4 Dollar Lowe's Juniper

ninja

Hi everyone,

I sort of just started with bonsai about a year ago. I am only 16 and I am to busy to get a serious job right now so I am on an extreme buget. Anyway I bought this juniper at lowes for only 4 dollars. This picture is after the pruning of all the usless branches.

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ninja

this is after I TRIED to wire the tree

All criticism is welcome as well as virtuals. And yes I know the tree is lop sided and there are many branches that still need pruning and wiring. But I figured once the branch was cut there is no bringing it back so I'll just wait for your replies before going on any farther. I was also thinking about turning the bottom right branch(#1) into some dead jin (I believe thats what it is called) and letting branch #2 grow to sort of balance the tree some more.

Thanks in advance for all advice

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Chameleon

i'm very new to bonsai as well but looking at it i think that tree will be a very nice Informal Upright

dbz12fan

This is a good start, much better than what any of my first trees looked like. Don't be too discouraged if the tree dies though, that happens to a lot of starting bonsaiists which usually ends their curiosity about bonsai. Also, junipers like to live outside. It will most likely die if it is inside.

Just to let you know, I am 14 years old and have been in bonsai for 3 years. I reccomend joining a local bonsai club. They will get you headed in the right direction. Just do a search online to find out where the closest club to you is.

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Chameleon

again sorry TreeBay

ninja

heres an update after some more styling

I'm still thinking about turning the lowest, right branch into jin but I can't decide which branch to remove on the left ( 2nd or 3rd lowest branch). I think the best bet would be to remove the 3rd branch from the bottom and then let the 2nd branch from the bottom just get thicker.

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FredL

Ninja, you're off to a good start, but if I might make a couple of suggestions, they'd be as follows:

First, when you wire the trunk, think in 3 dimmensions rather than two. The mental model is a spiral rather than S curves.

Second, wire the branches as well as the trunk. The branches on a tree like this are generally wired downward and flattened out like a fan.

I think being on a budget is, in a way, fun. I do not buy expensive material, either, and I'm very plesed with how my stock has progressed the last two years. In this hobby, time may be substituted for money, at least in respect to the trees. Perhaps this is true even of the pots, but I have not tried making pots, myself.

Good luck, Fred

mkonig

Hi ninja

Just my opinion.
There is very little taper in this tree above the first branch on the right and i would advise you to have a look at a post from bonsaial on this forum titled "han kengai the hard way".
It deals with the issues of reducing a tree and developing a good trunk.
I would cut everyting above the fist branch on the right and start from there. I know it may be hard to understand for a beginner, but if you look at and read the replies of the above mentioned post, you will see that less is sometimes more.

Whatever you do, dont rush, think and most of all learn from any mistakes you make.

Enjoy!!


Mike

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