Future show stopper-a journey begins

Giga

Giga

Masterpiece
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Location
Virginia beach, VA
USDA Zone
7-8
I have always admired those large junipers with twisty dead wood. Well I finally going to start my own journey with one. I'm unsure what species it is so I could use some help on the ID


The whole massive canopy- I only removed like 5% of the foliage and tried to keep as much as I could. If anyone thinks I should remove more let me know as this is my first large juniper.


This is the part that's gonna be fun-look at all that dead wood. These branches where already dead all I did was cut them shorter so that I could fit it in my little hybrid(beep beep)

little closer


Here's a good shot of the front up to the foliage


some live vein side shots



Other side


It's in a grow box right now with a large particle pumice and lava on the bottom and sides, then normal bonsai soil on top. It gets misted 3 times a day and I'll protect it in the summer with a shade cloth to help with recovery. It's nice now I get to dwell and ponder styling opting but man this is a beast of a tree. I have some large tree's but this is the biggest in terms of weight. I wish I knew more bonsai people in my area as I'm gonna need help styling this guy in term of how much wire i'll need and some bending. Next year(or maybe later this year) I'll work the dead wood then the following it'll get styled. Advice and comments welcome!
 
Maybe it's time to get on speaking terms with your neighbors; or schedule an event at your home and invite some of the club members over to give you a hand offering lunch and beer. If you don't belong to a club maybe it's time you did. There are quite a few clubs in your area.
 
Yeah I've been thinking of joining one,I meant to go to there last meet but scheduling of things made me miss it. I know my neighbours well enough but not sure I'd trust them to know how to care for the trees. Ima make a point to go to the next meeting, I hope.
 
Most likely a J chinensis variety. As far as pruning, it's got plenty of foliage, so you could go ahead and remove some of the branching that will never be used in the final design. If this was collected this year, I would wait until next year to work the deadwood unless you got a great root ball that's tightly wired in to the box. Nice trunk with lots of carving in it's future...definitely worth taking your time with this one.
 
The juniper looks beautiful to me. I don't have much experience with this, but would let it rest a year or two; grow super strong. I like all the action going on at the lower portion and at the top. It has lots of interesting curves. If this juniper were mine, I'd like for it to grow upwards with another interesting twist or two before descending back down closer to the second twist in a manner that complements the sinuous trunk, jins and shari. Then let the foliage grow there.
 
Dav4 said:
Most likely a J chinensis variety. As far as pruning, it's got plenty of foliage, so you could go ahead and remove some of the branching that will never be used in the final design. If this was collected this year, I would wait until next year to work the deadwood unless you got a great root ball that's tightly wired in to the box. Nice trunk with lots of carving in it's future...definitely worth taking your time with this one.
Click to expand...

I'm unsure of the style as of yet as I just collected it. I need to ponder and stare at it for a bit to make sure what I want to remove. There is one branch I know that is awkward but I'll remove maybe one more then keep the rest. The root ball is very nice and very compact. The tree is screwed into the side via some deadwood branches. But I can wait to be safe, so maybe just some loose bark removal.

thumblessprimate1 said:
The juniper looks beautiful to me. I don't have much experience with this, but would let it rest a year or two; grow super strong. I like all the action going on at the lower portion and at the top. It has lots of interesting curves. If this juniper were mine, I'd like for it to grow upwards with another interesting twist or two before descending back down closer to the second twist in a manner that complements the sinuous trunk, jins and shari. Then let the foliage grow there.
Click to expand...

I think I follow you and thanks! It has a lot of potential so I'll consider all angles.
 
Giga said:
I'm unsure of the style as of yet as I just collected it. I need to ponder and stare at it for a bit to make sure what I want to remove. There is one branch I know that is awkward but I'll remove maybe one more then keep the rest. The root ball is very nice and very compact. The tree is screwed into the side via some deadwood branches. But I can wait to be safe, so maybe just some loose bark removal.



I think I follow you and thanks! It has a lot of potential so I'll consider all angles.
Click to expand...
As you think about how to proceed, I would definitely consider how you will compact the tree. There is some great interest on the lower half but my guess is, to be truly satisfied with the final design, you will want to bring the apex down a foot or 2. That will take some time and heavy machinery (think jacks, possible cuts, etc.) This work should be done with a professional with advanced bending experience so keep your eye out for a "bring your own tree" workshop with someone who has experience with this sort of material. It's got great potential and I would love to own it myself but to reach that potential, it will likely need to be in the hands of someone who know how far they can push it's limits without taking it beyond the breaking point.

Best of luck...I'll be watching this tree in the future.
 
MidMichBonsai said:
As you think about how to proceed, I would definitely consider how you will compact the tree. There is some great interest on the lower half but my guess is, to be truly satisfied with the final design, you will want to bring the apex down a foot or 2. That will take some time and heavy machinery (think jacks, possible cuts, etc.) This work should be done with a professional with advanced bending experience so keep your eye out for a "bring your own tree" workshop with someone who has experience with this sort of material. It's got great potential and I would love to own it myself but to reach that potential, it will likely need to be in the hands of someone who know how far they can push it's limits without taking it beyond the breaking point.

Best of luck...I'll be watching this tree in the future.
Click to expand...

The good thing is I have some time as it needs to recover right now so in a year or two I'll keep a look out for bring your tree kind of thing. First thing I need to join a club lol. Though I'm pretty confident in my skillz-I'm no master but I have the jacks and have done some hard bends-this will be the most extreme but I feel if I go slow I can do it myself-may take along road but I'll get there if I can't find a prof.

thumblessprimate1 said:
What I had is mind is something like these two examples of fine Japanese literati from the Valavanis blog.
https://valavanisbonsaiblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/6-literati-finalists.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks! but this is a little bulky on the bottom I think to pull off literati but maybe-need to dwell
 
To me, the interest in this tree is all the jin down low. Much of the upper trunk lacks taper and is relatively uninteresting. I see a shorter tree, framing the deadwood interest and the swollen base. But you'll need to graft to pull it off....

Scott
 
markyscott said:
To me, the interest in this tree is all the jin down low. Much of the upper trunk lacks taper and is relatively uninteresting. I see a shorter tree, framing the deadwood interest and the swollen base. But you'll need to graft to pull it off....

Scott
Click to expand...

not necessarily, but maybe. Many options for this tree. Just playing around

 
Like markyscott, I imagined a shorter tree, but the other idea I had was what I presented. I figured it's be the less obvious choice and it'd use more of the tree.

Your virt is interesting, but I think there are some elements in it that disrupts harmony. I think it's the length and thickness of the jins in relation to the thickness of the trunk, the placement of the foliage, and spot where the trunk crosses itself. In some instances the trunk crossing itself would be okay, but not in this particular case in the virt.

Keep studying the tree for and draw more sketches. Again, I'm not experienced, but I imagine down low that the jins would be reduced in thickness, some in length and some removed entirely. Also, some jin may need to be added to the top so keep the branches you have.

This would be a good tree to have a pro look at if that opportunity becomes available to you in the future.
 
The foliage is rather coarse. You can make it tighter, but I see this tree as a good grafting candidate.

I recommend Kishu, grafted low.
 
I kind of like movement better if the tree were tilted slightly clockwise in image 5 from the first post. It would offset two of the bends in the trunk; they wouldn't be perfectly above and create dynamism to one side. I'd try to make a virt or sketch, but I have no tools for that now.
 
Adair M said:
The foliage is rather coarse. You can make it tighter, but I see this tree as a good grafting candidate.

I recommend Kishu, grafted low.
Click to expand...

This occurred to me too and I have a regular shimpaku but not a kishu. I'll have to order one to get my hand on one. The only thing is, even though this was mosty likely planted a long and not native I like keeping the original foliage. I do love kishu though so I may go that route. Just exploring all option since I got time.

thumblessprimate1 said:
Like markyscott, I imagined a shorter tree, but the other idea I had was what I presented. I figured it's be the less obvious choice and it'd use more of the tree. Also I don't think I'll have the option of a pro looking at the tree. But who knows

Your virt is interesting, but I think there are some elements in it that disrupts harmony. I think it's the length and thickness of the jins in relation to the thickness of the trunk, the placement of the foliage, and spot where the trunk crosses itself. In some instances the trunk crossing itself would be okay, but not in this particular case in the virt.

Keep studying the tree for and draw more sketches. Again, I'm not experienced, but I imagine down low that the jins would be reduced in thickness, some in length and some removed entirely. Also, some jin may need to be added to the top so keep the branches you have.

This would be a good tree to have a pro look at if that opportunity becomes available to you in the future.
Click to expand...

Virt away! and a lot of the jin's will be carved out and shorted or remove depending on the final design. I just didn't do that in the virt. It was done in like 5 mins and just messing around.
 
Last edited:
CWTurner said:
Nice material there Giga. That box is hilarious though.
Click to expand...

The box I built before hand was to short so the places where it stuck out above I just screwed in extra board and piled on the soil, it's fit the craziness of the tree lol
 
My quick sketch just to convey an idea. I'm sure it has faults.
DSC05083%20-%20Version%202.jpg
 
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