Major juniper project

bonsaial1

The tree that will be the subject of this thread was purchased in Cambria at a craft fair in the early 90's. I pruned and pinched it and it did improve. The tree on the left is as purchased. The tree on the right is one year later.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

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bonsaial1

The tree sat on my benches and became neglected. I moved on with other projects and let the tree get out of style. The back of the tree did not receive any sunlight and lost alot of foilage. The inner branching lost its foilage as well. This is testiment to rotating your trees to get sunlight on all sides. The tree at this point is about 24 inches tall.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

bonsaial1

In 1999 I decided to try to salvage what I could out of this tree. I pruned most all the branches off. I though I may be able to start over with new branches. When I started to prune I was able to find a bunjin style tree in what was left. I wired the tree to what I thought was a pleasing shape. I ended up cutting the high branch that comes out of the top of the tree to the right. I lost the jin on the middle right trunk, and eventually got rid of the jin on the bottom right. Also the jin on the top left was removed also. The tree has responded well to pinching and looks fairley respectable. I showed that tree in the Fresno Fair and received best of show in 2000.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

bonsaial1

Jump to Jan, 1 2002. The tree grew a branch way low on the trunk in spring of 2001. It is on the right side of the trunk growing on the inside of the curve. It is a fairly large branch now, about 3/8 inch in diam. The trunk is about 1 1/2 inches in diam. The branch is about 10 inches long and about 10 inches wide due to the fact that there are 5 seperate branches all growing on the same plane. I decided to chop the tree down into a shohin size tree about in July of 2001. I have been pinching the branch in preperation of this chop. The long trung will be severed at 9 inches from the top of the soil. The tree is now 18 inches tall. The trunk has a good basil flare and roots radiate from all sides. I have drawn a sketch of what i envision the tree to look like by fall of this year.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

bonsaial1

This is a cross section of the trunk at the place that the branch extends from. It is one branch, but is growing into 5 seperate branchlets. I have indicated where each branch will be placed in the final design. The only thing I would like to do differant is not have to pass the right branch in front of the trunk. If I were more patient, and handy at grafting, I would graft a branch on the left side of the trunk. This would mean that I would lose two years in the design due to having to keep the bunjin style a year longer so that the sap would flow up the trunk. If I were to graft and chop, I'm afraid that the sap would not rise any higher than the branch on the right.

The whole left side of the new tree will shari'd and the top will jinned and carved into a double fork to add taper to the top of the dead snag. That back branch will be bent up to form the new apex and will need some time to acheive the right balance.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

bonsaial1

I did this virtual from one of the foto's that I had. this is the actual trunk of the tree and the correct line that it follows. This form is real and should be a simple thing to acheive provided that it does not die when I chop it. I have not decided on a pot yet since this tree has not been repotted in 2 years, and I don't know how big the root ball is. Some of you virt. guys out there, Walter, or Matt, or Wolfgang, please put this in a pot if you please. I would appreciate any feedback or potting suggestions. This has been a rewarding project and has been serendipitious in retrospect, as I didn't have this design in mind 2 years ago. Try the drawing thing it can be a real eye opener.

__________________
I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!

Rene_Voortwist

Hi Bonsaial,

I'm not Walter, Matt or Wolfgang but I took the liberty of potting it for you anyway. Hope you like The pots are all Tokoname.

nr 1 :

Rene_Voortwist

nr 2 :

Rene_Voortwist

nr 3 :