Maiden's Hollywood Juniper

[Maiden69]

This torulosa was bought from Evergreen Plant Nursery summer 2020, as a size 1 plant (close to a 4" pot) and slipped into a 1 gal container. I layered the top the same year and separated it late fall, it is not into consideration for a small raft design. The rest of the tree was coiled up (sorry, didn't know coils were kinda meh for bonsai at the time) and left to grow. This spring I removed it from the 1 gal pot and worked the roots a little bit, then moved it into a Root Maker pot (testing on this). So far the growth this yeas has been good, there are a few roots that escaped the lower portion of the pot and anchored the tree into the grow bed which could be part of the growth the tree is showing.

Still undecided about what to do with it. Opening a thread to keep track of the progression, and to get some feedback from people that may have experience with them.

 

[nuttiest]

perfectly doable - you could even jin that lower branch in the future, wire it where you want and let it set up before you strip the bark.
What kind of tree is that knobby growth on in upper left of first photo?

 

[Maiden69]

What kind of tree is that knobby growth on in upper left of first photo?

Seiju elm

 

[Esolin]

I think Hollywoods work best as larger bonsai, both because of their unruly flame-like foliage tufts, and their natural tendency to become trees. Since you've already got big loops in it, I'd say carry that trend and go wild and twisty all the way to the apex. Either a pretzeled literati, or a semi-cascade/informal upright that's got some serious quirks.

For example, I might take of those thin branches near your finger in the picture, and have it make a turn back down toward the soil, echoing the slant of the lowest portion of the trunk, before jogging back upright, and eventually making this the new trunkline. But that's just one idea.

 

[Ruddigger]

Hollywoods get huge fast. Theyre all over Southern California as landscape trees. If you put that thing in a 5 gallon container and bury it half in the ground for a few years you’ll have an impressive trunk.

 

[Maiden69]

Hollywoods get huge fast. Theyre all over Southern California as landscape trees. If you put that thing in a 5 gallon container and bury it half in the ground for a few years you’ll have an impressive trunk.

Definitely, I have seen some huge Hollywood junipers. I don't have many pics here, but this is the tree and the top I air layer on spring 2021, at around 1/4" trunk thickness. I'm not too happy with the growth this year on the Root Maker pot, next spring I'm going to slip pot it into a Root Pouch and probably do initial structural wiring.

For example, I might take of those thin branches near your finger in the picture, and have it make a turn back down toward the soil, echoing the slant of the lowest portion of the trunk, before jogging back upright, and eventually making this the new trunkline. But that's just one idea.

That sounds interesting, will consider it when time comes to do the initial styling.

 

[Kevin1968]

@Maiden69 do you know what type of junipers these are? Was at store here and pots just said juniper checked on plant finder and it just says Japanese juniper LOL

 

[Maiden69]

I'm definitely not good at identifying junipers, but the second one foliage looks like my parsonii. I know there is a few images here in the forum with clippings of foliage with the name written next to it. I tried searching the forum images through google but couldn't find them.