivar of juniper IMO realy fun and workable tree's that help practice aplying all sorts of bonsai related techniques!
Heres the progress of the other two beside the tree from this thread
Juniperus chinensis "stricta" literati trained tree:
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/juniperus-communis-what-would-you-do.24777/
Juniperus chinensis "stricta" candelabra styled tree:
(Bought for the 2016/2017 red pot contest on bnut)
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/my-redpot-contestent.27911/[/B]