Help me to style my shohin juniperus bonsai

[brennobonsai]

Hi! It's been a while since I posted anything here because all my plants are still very small and thin and some were planted in the ground to thicken. But I still have some in my backyard like this Juniperus strickta (I don't know exactly). It's in this big pot but it's only in organic soil that I know is not ideal, but in the next repotting season I'll switch to a more suitable soil.


I wanted your help to style my tree. I wanted to do a formal upright style shohin. I had thought about removing these branches and letting it thicken for a while.Are the branches too close together or is there a problem with the position they are in? What do you suggest?


Do conifers accept the technique of leaving a sacrificial branch at the top to thicken the main trunk?

Sorry for my bad english if anything sounds confuse.

 

[Huggz13]

I can’t help, but I’ll be watching and learning

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Stricta are pretty slow back budders and don't do it as reliably as regular chinensis. So cutting something off will probably mean it will never grow anything in that location ever again. This makes them problematic bonsai subjects. The ones I have are being trained for 4 years now and I still haven't figured out how they work, they don't respond like typical junipers.

So the best advice I can give you is to plant this one in the ground as well and let it get thicker. The needles don't work well for a shohin size because they are relatively big, procumbens 'nana' can work, but it's the type with the smallest needles a juniper can have - along with some communis varieties.

Stricta are usually reasonably priced, and they accept grafting pretty well. So if the foliage doesn't work for you, you can always graft it with better foliage. But for now, even relative to the shohin size, it needs more growing. For effective growth, it's better to leave the foliage and branches on the tree.

 

[brennobonsai]

Understand. I have a juniperus horizontalis that is planted in the ground and the needles are relatively small in comparison.

Here's a picture of it before it went to the ground (less than a month ago so it's pretty small). When it develops more I will try to do the graft.

But about of the position of the branches, would you change anything? Would you remove any now or in the future for styling?

Thanks a lot for the help!!!

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Understand. I have a juniperus horizontalis that is planted in the ground and the needles are relatively small in comparison.

Here's a picture of it before it went to the ground (less than a month ago so it's pretty small). When it develops more I will try to do the graft.
View attachment 417276
But about of the position of the branches, would you change anything? Would you remove any now or in the future for styling?

Thanks a lot for the help!!!

Thats Juniperus procumbens "nana" not horizontalis

 

[brennobonsai]

Thats Juniperus procumbens "nana" not horizontalis

really? so they got it wrong when they sold me

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

But about of the position of the branches, would you change anything? Would you remove any now or in the future for styling?

Not right now, maybe in the future. With junipers, the fun part is that every branch can become a jin in the future. So I leave everything on until I am absolutely sure I don't need it anymore.
A thicker branch will be a thicker jin, so letting branches grow isn't always bad. Every growing branch contributes to the growth of the trunk and the root system, so more branches means your plant will grow faster.

Most shohin junipers have had some sort of escape branch (a branch that is allowed to grow large, so it will thicken the trunk fast) and the escape branch will be cut off or jinned when the right trunk size is achieved.

I agree with Arnold that your horizontalis seems to be a procumbens, and I think it's the Nana variety with the small needles. So that's a good thing!
You will notice that procumbens grows faster than chinensis var. stricta.

I made a shohin size juniper a month ago. Here's what I used to start with:
Roughly 80cm tall juniper.

And this is the end result:


Roughly 12cm in size now.
Now the trunk has a good relative size, although it's still a little bit skinny. But it's a good example of how big a plant has to become before it can be cut down to a shohin size. All those trunks were "escape branches" that helped thickening the base.

Growing a shohin size plant in a shohin size pot from the start, will take around 40 years. So I think it's better to get something big, and cut it down to something smaller.

 

[brennobonsai]

Not right now, maybe in the future. With junipers, the fun part is that every branch can become a jin in the future. So I leave everything on until I am absolutely sure I don't need it anymore.
A thicker branch will be a thicker jin, so letting branches grow isn't always bad. Every growing branch contributes to the growth of the trunk and the root system, so more branches means your plant will grow faster.

Most shohin junipers have had some sort of escape branch (a branch that is allowed to grow large, so it will thicken the trunk fast) and the escape branch will be cut off or jinned when the right trunk size is achieved.

I agree with Arnold that your horizontalis seems to be a procumbens, and I think it's the Nana variety with the small needles. So that's a good thing!
You will notice that procumbens grows faster than chinensis var. stricta.

I made a shohin size juniper a month ago. Here's what I used to start with:
Roughly 80cm tall juniper.
View attachment 417419
And this is the end result:

View attachment 417420
Roughly 12cm in size now.
Now the trunk has a good relative size, although it's still a little bit skinny. But it's a good example of how big a plant has to become before it can be cut down to a shohin size. All those trunks were "escape branches" that helped thickening the base.

Growing a shohin size plant in a shohin size pot from the start, will take around 40 years. So I think it's better to get something big, and cut it down to something smaller.

wow you are right. I hadn't thought of it that way yet and it's a great option. I get so crazy about making it look beautiful that I end up forgetting about possible solutions like the jin and grafting. As strickta grows, the now defined as procumbens grows for me to try to graft into the future. Take it easy one thing at a time.

My beloved lord the whole tree is gone! And wow, your shohin was very beautiful. You could see how much the plant sometimes needs to grow even by your example.

Thank you so much for the help and the tips. I will take everything into consideration from now on.!!!