Trimmed up this nursery Parsoni Juniper

[YamadoriFL]

Trimmed this up a bit. Previously posted here:

Newbies - want to share your trees?

....which i think i ruined... Actually, this reminds me of my favorite tree in the wild. A Utah juniper growing on a cattle ranch off the highway on my commute to work. Must be hundreds of years old, but the cattle have munched at the foliage and rubbed on the trunk for so many years that...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Vance Wood]

I understand what it is you are trying to do and commiserating with what you are going through. When you start out with material this young and underdeveloped it will be at least ten years before you start to see a good result from all of your hard work. I have grown bonsai somewhat successfully for around 60 years and 99% of my trees are either from seed or nursery material. The best bonsai are of course from collected trees aka Yamadori, but Yamadori are very expensive in dollars if you purchase from a collector/vendor, or in the amount of time and effort it takes to collect them yourself. It took me a number of years to learn that the best bonsai are trees cut down and reduced from far older trees as opposed to trying to grow something up into a bonsai from smaller trees. You can do what you want but in the end you will find that the most valuable asset you have is your own personal time and that asset should be spent as carefully as possible. Just remember; when I started growing bonsai I was the young kid doing bonsai. I was full of salt and vinegar, excitement was at no end causing me to waste a lot of time I now wish I had back understanding that my physical strength is leaving me. You only have so much time don't waste it.

Below is a Mugo Pine I acquired as a nursery tree in 1972. My first Mugo Pine post Viet Nam and my oldest Pine bonsai.