wiring question

[Dave E]

i've noticed with certain trees like rhody's,boxwood the branches are brittle and are easy to snap while bending.

my son has been working on a japanese juniper that is turning out nicely and the branches seem real stiff.
i just got the wire i ordered and he wants to wire it.

my question is are there any tricks that could help to make it more flexible.
i kinda remember reading that watering heavy helps or maybe it was letting the soil dry before wiring

 

[M. Frary]

Letting it dry out a little makes them a little more flexible. Think of a hose. When it's full of water it's harder to bend than when empty.
Also limber them up a little before bending. Bend it back and forth gently before applying the wire.
Go easy. If you hear cracking back off. Junipers like to split at branch unions too so take care not to tear one off.
Sounds like a fun project for you and your son. Don't worry about getting things perfect first time around ,just have a good time together and post some pictures of what you two accomplish.

 

[Dave E]

here's the tree and this is 95% my sons work.
he(and i)wish we had taken a before photo as you can see he got a little impatient and used some craft wire we had on the smaller branches.

the biggest thing he wants to do now that i was concerned about was the cascading limb-it looks ok in the photo but is more of an L shape and he wants a curve.
he also want to raise or lower to sit well when he transfers to a pot.

he put a lot of tedious work into this spending hours with a small pair of scissors trimming off every needle that seemed least bit out of place-if he can only put that kind of detail in his homework.

 

[M. Frary]

He's done a great job.
If I may. The tree would be so much better without the cascading limb.
A good way to see what it would like without cutting it or any limb off for that matter is to take a sheet of paper and block it out to see what it looks like without it.
Nice little juniper.

 

[Dave E]

his heart is set on the cascade.
this is his 3rd tree and his best so far-i think he only found out about bonsai about 6 weeks ago

 

[Dave E]

i see what you mean- in the photo the limb looks out of place,not proportioned.
it looks better in person

 

[M. Frary]

Looks like you're going to need more trees.
Use the trees as a means to do better in school.
And how old is this guy?
If you lived nearby I would have him wire mine. What will he be able to accomplish with proper wire?

 

[Dave E]

he'll be 15 in 3 days.
he just got some sort of spruce now-i've only seen in it a photo he sent me and it looks like a good candidate with a fat trunk

 

[Paradox]

He did some nice work there but I have to agree this tree would be MUCH better without the cascading branch. You could get him another nursery juniper more suitable as a cascade and leave this one as an informal upright? The more trees you work on the more you get better and learn.

 

[Cypress187]

Maybe you can air-layer the cascade branch so you also learn about air-layering, also have more bonsai to work on in the future. I don't know everything about air-layering, i heared conifers are harder to do it on (you could/should google it).

 

[Eric Group]

Maybe you can air-layer the cascade branch so you also learn about air-layering, also have more bonsai to work on in the future. I don't know everything about air-layering, i heared conifers are harder to do it on (you could/should google it).

Juniper root really easy from cuttings, so I have never bothered to air layer one personally. I suppose if you had a really big, special branch you wanted...