Help needed with rescue

[DougB]

I rescued this from a local nursery that was discontinuing shrubs. I am not sure which Juni it is. It is healthy and I have cleaned it up, BUT am not sure where to go from here. The straight section of the branch is most troubling and it is 7" long and about 3/4" diam.

So I need your suggestions which are always appreciated.

 

[Poink88]

Sorry, can't help you with this one (looks like a very challenging piece) but if I may offer an advise. Next time, before you buy a tree, only do so if you see a vision of the goal/finished bonsai. It may be a slow process but it will help you avoid headache's later (like this one).

I'd be honest, I've fallen on the same "trap" several times before.

Good luck!

 

[Dav4]

Except for that small branch, you have no foliage near the base of the trunk, which is where your future tree is. My suggestion would be to either learn to graft (might not be worth doing with this material) or use that small branch as your future canopy. Let it grow while reducing the long branch aggressively and eventually removing it entirely. I'd go ahead and remove at least half of it now.

 

[DougB]

Except for that small branch, you have no foliage near the base of the trunk, which is where your future tree is. My suggestion would be to either learn to graft (might not be worth doing with this material) or use that small branch as your future canopy. Let it grow while reducing the long branch aggressively and eventually removing it entirely. I'd go ahead and remove at least half of it now.

thanks Dave. I thought about doing that. But also thought about bending everything down into a cascade.

Will be interested in other suggestions. OR I could just slip it into the club Christmas auction.

 

[DougB]

Sorry, can't help you with this one (looks like a very challenging piece) but if I may offer an advise. Next time, before you buy a tree, only do so if you see a vision of the goal/finished bonsai. It may be a slow process but it will help you avoid headache's later (like this one).)

Thanks for your comment. I enjoy a real challenge, especially for literally only a couple of bucks. May end up in the flower bed. But then again?

 

[berobinson82]

How comfortable are you with applying raffia and bending the sweet bajeesus out of this thing? If you can bend it back on itself a few times you might actually have something worth working on.

Big bends, baby. Big bends.

 

[Vance Wood]

How comfortable are you with applying raffia and bending the sweet bajeesus out of this thing? If you can bend it back on itself a few times you might actually have something worth working on.

Big bends, baby. Big bends.

Outside of putting the thing in the ground and hoping for the best this is your best option. There is no way of making an instant bonsai out of this tree as it is.

 

[Cypress]

I second Dave's suggestion for the tree... Plus if you do attempt some ambitious bends and something *snaps*, it can always be your backup plan heh.

 

[october]

Here is some feedback first, then my suggestion. Obviously, the tree is not pleasing from a bonsai stand point. It has many very troublesome aspects. Even with grafting and big bends, you will end up with a mediocre tree at best. In my opinion, it is not worth either the time or the labor for those 2 options. With that being said, this tree does have a chance to be a relatively nice shohin if you are willing to gamble. I would chop it where I indicated in red. Then let the tree rest and grow untouched for a few years. At that point, you will have something relatively nice to work with and develop as the years go on. I realize that the health of the tree comes first. However, our time, labor and efforts are also important. In this instance, why spends years doing all kinds of work on something that will most likely turn out to still become a poor bonsai.

Rob

 

[Vance Wood]

Here is some feedback first, then my suggestion. Obviously, the tree is not pleasing from a bonsai stand point. It has many very troublesome aspects. Even with grafting and big bends, you will end up with a mediocre tree at best. In my opinion, it is not worth either the time or the labor for those 2 options. With that being said, this tree does have a chance to be a relatively nice shohin if you are willing to gamble. I would chop it where I indicated in red. Then let the tree rest and grow untouched for a few years. At that point, you will have something relatively nice to work with and develop as the years go on. I realize that the health of the tree comes first. However, our time, labor and efforts are also important. In this instance, why spends years doing all kinds of work on something that will most likely turn out to still become a poor bonsai.

Rob

View attachment 44556

I agree with the concept of this major reduction----and gamble. Every time you perform a reduction of this magnitude it is not without riski. I know the temptation is there to abandon the tree, but experience in this could provide as valuable a lesson as a better tree. What you could learn here is the power of reduction. That is the practice of choping down larger material into a potential smaller form with more bonsai potential.

 

[Dav4]

I agree with the concept of this major reduction----and gamble. Every time you perform a reduction of this magnitude it is not without riski. I know the temptation is there to abandon the tree, but experience in this could provide as valuable a lesson as a better tree. What you could learn here is the power of reduction. That is the practice of choping down larger material into a potential smaller form with more bonsai potential.

Except for that small branch, you have no foliage near the base of the trunk, which is where your future tree is. My suggestion would be to either learn to graft (might not be worth doing with this material) or use that small branch as your future canopy. Let it grow while reducing the long branch aggressively and eventually removing it entirely. I'd go ahead and remove at least half of it now.

As I said in my first post, why not reduce over several chops, while letting the little branch develop? Whether the tree will amount to anything is still up in the air, but certainly less risky...

 

[october]

As I said in my first post, why not reduce over several chops, while letting the little branch develop? Whether the tree will amount to anything is still up in the air, but certainly less risky...

I missed Dave's original comment. Yes, this could be performed doing it in a couple of stages instead of all at once. This would reduce the risk. However, the tree might want to put a lot of growth into the remaining larger section. Leaving that one branch, the one you want to develop, weak. Junipers have a habit of letting their bottom branch die for "seemingly" no reason. However, there is always a reason.

No matter what route you take, I think a major reduction is necessary for this to become a nice bonsai.

Rob

 

[iant]

You could keep the overarching branch as jin and build the rest of the tree up to meet it and have it go in front of it in places that you don't like (the straight section) or behind it in other areas. It'd be even better if you could get at least 1 bend in the straight section first.
Long term project...
Ian

 

[DougB]

Sorry for the delay. Am in my mid 70s and the best plans are only dreams. BUT thanks to all for your inputs. I will rely on them as I live with this challenge and then work on it in the spring.

Berobinson82: "Big bends, baby. Big bends" Yes, been there done that. I actually have been contemplating a wild Bunjin or Bunjin cascade. Lots of possibilities here.

Vance: Thanks for the 2nd. And your right there is truly seldom an instant (real) bonsai. Major Reduction: I agree even at my age I still am ready for valuable lessons from which to benefit.

Cypress: Thanks for the 3ed. Yup that little sprig at the bottom must be a backup plan.

October: Agree. But this $7 tree I appreciate as a challenge. And your Chop may just end up being the final answer.


Dav4: Would be less risky to use successive chops, but how much energy would go to the little branch would be a question to consider as October has commented.

iant: I had not really considered the big jin option. Thanks have to think about that.

Thanks again to all. Will update in the spring after I meditate with my challenge tree during the winter.

 

[bonsaibp]

Kind of surprised no one mentioned a raft. It looks like procumbins which will root very easily along the trunk. Then it has a number of possibilities. It would probably take 2 years to develop enough roots along the trunk to cut off the original rootball and maybe even cut it up into several groupings.

 

[Vance Wood]

Kind of surprised no one mentioned a raft. It looks like procumbins which will root very easily along the trunk. Then it has a number of possibilities. It would probably take 2 years to develop enough roots along the trunk to cut off the original rootball and maybe even cut it up into several groupings.

That's probably because the style falls into one of those categories where it is convent to talk about and suggest as an option but seldom done-----if ever. I have yet to see a good one posted by any member of this forum. They are really neat from the pictures I have seen of them, mostly in books from Japan but I have never seen one grown that is worth spit on this side of the pond.