Ittoigawa juniper

[leatherback]

This juniper has been with me a reasonable amount of time, and is sort of my ittoigawa teacher.

I bought it from someone in the UK, who had it from a batch of trees imported from Japan. As he himself was moving abroad, he was selling his stock. I was planning attending a big weekend-long workshop in the UK, so a perfect match.

As advertised in 2011 (!) this must have been the second tree I ever bought for bonsai

 

[leatherback]

So I took the car and drove from Germany to Hoek van Holland, to the the ferry. Driving onto the ferry at sunset. Eating, sleeping, drinking and what not till next morning around 7AM bringing me to Hull in the UK, and off to one of the best workshops I have ever been to, with Terry Foster, Tony Tickle, Hans van Meer and Pavel Slovak. I guess that was the weekend that sealed my relation with bonsai!

Looking back through my pictures I realize, not 2011, but 2013!

With me wanting to really learn how to do this stuff, every cut, wire and bend was done by me, and the only input from these great guyes were the discussions on "where can I take this". This probably cost me about 5 years of development, cutting of wrong branches, setting wires poorly and what not! But.. Learn from your mistakes. Did I have lots of learning material afterwards!

The tree before starting:


Dropping loads of branches. And me, not realizing the potential, did not take a single cutting. Kicking myself. I could have had a field of 9 year old ittoigawas now! This is also where I learned: I do not really like turntables!



The tree after first styling, back in the yard at home

 

[leatherback]

It really was a special workshop..








Everyone was asked to bring a few beers from their region/country, making for a nice assortment on the saturday evening!!

 

[leatherback]

Come 2015. The tree has not really developed. I am still battling needle foliage. I did do a second laying out of the foliage, to keep the foliage open. This tree is teaching me.. Wait till perfectly happy for the next work...

 

[leatherback]

In 2017 it is clear some parts of the back have died back after the big trim in 2013 and I have cleaned them up. The foliage is decidedly better looking now


Still needles, but also signs of backbudding:

 

[leatherback]

Letting it go all shaggy for 2017


Staring 2018 comepletely cleaned up, thinned and rewired, slowly coming together:

 

[leatherback]

2017 prooved to be a turning point, as the tree did not beat an eyelash to the work done in 2018. And 2019 saw the advent of a ceramic pot for this tree, and another cleanup:



Two months later, and the tree was just laughing at it..

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Nice start on a progression thread. It will fun to see what the next 7 years brings.

 

[sorce]

I think it was @GrimLore who talked about using a rubber doorstop to stop turntables. I always found that a brilliant idea, just never got around to finding a doorstop.

I really appreciate them for viewing. Certainly not working.

Nice.

Sorce

 

[leatherback]

In a workshop in the winter of 2019/2020 we decided the tree was somehow out of balance. And rotated the tree by 90 degrees, creating a new front.
It involved removing part of the cascading branch, and dropping a main branch in the top left between the two top-yins to create the left branch hanging down from the crown:

 

[leatherback]

By July the tree had filled out again:



And last weekend:

 

[leatherback]

Over the last year this tree has filled out further. Soon this will need to be unwired, thinned and cleaned up.

 

[Stella]

this is a very interesting tree.
happy to follow this progression

 

[Clicio]

Hummm...
I've got an Itoigawa that is strugling after initial work last year. Following this thread now I see I will have to be patient, wait for the juvenile foliage to mature, and let it gain strength before doing further work.
Thanks for the progression, @leatherback !

 

[leatherback]

All cleaned up again. Now without any wires, but maybe a few wires are needed come spring.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

The design is a bit awkward with the right branch being forced up into an apex and then looping back down to become a left branch. When it’s full, you can get away with more of that, but is it a good long-term solution?

The deadwood is also heavy up in that same area, maybe it’s the photo flattening the Jin into the Shari, and the planting angle pushing that area toward the camera…?


I wonder if the other side is still the better front.

 

[leatherback]

The design is a bit awkward with the right branch being forced up into an apex and then looping back down to become a left branch. When it’s full, you can get away with more of that, but is it a good long-term solution?

Good point, and the downside of poor 2D pictures. They are 2 competing crowns, and it only looks like the branch on the right forms the left part of the canopy. So I need to re-shape the lower right branch in order to create a clear space.

Which side is better.. I am really not sure. I have been rotating this so many times

 

[bwaynef]

The previous front looks best to my eye, ...by a pretty wide margin.

I'm in the patient stage with a couple of my shimpaku right now. Loved seeing this progression.

 

[leatherback]

with the right branch being forced up into an apex and then looping back down to become a left branch

This shows better how the crown sites together. Not ideal no..

 

[Crazy Diamond]