Wiring juniper foliage?

[faker]

Hi all,

Bought a cheap home depot Parsoni Juniper to practice/experiment on. Hoping it might make an okay shohin, but it was less than 4 bucks so I'm not too afraid to kill it. Did some serious reduction and wired (excuse the terrible wiring job...first time)

On to the question at hand. In all the resources I've read, I've only ever seen wiring branches discussed. Is it okay to wire the foliage before it's lignified into a branch?

Pic of the miserable tree below...
Thanks!

 

[Adair M]

You can. With really fine wire. It's tedious because you don't want to bunch up foliage under the wire. You only want to wire the stem.

Your tree has really "loose" foliage. Makes it tough to make a shohin with that foliage. A taller tree, it would look better.

 

[faker]

Your tree has really "loose" foliage. Makes it tough to make a shohin with that foliage. A taller tree, it would look better.

Oh man I didn't even think about the foliage! This is why I come to you guys! Guess it's best to just grow this one out for now and forget the wire.

They had some Sargentii Juniper for the same price (which I believe = Shimpaku?). Might have to pick one of those up for project cheap shohin.

 

[Adair M]

Sargentii can also have longish foliage. It's probably better than Parsoni, though.

Keeping them in full sun helps make the foliage "tight".

Most everyone likes "Kishu", but I doubt you'll find it at anyplace other than a bonsai place. Or on-line.