Trash to Treasure on a Juniper

[Godschick]

My first (5 hour) lesson on Bonsai happened on a whim today with a great friend. I did my first Jin, a bit of wiring and pruning and created this beautiful tree with his help and direction. All on a $7 juniper that he coined as crappy that he bought last year and was just sitting around. Neither one of us thought it would turn out like this, so I think we now co-own the tree LOL Below is the progression.

PS
I know it’s dead of summer and will take very good after care of this tree.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Surprised he could not see that good a tree in there. Turned out pretty good.

 

[Godschick]

Surprised he could not see that good a tree in there. Turned out pretty good.

Thanks ! I was/am so excited about it. But I guess being a newbie it doesn’t take too much

I’m thinking he knew it would turn out decent but didn’t think it would turn out as well as it did. He had a few that he had bought about a year ago and I think given the season, he picked the one he thought was the healthiest and would have the best survival rate. The branches inside were kind of all twisted and beastie looking to begin with. I was a little intimidated So the branches that I practiced Jin on were the branches I was going to cut off the main trunk to open it up when I started. After I got more into it, I decided to keep them because they looked pretty decent with the flow of the tree. At least from a newbie perspective.

I can’t wait to repot it next year in something really awesome. As far as the fertilizer goes, how long would you wait after doing this hard of a design before I started putting fertilizer back into the routine?

 

[Adamski77]

If it wasn't repotted there is no reason not to fertilize right away... just shade and maybe some misting during the day...

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Well done for a first time job!

Looking forward to seeing future updates

cheers
DSD sends

 

[vancehanna]

Great going! Nice material too, Procumbens Nana is nearly bullet proof if you just simply care for it will grow and grow!! Congratulations!

 

[nuttiest]

I really like stuff like this, from material to drastic style in one afternoon, because you can enjoy this right away. It is dramatic.

 

[Godschick]

@Adamski77 Awesome, thanks for the info!
@Deep Sea Diver Thank you! It just hit me that I will be able to post updates on this and that is kind of exciting
@vancehanna Thank you so much! I was super excited how it turned out and also glad it’s bulletproof.
@nuttiest It was really fun to watch the drastic transformation. I totally agree with you, it’s very rewarding. Then this morning I got to enjoy drinking coffee on my patio just gazing at it with adoration.

 

[nuttiest]

I got 3 procumbens about a month ago, and couldn't cut anything, they seem so perfect. One I put in a training pot and it looks pretty good. Certainly the fullest tree I have

 

[Godschick]

I got 3 procumbens about a month ago, and couldn't cut anything, they seem so perfect. One I put in a training pot and it looks pretty good. Certainly the fullest tree I have

Hopefully that one you have will keep growing out, getting healthy and provide you with a fabulous tree in the future. I had two at the beginning of spring, one turned out pretty decent, the other one I call my Dr. Seuss bonsai. It’s pretty pathetic looking but I’m gonna keep letting it grow and hopefully redesign down the road. I know when I have looked for potential material at some of the nurseries I look really odd getting down on their level pulling back branches and looking at trunks etc.I gotta do it though to get something worth it.

 

[nuttiest]

Do you have to keep wring a leader up so the cascading nature can come down from a taller top? I thought they slumped back into ground huggers after removing wire.
I want to see dr seuss bonsai too!

 

[Godschick]

Do you have to keep wring a leader up so the cascading nature can come down from a taller top? I thought they slumped back into ground huggers after removing wire.
I want to see dr seuss bonsai too!

That’s a great question and since I’ve only been doing this for four months I’ve not had one long enough to know. I’m assuming since they’re mostly groundcover they’re going to grow more horizontal and down than vertical as you mentioned. I would assume it depends on what type of Juniper you have as well. I would think though that once it has hardened off, that area would not need to be wired again. Take that all with a grain of salt lol I will DM a picture of Dr. Seuss, I don’t wanna embarrass myself publicly

 

[Maiden69]

That turned out very nice.. I am always clueless when it comes styling to junipers.

That backyard looks familiar... I think I have seen it in pics here before but I can't make out who's it was.

View attachment 445420

 

[Godschick]

That turned out very nice.. I am always clueless when it comes styling to junipers.





That backyard looks familiar... I think I have seen it in pics here before but I can't make out who's it was.

Sorry for the delay in reply back, I did not even get a notification. Thank you !

What trees do you like to style ? I’ve only really done a few junipers and azaleas so far. Oh and another JBP. All of them are still growing out just had basic design to begin with. The backyard belongs to a friend of mine here in Fresno and he is not on this forum so not sure. He has a pretty awesome set up though. I’m finding a lot of people in this area do.

 

[Maiden69]

I have 3 junipers, a nana, a torulosa (Hollywood), and a parsonni (I think). The right now I am just letting them grow, as every time I sit down and look at them I can't figure out what to do. Its not like deciduous, that you see trees in nature all the time that gives inspiration. I look at them, and all I see is a mound of foliage. I think the only one that I have an idea is the torulosa, because I can see one of the very old red cedars on it.

 

[Adamski77]

I have 3 junipers, a nana, a torulosa (Hollywood), and a parsonni (I think). The right now I am just letting them grow, as every time I sit down and look at them I can't figure out what to do. Its not like deciduous, that you see trees in nature all the time that gives inspiration. I look at them, and all I see is a mound of foliage. I think the only one that I have an idea is the torulosa, because I can see one of the very old red cedars on it.

classic dilemma... and than you think if you cut too much there will be no way back and you wasted such a good material...

have the same every time

 

[Godschick]

I have 3 junipers, a nana, a torulosa (Hollywood), and a parsonni (I think). The right now I am just letting them grow, as every time I sit down and look at them I can't figure out what to do. Its not like deciduous, that you see trees in nature all the time that gives inspiration. I look at them, and all I see is a mound of foliage. I think the only one that I have an idea is the torulosa, because I can see one of the very old red cedars on it.

I’m the same with most of my trees. I look at them and can’t see what I want them to be quite yet, so I sit them back down and let them grow like you. I guess deciduous can be a little less abstract? I like Junipers because I feel like I can be super creative with them. Living in Colorado, close to New Mexico and now California, I can see a lot of options in nature for these trees. I feel like there’s a lot of diversity in form with junipers, cedars and pines in these areas. I have to be honest, when I looked at this one the inside branches were kind of crazy so I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. I should probably start envisioning a little bit better or even drawing something out before I start design. I did have a friend help with this one so there was a little guidance in that. You will have to post pictures if you ever start to design any of the three of those. I’d be interested in seeing them!

 

[Maiden69]

I guess that is my issue with junipers. I'm from Puerto Rico, plum pine and caribbean pine are the only conifers that I know of. We really don't have deciduous, since they are mostly evergreen in our climate, but we have a huge variety of trees.