Made a trip to the nursery!

jacob.morgan78

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While it's still early to find nurseries that are stocked up right now, I decided to take a trip to see what they had. I found some decent pots and was able to chat it up with the owner for a while. Anyways, I found some junipers that could be decent candidates. I wanted to post the types they had here to see if anyone had any pointers on the pros and cons of the different ones in their experience. Not being very knowledgeable about the scientific (or even common) names, I'll just write what was on the tags below.

Gold Coast Juniper (no scientific name listed)

Dwarf Japanese Garden Juniper (Juniperus chinensis procumbens Nana)

Juniperus Conferta Blue Pacific

Sargent Juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii 'Viridis')​

What do you guys think?
 

jkd2572

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What kind of nursery are you going to? A normal nursery or a bonsai nursery? Are you new to bonsai? What kind of budget do you have? Someone in your area hopefully will chime in and direct you to a bonsai nursery in your area. Out of those choices I would go with the procumbens nana juniper. Tight foliage. If you are new to bonsai it's a good choice out of the four.
 
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jkd2572

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Nothing wrong with normal nursery. If you are starting out its a great way to learn. Pick up the nana juniper and learn how to keep it alive. That's really the start in this hobby. All the fancy stuff comes after you have figured that out. This site is a great resource for both keeping it alive and the fancy stuff. :D
 
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jacob.morgan78

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Nothing wrong with normal nursery. If you are starting out its a great way to learn. Pick up the nana juniper and learn how to keep it alive. That's really the start in this hobby. All the fancy stuff comes after you have figured that out. This site is a great resource for both keeping it alive and the fancy stuff. :D

Thanks, that's the one I was leaning toward anyway... The one thing I wasn't 100% on was that it was one that was in a smaller pot... Not sure about the stump sizes...

I'm pretty confident I can keep it alive (hopefully not naively)... I've been gardening and landscaping for a long time.

Thanks for your input!!
 

Paradox

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The J. pro nanas would be my first choice by far, the sargents second.

Really spend some time to look them over. I would concentrate on the larger pots of the pro nanas first. Look for a good sized trunk with interesting shape/movement to it. If you can get one that has 3/4-1" diameter trunk you might be able to make a really nice shohin.
 

Paradox

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Define what you mean by 'start'.

You could probably repot in late May-early June safely.
If you do repot, you could do some pruning and wiring at the same time.

If you dont repot, you could do a bit heavier pruning,

Junipers are usually pretty tough and forgiving but as always, doing too much at once or in the same year can kill them.
 

GrimLore

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Define what you mean by 'start'.

You could probably repot in late May-early June safely.
If you do repot, you could do some pruning and wiring at the same time.

If you dont repot, you could do a bit heavier pruning,

Junipers are usually pretty tough and forgiving but as always, doing too much at once or in the same year can kill them.

My Wife can tell you from experience to much will kill MANY varieties... It also seems the varieties that are tough are the most common so they are the best to start with.

Grimmy
 
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