Thought Process of a Beginner

zenwarrior

So I picked up this Juniper Parsonii at a local nursery for a few bucks. Saw some potential. After hacking away the ugly stuff this is what I got. At first I thought "this will make a great cascade". Of course this is the way I'd go because of that long branch out to the side, so I wired it down. Then I realized this seemed too easy and two dimensional, and after reading the comments said by many that newbies usually go for cascade first when actually it is one of the hardest styles to achieve, I changed my mind. Ok, then I'll just bring the branch up and try a windswept. Again, this was very two dimensional and I realized I had to shorten that long branch. Which brings me to where I am now. I know that something can be done with this tree, but I need your experienced and unbiased eyes. Where do you think I should go with this one? Im thinking of chopping that long branch down closer to the trunk and obviously try to tighten up foiliage closer to the trunk. Ideas? Comments? Virtuals? Help!

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Sterling

Too bad you didn't post a before picture. I know that as a beginner I am prone to too much chopping and in the process I lose something that a more experienced bonsai artist would have chosen to work with. I have lost a couple plants that I thought were cool because I was over zealous with my initial pruning. What I have seen done on the forum is a clean up of unnecessary foliage, especially on a juniper until the branch structure is available. Then take a picture and maybe the people who are more experienced can give you a better idea of where to take the styling. It might be a good idea for a separate forum like ATM, except that it will be for beginners to post cleaned up stock for advanced perspectives. Moderators take note.

ChrisM

advice - leave it alone for a couple years to let it recover and grow more for you to work with again. i would put it in the ground or in an oversized pot, then just make sure it is taken care of, but no more work for now. not that i am the all knowing by any means, but i did the same thing when i was first starting out, looking back now i wish i had known the potential of some of the trees i slaughtered. that one does have a nice curve in the trunk to create a cascade with, but in time.

chris

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zenwarrior

Yeah, I agree. It all just happens so fast you know? You get a whole bunch of material and start chopping away without thinking of taking pictures first. I actually didnt have a camera at the time.







Very good advice I'm sure! The initial pruning of this one was done back in September. I combed out the roots and pruned them a bit, just the ones that hung way lower than the main root system. The roots actually only fill the top 1/3 of the pot, so there is some room to grow. I didnt really plan on doing any more to it now, but I guess I kind of like to make long term plans for my trees. Thanks for the replies.

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Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.

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kreashun

Here is what I had in mind. What do you think?

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zenwarrior

maybe something like this?

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__________________



Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.

-Morihei Ueshiba

triotary

it's kinda windy

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triotary

over the cliff

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Vance Wood

Here is the problem as I have seen it from my point of view and a number of years of experience. When purchasing nursery material there are two things to consider. One; did you purchase the tree because of a shape you thought you could see in the tree in the first place? If the answer is yes then you should have no need to ask anyone what to do with the tree, you should already be doing it. Two; did you buy the tree because you liked the material and thought some day you could make something of it? If the answer is yes then you should never think that you are going to be able to make a twenty-four-inch tall bonsai out of a twenty-four-inch tall nursery tree. If this was going to work the tree would have been in the first category.

The difference is between styling, which essentially is the first category, and development of raw material, which is the second category. If the tree falls into the second category, which I believe your tree belongs, you should then be learning about things like trunk chops where you basically reduce down the tree in order to obtain a good trunk to top mathematical relationship and regrow the rest of the tree to fit the size and nature of the trunk.

At this point with this tree all of the virtuals in the world, and many years in a bonsai pot will not give you a really good bonsai because the trunk is too small in relation to height of the tree. This cannot be drastically improved in a bonsai pot, at least not with a Juniper. So anything you style revolving around the nature of the tree you are now trying to style will never satisfy you five to ten years down the road. Junipers trunks do not thicken much once they are placed in a bonsai container.

One of my fundamental rules of bonsai is this: You do not grow a tree up into a bonsai. You must be willing and able to reduce larger tree down into a bonsai. The standard guideline for top to trunk ratios is from three to one up to six to one. These ratios will give you the visual impact of thickness of trunk to height of tree where the tree is three to six times taller than the width of the tree at the base diameter.

So----if you have a tree like the one you have displayed that you have to make into a believable bonsai, or you were given a tree like this and you are expected to make a believable bonsai out of it the first thing you should do is examine the width of the trunk at the base and figure how tall the tree should be with this trunk and proceed from there.

I hope you don't think I am being hard on you, I have given you the formula for developing raw material from nursery stock. At present you may not be able to see the future with the branching that is located at the positions you think you have to cut using the above guidelines. You should however endeavor to learn how to do this as soon as possible because it is in this process you will find most success.

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