Japanese Dwarf Juniper Initial Styling

[bouquet]

Calling all styling gurus

I purchased a couple juni's and after cleaning them up for an initial styling I thought I would put the pictures of the trees up here and just ask for some opinions of what direction others would take.

I guess I kind of have an idea of what direction I think I should go but being the first real time I have ever styled a tree, I guess I'd like to see what others think as well.

So for the trees:

Tree No1.

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151.jpg

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154.jpg

Tree No2.

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Any advice, as always, is much appreciated. I may have taken a few to many branches off in the cleanup. I did however leave some for jin.

Thanks

[Neli]

I liked the top...Pity you chopped it off. Try to bring the foliage closer to the trunk, by shortening from outside the foliage. But dont remove too much foliage on junipers at one time. Do it on stages.

[ketutg]

I also picked up 2 Junipers on the weekend from http://www.bonsaimujo.com. Will be interested in what people suggest for your trees. Tree number 1 looks like a good candidate for semi cascade...

[MoGanic]

I liked the top...Pity you chopped it off. Try to bring the foliage closer to the trunk, by shortening from outside the foliage. But dont remove too much foliage on junipers at one time. Do it on stages.

Pretty sure that there's actually two tree's, one with the interesting top, and one shorter one.

Bouquet, Junipers always look best when there is a lot of dead wood. This means lot's of growing and thickening and then lots of trimming down again. The first tree you posted would be a great candidate for this as it has some great movement, especially in the top half of the tree. I would possibly let it grow for a fair while, if you can, to get a nice thick trunk. You'll end up with a thicker trunk, some branches with great movement that can be turned into Jinn, and some great ramification on the branches you want to keep. You'd be trimming and maintaining the branches you want to keep of course, while letting the sacrificial branches (future Jinns) grow rampant with plenty of bends wired into them initially.

The second one could also have this happen to it.

I have a shimpaku that I purchased about 2 years ago and it had it's first styling with a Shohin sized tree in mind. I have since wired a branch that I wanted to Jinn initially straight up to thicken the trunk. It will still be Shohin, but will have a nice fat trunk and much better deadwood in the future. It will take me probably 10 odd years to get it to where I want but I will be working the tree the entire time anyway.

The alternative is, as Neli suggested, to prune back and develop the tree's as they are, which still makes for very nice tree's. It's just that due to the thickness of the trunk, there isn't a lot of room to create deadwood at the moment.

Either way, the option is yours and since you're the only one who's seen the tree's in the flesh, you would be able to ascertain where to take the trees.

Kind regards,
Mo

[MoGanic]

Deleted double up message.

[bouquet]

I also picked up 2 Junipers on the weekend from http://www.bonsaimujo.com. Will be interested in what people suggest for your trees. Tree number 1 looks like a good candidate for semi cascade...

Yes I also purchased these juni's from there.

Thanks also for your comments Mo. The first tree wasn't pruned/cleaned up as much as the first as I didn't really have any idea of what direction I wanted to go with it. All I knew is I needed the clean the tree up a little to expose the trunk line.

however the second tree is a different story. As neli allured to, I chopped of the top as I had an idea for a tree. But once it was gone I was asking myself if I acted to quickly with the scissors. I cleaned it up and kept cleaning, oh well all a learning curve. I was looking for a more trained tree with the second one. Initial style the would just be worked on for years to come. Good thing I guess is I can still see the future tree in it.

[Neli]

When chopping junipers always think...future Jin and dont rush to cut off branches that You can use to fatten the trunk. Wire future jins too. Jin and shari are elements that make junipers beautiful.
Dont remove any small branchlets coming off the primary branches near the trunk. You will need them later.
I see very often newbies clean all the foliage from the primary branches close to the trunk and leave a pom pom at the end. That is done to the tertiary branches and not on the primary, before wiring the pad.

[PaulC]

Hi Bouquet,


just a few ideas for tree number 1.


Regards,


Paul

[bouquet]

Hey PaulC

Thanks so much for those verts. Awesome. I hope with time I can see trees like this. And by the amount of views I can tell they may have help not only myself but a few others with ideas for trees they may also be working on.

[PaulC]

Hi Bouquet,

and thanks for the compliments.

I tend to only vert with whats available from the photos posted.

Sometimes I add things in, but usually I tend to remove from the images to help with stying ideas, much as you would with the plant material in the flesh by pruning.

This is what I did with your tree.

The trees are images from your pics, so therefore should be acheivable with pruning alone.

For some reason the pics I posted cannot be enlarged, and I appologise for that, if I get the time I will try to address this, so you can see a larger image of where
the image was cropped.

Once again, thanks for the compliments.


Regards,



Paul

[kcpoole]

Just a quick virt of Tree 1
rotated 15 deg to starbd, using your 3rd image ( 153).


Like Paul, I have only moved the branches by (virtual) wiring and removed foliage where in excess.
Unlike Paul, I have added foliage to the newly moved branching and placement to build up the foliage, but this will be easily doable in the bark

Ken

[kcpoole]

after looking once posted, the foliage pads are too big and long

Ken

[PaulC]

Hi again Bouquet,



after looking at your inital pics, and creating a few virts, something struck me.....


I trust you have considered the plants roots system ?

You seem to have had both plants well out of the pots, and root systems well exposed.

I hope you only had them out for the sake of photography and nothing else ?

And of course a good drink afterwards.....tapping the plant back down firmly in its plastic pot and a good dunking for good measure,

even a seasol bath wouldnt go astray afterwards.

Sorry if I state the obvious, but the weather has been quite unseasonable, and dry roots and lack of water can lead to all sorts of issues.

The worst being the loss of plant as well as loss of inspiration and interest.


Regards,


Paul

[bouquet]

Thanks for the vert Ken. I seem to have a few ideas floating around now. I guess I also need to try and (hope for) get a branch/bud to break in the right spot.

Paul
You're correct, I did have the trees out of the pots they came in and It was for the photo only. I scraped just the top of the soil off the find the tops of the roots, however no roots were removed.

The work was done at night and I have water one not the other. One trees roots were quite wet so I didn't want to water it. I did foliar spray the trees the following day and kept mostly shaded all day.

To be honest I didn't think I would have to be to worried about watering as I didn't do any work on the roots. They will be root pruned in winter. The trees are in good health so fingers crossed removal of foliage won't cause to much stress the the trees.

[kvan64]

I liked the top...Pity you chopped it off. Try to bring the foliage closer to the trunk, by shortening from outside the foliage. But dont remove too much foliage on junipers at one time. Do it on stages.

Yeah, I like the top too. I got one similar to this and did some work on it. Mine was a bit neglected but you can see the style. The top you have would make a great looking literati. Probably better than the one I have now.