SU2
Omono
I've been reading all the 'intro to juniper'-type articles I can but am unable to come to a conclusion on a handful of things that I'm hoping you guys can help me with
I've got the better part of 100 bonsai (well, no bonsai, just stock/pre-bonsai, to be precise) but no conifers (unless you count my two BC's, but neither are mature enough to do anything to anyways!), so I'd been meaning to get a juniper so I could begin learning about this specie that I love and conifers in general!! I'd been waiting months for home depot or walmart to start stocking them and, just a couple days ago, finally found them and got a little $5 juniper
I don't expect that the specimen will ever be 'good bonsai' it's more of a learning-piece, and to that end I'm unable to figure-out some things about it...
[FWIW this is a 'blue rug' juniperus horizontalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_horizontalis ]
Firstly, I'm curious about this cultivar's abilities & resiliency, I was surprised to find little/no mention of this variety when reading the intro-articles - is j.horizontalis something that doesn't really take to bonsai? While I got this specimen primarily just to have my first juniper, my first real conifer, for learning purposes, I still the idea that someday it'd be a cute little shohin (these were $5 little junipers, I found the best one of course and think it's kind of cute ;D ), but am wondering whether I can do some initial branch-removal (like, 10% at most) so I can see some more of the form! I know the rules are very different than they are for deciduous broadleafs like I'm used to but hoping I can remove some of the redundant smaller shoots!
Lastly, the container - I know that I can't remove it from that plastic container, bare-root it and then root-prune half of them off so it'd fit in a bonsai pot, but can I simply remove it from the plastic, gently manipulate it a bit flatter, and re-pot (almost slip-potting, I wouldn't be trying to remove dirt from the main root-ball or anything) and re-pot into a different container where I'm using bonsai soil around&beneath the root-ball I've got?
Thanks for any guidance on this one, not that I've got experience with them but it looks quite healthy and the roots protrude through the container's bottom so am guessing it's got a healthy/established root-system, just hoping for some guidance on whether I can do some minor trimming and a gentle re-pot (wouldn't be trying to jam it into a bonsai pot of course, I've got square boxes that'd be a good fit, but would be ~2" shorter than its current container, am imagining it'd be such little disturbance to the bottom that it's fine but wanted to ask! I guess that, if anything's borderline and I mess-up, it's a lesson-learned and I can just go get another ;D )
Sorry for the terrible pics, am having a camera issue so had to use a crappy tablet's camera for these ;p
I've got the better part of 100 bonsai (well, no bonsai, just stock/pre-bonsai, to be precise) but no conifers (unless you count my two BC's, but neither are mature enough to do anything to anyways!), so I'd been meaning to get a juniper so I could begin learning about this specie that I love and conifers in general!! I'd been waiting months for home depot or walmart to start stocking them and, just a couple days ago, finally found them and got a little $5 juniper
I don't expect that the specimen will ever be 'good bonsai' it's more of a learning-piece, and to that end I'm unable to figure-out some things about it...
[FWIW this is a 'blue rug' juniperus horizontalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_horizontalis ]
Firstly, I'm curious about this cultivar's abilities & resiliency, I was surprised to find little/no mention of this variety when reading the intro-articles - is j.horizontalis something that doesn't really take to bonsai? While I got this specimen primarily just to have my first juniper, my first real conifer, for learning purposes, I still the idea that someday it'd be a cute little shohin (these were $5 little junipers, I found the best one of course and think it's kind of cute ;D ), but am wondering whether I can do some initial branch-removal (like, 10% at most) so I can see some more of the form! I know the rules are very different than they are for deciduous broadleafs like I'm used to but hoping I can remove some of the redundant smaller shoots!
Lastly, the container - I know that I can't remove it from that plastic container, bare-root it and then root-prune half of them off so it'd fit in a bonsai pot, but can I simply remove it from the plastic, gently manipulate it a bit flatter, and re-pot (almost slip-potting, I wouldn't be trying to remove dirt from the main root-ball or anything) and re-pot into a different container where I'm using bonsai soil around&beneath the root-ball I've got?
Thanks for any guidance on this one, not that I've got experience with them but it looks quite healthy and the roots protrude through the container's bottom so am guessing it's got a healthy/established root-system, just hoping for some guidance on whether I can do some minor trimming and a gentle re-pot (wouldn't be trying to jam it into a bonsai pot of course, I've got square boxes that'd be a good fit, but would be ~2" shorter than its current container, am imagining it'd be such little disturbance to the bottom that it's fine but wanted to ask! I guess that, if anything's borderline and I mess-up, it's a lesson-learned and I can just go get another ;D )
Sorry for the terrible pics, am having a camera issue so had to use a crappy tablet's camera for these ;p
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