My $10 juniper

Saddler

Chumono
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IMG_1689.JPG IMG_1715.JPG IMG_0470.JPG IMG_0472.JPG IMG_0480.JPG This is my literate juniper. I bought it may/June as it is in the first picture. I immediately gave it a go styling it. It was an improvement and close to my vision, but a failure in everything but the general shape I was going for lol. I decided to take it my club meeting in September and let Tak, who owns a world class bonsai nursery, work on it, that is third pic. The fourth was a last second effort to take a beer can pic before the sun set. Five was for fun.

My only goal for next year is to get it correctly angled in the repot.

Comments and criticisms are both very welcome. It's why I joined.
 

Jeremy

Shohin
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I'll go ahead and say straight out, overall, I like the 2ND photo best and I think this is the image you should continue to strive for. The vertical drop branch up near the apex is visually distracting. The thing I like is that you rewired the first right branch so that the first loop of wire is over the top of the branch which allowed you to use the wire to greater effect. The shari should add more interest to the trunk, well done and let's see it after another season of growth:)
 

just.wing.it

Deadwood Head
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Very cool! I can never find juni's like that!
I agree that the right branch, drooping too low, too straight.
I like your style tho!
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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Double ditto.

Add... $10!?:eek::D

Looks like it stayed growing in it's new form.
Nice.

Sorce
 

Saddler

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Jeremy, I agree the top drop branch is distracting, it isn't quite where I want it and the top needs to fill out as well. If you saw what the branch structure looked like after my first attempt at wiring it, you would have silently lol'd at it. It was unnatural to say the least. I learned a great deal fighting that branch though, enough that if the tree died tomorrow, I got my money's worth out of it. I hope to rewire it next fall to fix its remaining issues.
 

AZbonsai

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Nice score. Did you strip the bark down?
 

thumblessprimate1

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I think you have a nice piece of stock. I'd recommend that you leave the tree alone a while and check out Colin Lewis's wiring video on Craftsy- it's free. Read up on some juniper resources in the Resource tab above or check out the blog of @Brian Van Fleet. I was just asking him about development of pads. Makes cutting and pasting it here easy :D

https://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/juniper-pinching-pruning-and-wiring/

https://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/itoigawa-trimming/
 

Random User

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I'm'ma non-conformist, so I would have stayed with the second picture and worked all of the lower branches as jins of varying lengths... but there is no turning back to suit my tastes... not that I'd expect anyone to do so anyway!

It will be interesting to see where this is in 5 years... you guys probably trip over trees like that every day... the hazard for you would be to NOT have the backyard filled with similar types of material.

Good job IMHO.
 

Saddler

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AZbonsai, I sort of stripped the bark myself, Tak started it and told me how to proceed. I want to dremel it out in a year or two as I think this would be a simpler project to practice on.

Thumbless, i don't plan on doing much until it is happy in it's new bonsai training pot. I am really looking forward to doing a complete wiring to this tree one day. It has the least foliage of any of my conifers and that makes it less daunting to do in one go. You can be sure I'll watch Colin's video again, for the fifth or tenth time lol.

M. Frary, jinning the top was not something I had considered, but I will definitely spend some time trying to visualize it. This kind of idea is what I am searching for here. Thank you.
 
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