bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - Junipers

Caveat: My opinion and is meant to be taken as opinion and not what may be mainstream thinking.

Most junipers styled as bonsai never really look like a tree. They tend to represent the way a tree might grow, but are usually so stylized or artistically rendered that they lose a lot of tree like feel.

Junipers are not trees, they are shrubs trained to represent trees. Diciduous trees if left to their own accord in a pot will continue to grow upwards and develop branches and look like a tree with no help from man. Maybe not a beautifully styled bonsai but a tree never the less.

A masterpiece juniper bonsai if left to its own accord for 5 years will turn into a heavily overgrown bush/shrub and lose all the attributes that made it a masterpiece bonsai.

There you have it, Al

26-Apr-2008	#2
bonsaial1 Greybeard Join Date: Aug-2001 Location: Fresno, CA Country: USA USDA Zone: 9 AHS Heat Zone: 13SH Posts: 5,252	Caveat: My opinion and is meant to be taken as opinion and not what may be mainstream thinking. Most junipers styled as bonsai never really look like a tree. They tend to represent the way a tree might grow, but are usually so stylized or artistically rendered that they lose a lot of tree like feel. Junipers are not trees, they are shrubs trained to represent trees. Diciduous trees if left to their own accord in a pot will continue to grow upwards and develop branches and look like a tree with no help from man. Maybe not a beautifully styled bonsai but a tree never the less. A masterpiece juniper bonsai if left to its own accord for 5 years will turn into a heavily overgrown bush/shrub and lose all the attributes that made it a masterpiece bonsai. There you have it, Al __________________ Real men don't wear coats with "happi" in the title.