2009 Convention Juniper update
Posted: December 14th, 2010, 11:05 pm
I know it has been a while, but I would like to give an update to the Chinese Juniper I did at the 2009 Convention here in Brisbane. The tree generated lots of comments on Ausbonsai and I thank everybody for their contribution. The original post was at
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1352&p=12903&hilit ... ion#p12867 The comments were many and varied but one thing was unanimous, it was one ugly tree. First a little background info. First and foremost I chose to demo on this tree myself. The tree was given to me by a close friend in our club (a founding member) who I have known since I was 17. The tree is the same age as me which puts it at a spritely young 43.
When I got the tree it was at least twice as tall as the demo height (sorry no pictures) with foliage only up the top, so the first step was to cut the foliage back hard to try and generate some back budding. Chinese Junipers will shoot from the crutch of the branches and you can use these to replace a branch that has become elongated. With the age of the trunk, it did not shoot low down, but did generate many new shoots. The tree was taken out of its grow bag and the roots sawn through and put into the demo pot in spring 2008. I had always wanted to do something with the tree so I put it in my workshop to study the tree and contemplate my options. The positives were a thick trunk, some dead wood and some strong bends with some interesting veins of sap. The negatives were reverse taper at the base, a long straight trunk before the branches, the ‘claw’ structure to the branches and the high foliage. The plan was to angle the trunk and use the main left branch as the trunkline, and split the timber on the right side leaving some on the tree for a jin and invert the separated piece and attach it to the base of the tree to create taper and use the branches of the now dead wood as roots on the right side of the tree.
The upper part of the trunk was also split to create a jin on the upper left side and reduce the trunk to aid bending. This was then strapped with raffia and some bending was applied. More will follow.
The plan was not want to touch the remaining foliage to ensure the sap would draw up the branch and ensure its survival. Pruning the tips would weaken the branch.
The tree recovered nicely and was let to grow freely to strengthen.
As the work was done in May, I left it to grow till the spring of this year when I root pruned it. The root system was terrible from being in a large bag for many years and being let grow into the ground, and had many large roots with fine roots on the end. I pruned it hard and the tree did suffer a bit, but has recovered.
It was potted into a Bonsai pot, but not what it will stay in. The attached wood did not fit in the pot and did not suit the angle, so I removed it to attach it again later. I did have a larger pot, but did not want to over pot it with so little roots as the soil would not dry out as easy and would inhibit root growth. It would also be at risk of developing root fungus in our humidity.
As the dead wood did not suit the angle I decided to reshape it with steam to create more of a bend into the ’roots’. I did this by applying steam to the wood and clamping and continually applying pressure until the correct angle was achieved. There is quite a bit of carving still to do to make it fit right, but this will be done later.
The future plan is to reduce the thickness of timber in the upper trunk and re-strap with raffia to achieve more bending and to lower the foliage. The future design will tend towards Literati, but I will wait to see what can be achieved and what growth occurs in the near future.
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1352&p=12903&hilit ... ion#p12867 The comments were many and varied but one thing was unanimous, it was one ugly tree. First a little background info. First and foremost I chose to demo on this tree myself. The tree was given to me by a close friend in our club (a founding member) who I have known since I was 17. The tree is the same age as me which puts it at a spritely young 43.
When I got the tree it was at least twice as tall as the demo height (sorry no pictures) with foliage only up the top, so the first step was to cut the foliage back hard to try and generate some back budding. Chinese Junipers will shoot from the crutch of the branches and you can use these to replace a branch that has become elongated. With the age of the trunk, it did not shoot low down, but did generate many new shoots. The tree was taken out of its grow bag and the roots sawn through and put into the demo pot in spring 2008. I had always wanted to do something with the tree so I put it in my workshop to study the tree and contemplate my options. The positives were a thick trunk, some dead wood and some strong bends with some interesting veins of sap. The negatives were reverse taper at the base, a long straight trunk before the branches, the ‘claw’ structure to the branches and the high foliage. The plan was to angle the trunk and use the main left branch as the trunkline, and split the timber on the right side leaving some on the tree for a jin and invert the separated piece and attach it to the base of the tree to create taper and use the branches of the now dead wood as roots on the right side of the tree.
The upper part of the trunk was also split to create a jin on the upper left side and reduce the trunk to aid bending. This was then strapped with raffia and some bending was applied. More will follow.
The plan was not want to touch the remaining foliage to ensure the sap would draw up the branch and ensure its survival. Pruning the tips would weaken the branch.
The tree recovered nicely and was let to grow freely to strengthen.
As the work was done in May, I left it to grow till the spring of this year when I root pruned it. The root system was terrible from being in a large bag for many years and being let grow into the ground, and had many large roots with fine roots on the end. I pruned it hard and the tree did suffer a bit, but has recovered.
It was potted into a Bonsai pot, but not what it will stay in. The attached wood did not fit in the pot and did not suit the angle, so I removed it to attach it again later. I did have a larger pot, but did not want to over pot it with so little roots as the soil would not dry out as easy and would inhibit root growth. It would also be at risk of developing root fungus in our humidity.
As the dead wood did not suit the angle I decided to reshape it with steam to create more of a bend into the ’roots’. I did this by applying steam to the wood and clamping and continually applying pressure until the correct angle was achieved. There is quite a bit of carving still to do to make it fit right, but this will be done later.
The future plan is to reduce the thickness of timber in the upper trunk and re-strap with raffia to achieve more bending and to lower the foliage. The future design will tend towards Literati, but I will wait to see what can be achieved and what growth occurs in the near future.
Good work mate, can't wait to see more progress,,,,,Cheers - Craig
