new to bonsai - juniper chinensis

[christopher.r]

hoping i can get some feedback on my attempt to bonsai…

i purchased a nursery stock juniper chinensis. below are before and after photos. not super confident in the results. something feels a little off to me, but i figure i’d just leave it and let it grow to gain some vigor. hoping it lives after the pruning i did on foliage and roots. the tree lives outdoor, however i do all my work in my garage as i do not have a yard.

i’d be happy to hear all feedback. i just want to learn.

 

[Srt8madness]

I can tell you've read other threads, knowing the #1 question/advice would be to put it outside. Well done

#2 will be adding location/zone to your profile for specific climate advice.

Looks fine to me, that's a lot of trimming, more importantly it's probably a bad time of year to mess with Juniper roots. See if you can keep it alive for a year without touching it with cutters or scissors again. Junipers are great for cheap practice, but they take a long time to recover from radical work.

Welcome to the addiction.

 

[Shibui]

Irvine Ca should be mild enough climate to work on juniper almost any time of year. I'm reasonably confident it won't be timing to blame if this one doesn't make it.

not super confident in the results. something feels a little off to me,

Nice start but it can be hard to achieve great bonsai with real young material. There's just not enough branches to make a good tree shape so all we can do is preliminary shaping then let it grow again before more work. Bonsai is a marathon not a sprint. You should plan to measure bonsai development in years and decades rather than days or weeks.

One of the things that may be contributing to the 'off' feeling is the discrepancy between upright sections and a cascading section. Usually the prevailing elements where a tree grows provide the shape of the tree. Coastal trees are windswept, cliff trees cascade, trees in open parkland tend to be upright, etc Having both upright and cascade in one tree makes our subconscious uneasy.
Good bonsai designs usually use a single theme through the tree but definitely let this one alone for 6 months now to recover from the initial trauma.
Many beginners simply love trees to death with too much work and attention. Having a few trees to play with can help ease the load on each tree.