AusBonsai

Today I acquired a tree with lots of years behind it and a few problems.
A chinese juniper with nice aged bark which has been restyled on several occasions.
Styling done in workshops but leaving the previous owners unconvinced about the direction the tree was headed.

The tree is returning to good health although the second trunk is still very weak but it does need some firm design plans.

Gerard, are you asking for styling advice? can we get a pic or 2 from the other side at all please ?

Good luck with it, and enjoy...

Craig wrote:Gerard, are you asking for styling advice? can we get a pic or 2 from the other side at all please ?

Yes Craig, any suggestions welcome.
I looked at the other side and it looks to be almost the same but the top third of the tree falls backward and the base of the trunk is not as nice, these photos will be the front but I will add some when I get the camera out later on.

With the straight trunk and the one-sided branching, all I can see is a raft-style reconstruction.

Good age, but a tricky tree to use well, I think.

Gavin

I think it could be a decent slanting tree, perhaps undercut all the branches and drag them down, get a really sharp sweep down from the trunk and wire in some really stepped foliage pads. I would lose the small trunk as it will never be really strong under the other trunk. Hard tree to style with seeing it. (like all)

I spent many hours rewiring this tree yesterday.
Foliage was pinched back a lot but I know that last time this was done it took a long time to recover, so I was more gentle than usual but I am happier with more sparse foliage. I do not mind the moss on the trunk but feel that it is perhaps too much, I expect the extra light will improve things.
The second trunk will remain and the tree will be repotted (tomorrow) in a more upright position allowing more light to the second trunk.

Wired and repotted

Great work Gerard, looks alot better now,

gday gerard

its looking much much better, I still think you could thin out the foliage more to even it out, doing this will also help if you leaf the foliage alone on the smaller trunk, this will help thicken it, you could possibly try getting a whip and grafting it in low on the second trunk as a sacrifice and then you could use that for an optional jin/deadwood if it would work, other wise once it has thickened the second trunk you could completely remove it, grafting in a sacrifice will also help draw energy to that trunk too.

nice

Looks much better. pretty much what i had in mind. The only thing i see is the branch lenght changes alot half way up the main tree, i think wth some growth you could get a better image by shortening the branches below this point so the outline is more smooth. Hope you understand what i mean.

Its a great peice of stock and i bet it was lots of fun to play with!