Tree of the Day: Monday March 21

TreeBay

Today's tree is a juniper. You can use the pencil tool beneath the attachment to make notes

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John Dixon

Great looking tree. I think the main concern with this bonsai is to tighten up the foliage. A little cleaning out, and pinching back would greatly increase the impact of the silhouette. In my virtual I have highlighted in red a jin I would consider removing. It seems in conflict with a live apex. I lowered one branch on the right.The pot is great, really the best literati style pot, in my opinion. Pot placement is correct, and I think an overall wonderful specimen. Just tightening up the foliage and some small tweaks, and this would be show-worthy. Maybe a little more channel in the sharied trunk is a consideration.

Thumbs up!!!

John

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John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

pootsie

This time I agree with John.

What are the tree's strengths?

Great form in the trunk, great shari and coherence in the overall composition. The shape of the trunk has a lot of interest without feelin contrived, and the judicious us of shari helps with that feeling. The apex slightly left of the root-base gives it dynamism, but is still visually balanced with teh major curve of the trunk.

What are its weaknesses?
How could the tree be improved?

I agree with John that there is some confusion up top between the jin and the apex. Of course, in 2-D it's hard to tell what's going on.

John suggest removing the upward-pointing jin, but you could also think of a fix by moving the apex a smidge farther to the left, still keeping the general balance of the whole.

Also, the small, lowest jin is crossing the strongest jin and comes out of the inside of a curve. I'd take the little one off.

Finally, a little more maturation of the foliage pads with a little trim.

Does the tree have a message you could define in words?

This tree gives me a peacedful calm and balanced feeling. The deadwood suggests some challenges in life, but not a hanging-by-a-thread struggle.

How would you arrange the tree with other elements to create an interesting two or three-point display?

I think it might be interesting to display this tree with a light-colored cliff-stone in the rear center, and a small clump of spindly desert-type grasses on the left, slightly forward.

FWIW,
pootsie

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Lee

Good little tree,i would make the shari go higher up the trunk,i would probably just make it a illusion(and not risk cutting off the live veis).The top needs much more growing on to be come a true apex,timeline?3 years-ish.Showing? Possibly with a stone,certainly not a sedate parkland image.Tree of the day is possibly the best part of a forum i've fond on the internet,cheers to whoever had the idea,the internet being educational!!!

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andrew lenden

This is the first time i,ve posted here. i agree with most points already raised, however on my screen its difficult to decipher the apex. i love the movement of the trunk but have made a touch more upright. also i have brought down the first left and first right branch to follow the lead of the jins a bit more. great tree though!

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susieq

I LOVE this tree!!! Literati gets very little respect and is a really hard style to pull off. It is my favorite style but in 30 years I have only had one nice one. I wish it were mine....... I have never been comfortable picking apart someone else's work but if the tree were mine I would like to see more definition in the upper branches and that top jin bothers me abit. It is what my old teacher would call an "eye poker". Other than that it is a terrific tree imho.
susieq

Lesley

I like this tree! It's evokes a mood of solitary fragileness. I can see this delicate tree on cliff, alone in it's solitude, strong in it's resolve to survive! Even though there is a delicate nature in this tree;there is also evidence of adversity in the shari and jin which by the way does not over powered it. It has feminine curves and is potted in the appropriate round pot for a literati and a feminine tree. The negative space on the right of the trunk works well with the jin . Everything about this tree works for me and I wouldn't change a thing (Time & Ramification)! =('):

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cbobgo

I think this tree is way too top heavy for a bunjin. I have removed alot of foliage and brought the main foliage pad down from the next branch up, instead of the current first branch, which comes out too low IMO. Maybe I took off a little too much, now that I look at it again - but it will grow!

- bob

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