Another juniper, procumbens this time....

[Drewski]

A while ago I was poking around a nursery and found they had a bunch of juniper procumben nan that had been staked and grown for a while. I looked them over and picked this one. I liked the movement of the trunk, and thought I could air layer off the top for a cascade. Did some cleaning up on it yesterday and got a better look at the interior. I found a branch that comes off the trunk halfway up that’s too thick when compared to the trunk. So the plan so far is remove and jin the aforementioned branch. As per usual, the plant was potted deep so I need to dig down and find the base. Then, come spring, I’ll take a crack at air layering the top off. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[Hbhaska]

Nice find! I have a similar vertically staked JPnana that I air-layered last summer. Not sure if I have roots (can’t see any) so I’m letting it go through this coming spring. Be patient when you air-layer.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Nice. I find P nana to be an amazing medium. Duh.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I look forward to seeing your progression with an air layer. Please document it well.

 

[Drewski]

I got this juniper potted up today. Now it’s time to let it recover and regrow some roots. It was a significant reduction to get it into the pot, so I’ll be patient and wait a while before thinking about styling it. My plan has changed, and the air layer is off the table. It was suggested to me to keep it tall and and narrow, and that has some appeal.

 

[Japonicus]

It was suggested to me to keep it tall and and narrow, and that has some appeal.

It appears the yellow arrow is pointing to a branch, not a trunk line? Needs to be dealt with.
Wiring the branches down to at least 45º angle will help a lot too.
Put some to and fro movement in them, not just straight down 45º but forwards and backwards movement too.
1st practice wiring on branches you will be removing eventually to get a grip on how much you'll be able to bend
these branches in one go of it. Now will be fine for the practice wiring, then late Summer early Fall start with
the rest of the juniper. Allow it to go somewhat dry to where it needs watering before you wire or pot up.

After it recovers from this Fall wiring, next year most of the branches will have to be pruned back to a more even silhouette and regrow out. I've found July a great time to hard prune juniper.

 

[Japonicus]

Fine to leave the top growth up and extended to increase trunk girth for now, but start wiring selected branches that will go
for practice. Try to bend as close to the trunk as possible with #8 annealed copper wire.

Copper training wire

Link ^
Excellent source for wire and really swell guys at Adams Bonsai. Ships next day priority mail.
You'll want some #10 and 12 wire too for development, smaller for refinement.

You'll want to keep the lowest most thick branches. My lousy rendering takes into account
that there are better thicker branches above I think, which can be wired down to fill the negative space
and show the trunk line too, but you'll have to see which ones make better number one branch.

 

[Drewski]

@Japonicus, funny thing. Aside from shortening the tree what you posted is pretty much the plan.

Once the tree has convinced me it’s recovered from the repotting I will start working on it. Initially I’ll keep the height as is, and as the styling progresses I can shorten it if that seems to be the way to go. There are a couple of thicker branches that probably won’t bend down as much as needed, but they can always be jinned if they won’t cooperate. The branch you pointed out with the yellow arrow will be dealt with. It comes out of the trunk close to horizontally, and about 5” out takes an abrupt 45 degree bend down. It’ll be pruned at the bend. There’s also a heavy branch/secondary trunk buried in the heavy foliage that needs to be dealt with. You can see it in one of the pictures in the first post. That will be jinned as well.

I’m looking forward to getting going with it, but for now patience will rule the day.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

patience will rule the day.

That's what it's all about.