You have an enthusiasm and tenacity that will go places. You can continue going the way you are going and over time figure things out or you can seek some instruction and training. I was thinking about the very subject earlier today, it is possible with the current state of the art that a determined person could learn how to do bonsai well in a few short years. Learning and developing the art could take a bit longer. However the problem with the art thing is that it is limited by the plant thing. Often we don't have the courage to make attempts to make a bonsai. In my early years everyone believed we had to grow our trees into bonsai when the actual truth was, and still is, that most good bonsai are the products of larger trees being cut down into bonsai. The reason is in the cut down method we are able to take advantage of larger trunks and mature looking branches that are made impressive and old looking when cut down to a smaller tree. A teacher will help you in putting these kind of things in proportions. There are some decent teachers in your area you might want to take advantage of.
The point of how this relates to what you are doing is simply this. Your are attracted to the Procumbens Juniper because of the wonderful full foliage that look mature and what you see of bonsai in the pictures. However Procumbens Junipers, have lousy, small and feeble trunks. They have to have a good deal of age on them to develope a trunk worth the effort to make one into a bonsai. I do not wish to discourage your efforts, I hope you will continue to design bonsai it is the only way to master that which you have learned, but advance to larger and diverse trees. Many of the sub-species of the Chines Juniper family have some really nice trees that make great bonsai. You ought to try some of them.
Hi Vance, It wasn't clear that your comment was directed towards me but I see from your post above that it was. No offense taken by me and I appreciate the comment about enthusiasm and tenacity. Those are traits that can drive my new bride crazy at times. I agree that most good bonsai are made by cutting down a larger tree with a larger trunk and I'm actually not all that attracted to Procumbens Juniper. I have these 3 that were purchased kind of spur of the moment and I've killed 1. I also like to work with a diverse range of trees as you suggest. Currently, I have in my collection: Azalea, Japanese Maple, Trident Maple, Red Maple, Sweetgum, Camelia, Riverflat Hawthorn, Crape Myrtle, American Elm, Water Elm, Chinese Elm, Pro Nana Juniper, Sargeant Juniper, Shimpaku Juniper, Eastern Red Cedar, Eastern Hemlock, Colorado Blue Spruce, Scots Pine, Mugo Pine and Virginia Pine. To be sure, there are some questionable species for bonsai in that list but I'm having fun with them. You're also definitely right about a formal teacher but I also have Vance Wood, BVF, johng, Mach5, Smoke, Adair, markyscott, JudyB etc, at my disposal at all times.
