CA Juniper Styling Feedback

[Adair M]

One of the hardest lessons to be learned in bonsai is how to select material to work on. Next time, have Roy help you choose. He can tell you what's good and what's not.

Unfortunately, there's really nothing "interesting" about your tree. No twists or turns. It's all straight lines and a single cluster of bar branches.

The only hope I see is grafting Kishu down low on the center trunk, you only need two grafts. Then, Jin everything else. These jins will need to be carved back considerably.

Maybe you could end up with something along this style:

 

[Vance Wood]

One of the hardest lessons to be learned in bonsai is how to select material to work on. Next time, have Roy help you choose. He can tell you what's good and what's not.

Unfortunately, there's really nothing "interesting" about your tree. No twists or turns. It's all straight lines and a single cluster of bar branches.

The only hope I see is grafting Kishu down low on the center trunk, you only need two grafts. Then, Jin everything else. These jins will need to be carved back considerably.

Maybe you could end up with something along this style:

That's why I told the OP to basically grow the tree out until it does something inspiring or the OP develops an eye for the design in the tree. Anything that does not come from the heart will ruin the tree understanding that ruining the tree wont be hard to do.

 

[Smoke]

Thats a very massive trunk with turns, gnarliness and interest. Throw on top of that a certain amount of drama which the OP tree does not contain.

 

[Vance Wood]

The point of the last two photo montages is that good results must include at least tolerable material with some mass and folieage to work with. When bonsai, as we understand it today, is essentially made from the process of reducing down material and eliminating unnecessary growth the original tree of from this post can only be made into a bonsai by either growing the thing out in the ground to get some back budding or by picking out one, or maybe two, branches wiring them into trunks so as to twist and curly around like a bucket of snakes and jin out the test.

Stacey: Your tree is wonderful but it is no where near resembling the OP's tree. It's like comparing a Unicycle to a Harley.

 

[Si Nguyen]

Cool tree! Thanks for showing it. It is probably best to keep it simple and do a single-trunk bunjin style on this tree. So, if this was mine, I would pick the healthiest trunk (the one with the greenest, fullest foliage and the best rootage), then remove all the other trunks. Then sketch out as many plans as possible with the remaining trunk line. You'll be surprised by how many ways you can style this tree. There's enough foliage and small branches there for pretty decent bonsai. It will always be sparse looking, but that's the best look for this Cali juniper anyway. Good luck.

Here's how I see it:

 

[symbiotic1]

Thanks again everyone for your discussion. It certainly gives me some things to think about, so maybe it's best not to do anything drastic yet. Even if the tree just becomes something to learn some good techniques on and never becomes a showstopper, that would be enough for me. I'm willing to hack away on it in the name of experimentation.

Perhaps the best move now is to put it in some better soil so it can (hopefully) thrive and grow out some more, then I can see where the most vigorous growth is to utilize. Unfortunately putting the tree in the ground isn't an option right now as I will be moving in the next year. It will have to stay in a container. Any suggestions on the soil I should use to replant it and if I should use a different container like a mixing tray or a pond basket, wooden box, etc., or keep it in the half height 15 gal it's in now? I'm guessing it would be best to repot when the tree is least active in jan/feb in my locale or to should I wait until it warms up?

I'm also of the mindset to try to keep the plant with its native foliage if at all possible. Maybe it's wanting to keep the plant fully a ca juniper, maybe it's naïveté. Are there any good techniques that could be used to try to get the tree to back bud closer to the base or is that unlikely to happen on a tree like this?

Again, thanks everyone for your input. I'm learning a lot from everyone on this site.

 

[edprocoat]

Whew, calling that a challenge was being kind . Its hard to tell at this point but in that third picture the trunk facing the camera seems to curve nice and go down to the bottom. I bet you could have a start on a nice Literati if you removed all the branches but that one.

like this ? myfix by edprocoat, on Flickr

ed

 

[thomas22]

Similar Trunk

Kind of a similar trunk to this tree. Good luck.

 

[Si Nguyen]

Forgot to attach the sketch for it. This maybe too advanced for you. Just take it to a class. There are many good teachers in SoCal who can style this tree very quickly or at least point you in the right direction. I would not just keep it like it is for a few more years, because in 5-10 years it will still be like it is now or worse.

 

[symbiotic1]

Forgot to attach the sketch for it. This maybe too advanced for you. Just take it to a class. There are many good teachers in SoCal who can style this tree very quickly or at least point you in the right direction. I would not just keep it like it is for a few more years, because in 5-10 years it will still be like it is now or worse.

Thanks for the lovely sketch! That looks like a great tree to me! Maybe the repot then so its in optimal soil and the roots are strong, then style it so it has the best chance of surviving the work done? I have no idea how the roots are now. It's growing new foliage so it can't be that bad but I've never taken it out to see for myself.

 

[Smoke]

Thanks for the lovely sketch! That looks like a great tree to me! Maybe the repot then so its in optimal soil and the roots are strong, then style it so it has the best chance of surviving the work done? I have no idea how the roots are now. It's growing new foliage so it can't be that bad but I've never taken it out to see for myself.

In couple other posts you have asked some serious questions about a species not many people in the USA will ever see. You also said you are working with Roy who can be considered one of the handful of premiere grafters of c. Juniper. One trip to his nursery, less than 20 minutes from north ridge would answer all your questions as well as having the appropriate mix on hand to plant in. That way you won't get taken to the woodshed when you take it back to Roy planted inturface.

 

[symbiotic1]

In couple other posts you have asked some serious questions about a species not many people in the USA will ever see. You also said you are working with Roy who can be considered one of the handful of premiere grafters of c. Juniper. One trip to his nursery, less than 20 minutes from north ridge would answer all your questions as well as having the appropriate mix on hand to plant in. That way you won't get taken to the woodshed when you take it back to Roy planted inturface.

I agree he's known for his grafting - he has been a great teacher so far for me - but his immediate insistence that I graft made me wonder what others with experienced eyes think could be done before I jump in on anything.

 

[Eric Schrader]

You could graft it back on itself, or select a CA juniper with particularly tight foliage as a scion donor. There's no reason you have to use Kishu or Itoigawa for grafting if it doesn't suit your taste.

Personally, I agree with Si when he said it's most easily adapted to a bunjin. But, the taper may be an issue. You'd likely need to do some carving on the base to make the taper more even from where all the large branches are coming out to the single one that you would keep.

Grafting opens up the possibility of a nice compact little tree or multiple trunks being used.

 

[JudyB]

I feel like if Roy was my teacher, I wouldn't be here asking questions.... not about this tree in any event!
Good luck with it, and get help repotting it, so it has a chance of surviving if you've not repotted before.

 

[Adair M]

California juniper isn't appreciated for it's foliage. It varies from tree to tree, but generally speaking, it's considered to be coarse. On a big tree, it's not so much of a problem. On smaller trees, it is.

What everyone likes about the California juniper is the trunk and deadwood.

So, to get the best of both, Kishu or itoigawa is grafted on.

I'm grafting Kishu onto a Western juniper and will Jin all the Western branches.

 

[Earthone79]

Shohin future

I see a good shohin and would graft close to the trunk. Jinn the long branches and create Shari on one side. Similair to the attached photo of a shohin cali by Peter Macasieb (aka Maria Kapra).

 

[fore]

California juniper isn't appreciated for it's foliage. It varies from tree to tree, but generally speaking, it's considered to be coarse. On a big tree, it's not so much of a problem. On smaller trees, it is.

What everyone likes about the California juniper is the trunk and deadwood.

So, to get the best of both, Kishu or itoigawa is grafted on.

I'm grafting Kishu onto a Western juniper and will Jin all the Western branches.

Pics Adair?

Oh, I too am on the bunjin bandwagon