Large squamata juniper

[Fishtank307]

I bought this rather large juniper yesterday. All the foliage is at the end of one long, straight branch. This will be a long term project for sure. I will style it with my new bonsai tutor, over the course of a couple of years.

Maybe we will bend the straight branch towards the trunk. Then we can try to create a sort of literati/semi-cascade type of bonsai. Maybe the long shoots can be used to graft foliage onto the boring straight branch.

 

[defra]

Thats a fat base Nice!
I got a squamata too my 2 cents:
Keep on top of the foliage get it thinned out to let the light and air in and continuely clear all the dead needles it helps allot @dirk hoorelbeke gave me this same advice helped allot!
Looking forward to the first round of this one

 

[Fishtank307]

@defra thanks! I cleaned out the dead needles and twigs earlier today. That's all for now. Btw, I bought this one, along with a mugo pine AND 10 lessons, all for (approximately) the price of that one juniperus pfitzeriana I was going to buy

 

[defra]

@defra thanks! I cleaned out the dead needles and twigs earlier today. That's all for now. Btw, I bought this one, along with a mugo pine AND 10 lessons, all for (approximately) the price of that one juniperus pfitzeriana I was going to buy

Score!
Nice man! You say mugo? I saw you join the mugo train !
vance wood is your go to guy for mugo's
Who is giving the lessons?

 

[Fishtank307]

Score!
Nice man! You say mugo? I saw you join the mugo train !
vance wood is your go to guy for mugo's
Who is giving the lessons?

Dirk Mellemans from Karamatsu bonsai. I got the trees from his small nursery. Nice trees, nice guy. I like the way he teaches: you bring your trees when there's something that needs to be done Not like, "pay for 10 lessons in 10 consecutive weeks"

 

[Vin]

This looks like it's going to be a tough one. The base is nice but bringing that branch down and making a convincing tree out of it is something I can't see. Have you thought about grafting onto the main trunk?

 

[Fishtank307]

This looks like it's going to be a tough one. The base is nice but bringing that branch down and making a convincing tree out of it is something I can't see. Have you thought about grafting onto the main trunk?

A tough one for sure! I haven't thought about grafting onto the main trunk. This is what I had in mind:

You can ignore the lousy foliage pads. Halfway through I realized I had no idea what I was drawing! But the basic structure is there, sort of, along with a very boring straight branch.
I'm probably going to have my first lesson this saturday. We'll see what my tutor thinks of it!

 

[defra]

Btw dont get scared if your squamata discolors to greyish purple like this:


Its normal its a protection mechanism to get trough winter it will go back to green in spring it kinda freaked me out last year lol

 

[Fishtank307]

@defra Thanks for the heads up!

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

It will be a challenge to bring things down, to make it convincing you will have to split the trunk where the bent must go, so a smaller portion of the life vain can be turned down. Clean the trunk from old bark and oil it up. This way it will be obvious what portions of the trunk are alive. In the past large branches were removed, so make sure you have a few life lines running up to the apex when you split. It has a good base and might become a special one.

 

[sorce]

Subtle bends...
A nice tight foliage mass out there on the end...

Furking purty!

Sorce

 

[Fishtank307]

It will be a challenge to bring things down, to make it convincing you will have to split the trunk where the bent must go, so a smaller portion of the life vain can be turned down. Clean the trunk from old bark and oil it up. This way it will be obvious what portions of the trunk are alive. In the past large branches were removed, so make sure you have a few life lines running up to the apex when you split. It has a good base and might become a special one.

Thanks for the advice! The heavy bend will probably be the first step. I've never bend a branch this large before, so that will have to wait until I have my first lesson.
Which oil should I use to discern the live vain?

 

[Giga]

That's a beast and that could be made something awesome.

 

[clive bennett]

The best kind of tree to can on, difficult with difficult procedures required , and no so expensive that you are afraid to work on it. Have fun

 

[just.wing.it]

That's cool man, I would have take it if it was in front of me.

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Most household oils are fine. Most of the time i use sunflower, sometimes olive, ... camellia,... avoid motoroil and you will be fine.

 

[Fishtank307]

First styling... The 'apex' of the tree consisted of two main branches, growing upward. We removed one and decided to form the new apex with the one branch that extended from the main 'trunk'. (The other one was thick and didn't have a lot of good side branches...)

The trunkline is still very straight. We were able to bend it a little bit more towards the trunk, so 'in real life' you can see it curves a bit more in three dimensions. Hopefully I can bend it more in the future.



Bad soil... What do you think: repot next spring (without root pruning it?) or leave it alone? We took away quite a bit of the foliage, so maybe repotting it next spring isn't a good idea... I think I'm just going to let it grow. It was very healthy when I bought it, but I want to make sure it survives this first styling!


It's a quirky little tree, but I like it so far. It's something different!

A few thoughts:
The foliage is very far away from the main trunk. And the straight section in the trunk doesn't 'pull' the foliage and the main trunk together. (I can't really explain this well in English, I hope you know what I mean!)
We'll see how far I can bend the straight section in the future. My only concern with this is that this might create a bow where the straight section exits the main trunk... Maybe splitting the trunk can be an option, to bend it in a convincing way.
Grafting also seems like a good option. I don't want immediate results in bonsai. I'm curious to see how this tree will change over time!

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

The straight branch will only be convincing when it is almost parallel with the trunk. The only option is to split the trunk at the joint. It is predictable where it wil split. You can aid the splitting by sawing a line, but most often it is not needed. It scared the hell out of me first but i've done a taxus, a mugo and a few junipers that way. Some of the branches where almost the size of your example. You need a few extra pairs of hands or a turnbuckle. Once the lifelines are established it will be a very elegant tree. Nice styling.

 

[sorce]

I like it just how it is.

A lot!

Sorce

 

[Paulpash]

Did you use copper for the guy wire? It looks quite a thin wire to move such a thick branch, especially if it's aluminum.