Juniper styling, advice needed

[hampton]

I picked up this juniper sometime in the fall. I enjoy the left cascading branch and the first part of the trunk on the right most branch. It’s difficult to see in with the foliage, I attempted to show the current trunk lines and my current plan of attack. Any opinion or suggestion would be greatly appreciate. Additionally the plant is root bound, I intend to repot at the end of February - would you forgo styling this year or re-evaluate in late summer and make a decision then?

 

[bwaynef]

Consider what it'd look like as a not-cascade.

 

[hampton]

That's a totally fair and likely the best path forward. Thank you for taking the time.

 

[Shibui]

Aesthetically having growth going in opposing directions unsettles the viewer. Your virt shows a reduction in flow to the right but still a bit too much for me.
It can be hard initially to remove larger sections of a tree so we do tend to keep far more than necessary.
Without being able to see the actual trunk it is very difficult to assess the real shape and flow of the tree.
Without seeing the roots it is very difficult to assess the visual stability of the trunk.

These junipers are strong enough to cope with both repot and the sort of styling you propose as there's not really all that much foliage reduction in that plan.
Definitely check the rootage to see if that would influence the planting angle before committing to a concrete plan.

In the end your bonsai should please you. Don't worry too much about other people's opinions as you will surely discover that you cannot please all of the people all of the time no matter how wonderful your bonsai design is.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm all for an angle change and an upright style.
Procumbens have a naturally weeping nature and this tricks a lot of people into wanting to do cascades; it fits the nature of the beast.

But.. I haven't seen a single procumbens cascade that made me think: wow, that's a decent cascade!
I'm far from being someone who should critique design, but I do have a preference towards execution. Most I've seen look like downward creeping vines, which is cool if that's your thing. It's the reason why I don't do cascades myself; I can't make a convincing one.

 

[SeanS]

As others have said procumbens don’t need to be cascades just because almost all of them seem come from the factory fitted with long cascading branches. I have a procumbens that also had 2 long winding branches when I purchased it. Neither of them are in the current design.

As purchased



Current, 2 years later. Sorry about the busy background and surrounds in the photo. It will be repotted next spring at this angle, the right birds nest of branches pulled further over to the left and wired up into twisty future jins. The current upper canopy will be pulled to the right to sit closer in towards where the dead will eventually start.



My point is have a look into the tree and find the best possible use of the trunk, even if that means cutting off all of the long cascady bits

 

[hampton]

I appreciate the responses, they've given me a lot to consider. I'll make a post after some work is done to see if there's any feedback

 

[Bonsai Nut]

See if you can locate a picture of a tree in the wild you'd like to emulate. It is always easier to end up with a realistic impactful bonsai if you start with a tree in mind.

As an example, check out @Walter Pall's recent post detailing development of a Linden tree. Note the reference photos of a tree in the wild.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

I'm beginning to think nature takes instruction from Walter Pall.

 

[hampton]

Again thanks for the input, its great to get some feedback rather than ruminating in my head.

As an exercise I took another pass and agree this avenue is going to produce a better tree. Even from mock ups the cascade gives me an uneasy feeling when compared to this more compact design.

 

[hampton]

Adding here for posterity
I decided to take a more analytical perspective and go through the process outlined in Basic Bonsai Design.

I did a bit of cleaning to get a clearer view up the structure. I know during repotting it will be important to find the surface rooting.

Until then I’m afraid I don’t have enough information to choose a front.

that said, I believe the second photo front/angle was what caught my eye.

I agree with bailing on the large cascade branch. I’m curious after determining a front if it can be used as a jin.

If anyone has any input it’s certainly appreciated

 

[SeanS]

Any branch can be used as a jin, even one that’s currently cascading. Jins can be wired and bent/twisted once you’ve stripped the bark off. So just because you want to jin the cascade branch doesn’t mean it has to remain as a cascade jin.

If you scroll up and look at the photo I posted earlier you’ll notice the group of branches on right with all the foliage stripped off and only some foliage left on the ends. I’m growing those branches out to eventually be jins. I’ll wire them up in winter and twist them into interesting shapes, let them grow another season or 2 and then jin them.
But you can also jin a branch now and then wire it up and style it at the same time. I just want some more thickness on the ones on my tree

 

[BrightsideB]

I buy like 5 procumbens at a time. So that I can have the opportunity to have material to work with but not the pressure of working with material I don’t feel sure of the direction.

 

[Potawatomi13]

How endlessly angering to see people bad mouth Cascades! Ryan Neil tells to let tree lead the dance. If tree is naturally Cascade why violate to force unnatural style? If wanting other style then buy tree not growing as Cascade!

 

[flor1]

Nothing wrong with a cascade if done with planning and forethought.Unfortunately few are.

 

[bwaynef]

How endlessly angering to see people bad mouth Cascades! Ryan Neil tells to let tree lead the dance. If tree is naturally Cascade why violate to force unnatural style? If wanting other style then buy tree not growing as Cascade!

Interestingly in "Mallsai Juniper Styling," RN while not working w/ a cascade juniper, does seem to transform the tree in a way where it didn't seem to be leading the dance.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Interestingly in "Mallsai Juniper Styling," RN while not working w/ a cascade juniper, does seem to transform the tree in a way where it didn't seem to be leading the dance.

Consider tree may have been forced away from natural growth habit so needed corrected/returned?

 

[hampton]

A repot and some styling later. Any input/critique would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dogestoevsky]

Improved, for sure. If you’ve worked it pretty hard, give it a year or two to gain strength. If it were up to me, I’d eventually take the design smaller. Good luck!

 

[hampton]

I appreciate the encouragement to reduce. This is starting to look like a tree. A fair amount of crotch growth is going to give me a lot of options in the next couple years.