october
Masterpiece
Hello all. I thought some might find the story of this juniper interesting. This is a juniper from the "parade of junipers" thread I posted a few days ago.
This is a san jose juniper that I purchased about 6 years ago. Initially, it was to be an informal upright. However, It was not ever going to be a good one. Pic 1 is the tree after some minor work was done. My wiring wasn't the greatest 6 years ago.
After awhile, I realized that it would never be a nice informal, so I decided to try something like a cascade. I can't remember, but I think it took me about a year to make this decision.
Pic 2 shows the tree after being chopped in half and some basic carving. Still not happy with this design though.
Pic 3 is the whole tree chopped except for one branch. A pretty drastic reduction, However, this was in the course of a few seasons.
Pic 4 is the tree after being turned completely on it's side, half of it's root ball chopped and it put into it's first bonsai pot. At this point the tree is almost actually at a greater angle than on it's side. Any more and it would be getting into being upside down. Notice the jin that was facing right is now facing completely downward.
pic 5 shows the tree after a little over a year. It it amazing how much it grew. From the one small pad, it how had a strong apex branch and actually a main cascading trunk branch with ramification. Also, a new front was chosen. The former back, is now the front.
Pic 6 shows the tree the next season. It has contiuned to get ever stronger. Also, the exposed, dead root system needs to be cleaned up.
Pic 7 shows the tree cleaned up and wired. At this point, I finally felt like I was accomplishing something with this tree.
Pic 8 is the tree after being put into a rock pot. It was put into this pot to minimize the stump at the base. Also, temporary moss was added to further hide it.
Pic 9 is the trees current design.
Recently, I have had to limit my working on this tree due to a couple of bad scale infestations in the last couple of seasons. I also had to do an emergency repot because the soil was not draining well. The tree is recovering, but it is slow. I do hope to be able to do some more styling on this tree in the future.
Thanks for viewing
Rob
This is a san jose juniper that I purchased about 6 years ago. Initially, it was to be an informal upright. However, It was not ever going to be a good one. Pic 1 is the tree after some minor work was done. My wiring wasn't the greatest 6 years ago.
After awhile, I realized that it would never be a nice informal, so I decided to try something like a cascade. I can't remember, but I think it took me about a year to make this decision.
Pic 2 shows the tree after being chopped in half and some basic carving. Still not happy with this design though.
Pic 3 is the whole tree chopped except for one branch. A pretty drastic reduction, However, this was in the course of a few seasons.
Pic 4 is the tree after being turned completely on it's side, half of it's root ball chopped and it put into it's first bonsai pot. At this point the tree is almost actually at a greater angle than on it's side. Any more and it would be getting into being upside down. Notice the jin that was facing right is now facing completely downward.
pic 5 shows the tree after a little over a year. It it amazing how much it grew. From the one small pad, it how had a strong apex branch and actually a main cascading trunk branch with ramification. Also, a new front was chosen. The former back, is now the front.
Pic 6 shows the tree the next season. It has contiuned to get ever stronger. Also, the exposed, dead root system needs to be cleaned up.
Pic 7 shows the tree cleaned up and wired. At this point, I finally felt like I was accomplishing something with this tree.
Pic 8 is the tree after being put into a rock pot. It was put into this pot to minimize the stump at the base. Also, temporary moss was added to further hide it.
Pic 9 is the trees current design.
Recently, I have had to limit my working on this tree due to a couple of bad scale infestations in the last couple of seasons. I also had to do an emergency repot because the soil was not draining well. The tree is recovering, but it is slow. I do hope to be able to do some more styling on this tree in the future.
Thanks for viewing
Rob
