Two HUGE junipers

[Dmill1369]

So to start I'm fairly new to bonsai and all of my research has been focused on small nursery stock and developing those into convincing bonsai.

Today i had the opportunity to skip a bunch of time growing and picked up these two HUGE junipers for $40(US). They had both escaped the pots into the ground for who knows how long. I don't plan on doing any root work anytime soon as im sure just cutting the escaped roots was probably a fairly heavy rune prune,but i do need to begin to formulate a plan on how to start compacting the root mass so it can be fit into smaller pots. It may be that i have to end up planting them and growing them as Niwaki.


So far i have only cut out old dead twigs and some fairly week branches (18"+ with minimal growth at the end), and i think they are starting to look good with just that, but i welcome any suggestions, tips, tricks, guidance, etc.

Both trees in my 6.5ft pickup bed

1st tree untouched



1st tree cleaned up (twisted tea for size reference)

2nd tree untouched

2nd tree partially cleaned up (ran out of daylight and it started raining. No beer can but the pots are the same size)

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Welcome aboard Bonsai Nut!

Well done. That’s a real truckload.

Thinking they would make really excellent bonsai. Be well worth your time to get them cleaned up, settled down in boxes. Would start with a really good clean up.

Leave all weak or dead branches for potential Jins. So no more cut backs of stubs or branches as this action just creates long straight stretches that are really hard to regrow, but juniper is pretty easy to graft, this can be amended later. In the clean up, focus on taking off all the loose bark. Use a hose and a somewhat of a flexible set of brush sizes to scrub.

Lightening and pushing the foliage to outline the pads is priority, but as it’s where the strength of the tree lies, use a light touch for now. So would work on each branch system separately, lighten, push back a tad & clean up crotches.

That would be a good start.

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[doc spring _work]

Ohh wow, that's a gorgeous trunk, DSD said it all.

Excited to see these monsters refined.

 

[Dmill1369]

Welcome aboard Bonsai Nut!

Well done. That’s a real truckload.

Thinking they would make really excellent bonsai. Be well worth your time to get them cleaned up, settled down in boxes. Would start with a really good clean up.

Leave all weak or dead branches for potential Jins. So no more cut backs of stubs or branches as this action just creates long straight stretches that are really hard to regrow, but juniper is pretty easy to graft, this can be amended later. In the clean up, focus on taking off all the loose bark. Use a hose and a somewhat of a flexible set of brush sizes to scrub.

Lightening and pushing the foliage to outline the pads is priority, but as it’s where the strength of the tree lies, use a light touch for now. So would work on each branch system separately, lighten, push back a tad & clean up crotches.

That would be a good start.

Cheers
DSD sends

Thank you!
I'm going to basically leave them alone untill spring now as i had to cut some sizeable roots that had escaped the pots just to get them moved, so im sure they're stressed from that.


Fortunately there doesn't appear to be many straight sections anywhere on these guys. Lots of twisted and entangled growth that I'm sure I'll have to address eventually.

As far as Jins go I've only been cutting things that are around sharpie marker sized at the largest, most of it has been 1/8"-1/4". With the size of the trunks i dont feel anything that small would look proportional to the overall size of the tree, Fortunately i think i have lots of jin options already that could be carved quite intricately in time.


Most of what i have been removing has been stuff like this:

Come spring I'll start going through the canopy with a finer toothed comb and possibly some wire to start setting the pad structure and refine the shape of these guys.

Appreciate the advice! If I'm missing a critical part of understanding what you're saying please let me know!

 

[shimbrypaku]

I would suggest you take DSD advice, leave all dead wood intact. You can clean the brown dead foliage off, leave the branches until your ready to create Jin and weathered stubs.

Great looking material.
Thanks

 

[plant_dr]

Those are some gnarly trunks to start with! Good luck with them!