Beginners first Juniper

[ADO]

Hi,

Was scouting the local markets here in Perth (Wanneroo Markets) and went to the bonsai nursery and found what looks to me a nice Juniper which with my beginners hand may or may not turn into a nice tree....The very nice owner said that it was about 12 years old. Great price and I bought some wire and some other goodies.
I am a rank beginner and this will be my first time shaping a tree from stock. I haven't got any specialized tools as yet and was hoping, for now, to get by with some old fashioned garden sheers and scissors.

Anyway, I know its hard to tell from the photos but I have decided that the bottom photo represents the front of the tree and the top photo the back.

I intend to get the tree into basic shape and obviously develop over time. are there any ideas as to how I should start out with this tree to begin the journey?
I also hope to bring this tree to the WA bonsai workshop sometime this month for more ideas and advice/guidance from the experts.

Any help much appreciated

Juniper Back.JPG

Juniper Front.JPG

[Tony Bebb]

G'Day Ado

Good on you for starting with a nice mature tree. You will get plenty of joy out of this.

There are some awkward spacings between the branches with the first 2 so close and heavy, and the rest a little spaced out. You would need to strap and do some major bending to compress the foliage, and most likely remove the first 1 or 2 branches. This would get the tree shorter to complement the thicker base.

It is hard to tell from the pics, but you may want to look at cutting the main trunk off above the second branch and removing the first branch. You could create the tree from the second branch as the new trunk and jin the cut branches. This might give you a nice proportioned tree with natural lines and compact smaller branches, making the trunk thicker in proportion to the height.

Enjoy your new tree, and do what you would like to look at for a long time.

Tony

[kcpoole]

Gidday ADO
Nice tree.

Like tony, I am a little concerned that the first 2 branches will be too much like a Bar branch so you wi8ll have to do something about that. Either remove one of them or other wise disguise it with branch movement.

Above those 2, you have a bend in the trunk, Is there a branch or shoot to use on the outside of that bend?. Above that you have a fairly straight looking trunk with little taper but there is a nice branch you can use as the new apex there about 1/2 way along the section
You will need heavy wire so you can get some bends into those branches and trunk and get big curves to bring the foliage in much closer.

Are you a member of a club? It would be real beneficial to get and experienced, Hands on look at this one so you get the best out of it:-)

Ken

[Pup]

Bring it to the Workshop meeting at the end of the month in Doubleview. Sat 26th.

[ADO]

thanks Pup. Its my son's 3rd B'day this Sat arvo so I won't be able to make it to the workshop. I should hopefully be able to make it to the workshop on the 17th December.
In the mean time I bought a cheap Juniper from Bunnings to practice on.

Cheers

Adrian