Juniper Blaauw- help styling request

[JoB]

Hi to all
I picked up this Juniper at my local garden centre (Blaauw) ( I live in Germany near Cologne). when I saw it I was quite excited .. but got it home and I am now a little overwhelmed regarding how I should start. I have seen so many posts on here where a newbie requests help after removing branches, foliage , and the advice is often 'would have been better not to remove so much / remove from this or that position.. so .... I thought I would ask for some help BEFORE doing anything
I am kind of expecting that the answers may be that I need to do some sort of clean up before anyone is actually able to give me much advise, but that would be better than finding out I had removed too much , the wrong parts.
I was thinking along the lines of informal upright direction .. but as I am pretty clueless , I am open to everything .
It is still in the pot from the garden centre ... seems to be quite happy / healthy, water seems to drain well when I water.
so here goes ..

I did a quick video.. which is also probably not that helpful, but thought it might help as it was really difficult to get any really clear pictures to show the actual shape

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Blaauw junipers are in my top 5 favorite junipers. The Japanese have the itoigawa and kishu, the blaauw beats them in foliage color (stays blueish green in winter) and by being physically 'in between' those two foliage types; fluffy but still airy enough to be attractive. And the blaauw cultivar is developed in Europe, so that's a big plus for me. It's not native; a variation of chinensis, but nonetheless it feels like it belongs here.

What I would do with this one? Well, I'd keep every branch!
Because you can wire them, twist them up, make real good bonsai starters out of them, and then air layer them off. I see at least 4 potential trees in this one. And if you lose one branch, that'll just ease your work in the future.

You have some good lower branches, so if you want to keep the base and turn it into a bonsai, first things first: look for the nebari and pick a good front of the tree. It will start speaking to you in design terms after you did that. Then you can start by tilting the pot, maybe changing the planting angle. The tree will tell you about it's intended design. From there on forward, you could start making decisions on branches.
Don't go too fast, you'll have a few years, maybe decades before you lose this structure. So take your time, maybe even make every decision twice before you take them into practice. That's the opposite of what I do, and I've ruined a few pieces of pretty good material by wanting to go too fast. Blaauws are slow growers overall, only the runners (younger branches) are the parts that go at regular juniper speed.

 

[JoB]

Blaauw junipers are in my top 5 favorite junipers. The Japanese have the itoigawa and kishu, the blaauw beats them in foliage color (stays blueish green in winter) and by being physically 'in between' those two foliage types; fluffy but still airy enough to be attractive. And the blaauw cultivar is developed in Europe, so that's a big plus for me. It's not native; a variation of chinensis, but nonetheless it feels like it belongs here.

What I would do with this one? Well, I'd keep every branch!
Because you can wire them, twist them up, make real good bonsai starters out of them, and then air layer them off. I see at least 4 potential trees in this one. And if you lose one branch, that'll just ease your work in the future.

You have some good lower branches, so if you want to keep the base and turn it into a bonsai, first things first: look for the nebari and pick a good front of the tree. It will start speaking to you in design terms after you did that. Then you can start by tilting the pot, maybe changing the planting angle. The tree will tell you about it's intended design. From there on forward, you could start making decisions on branches.
Don't go too fast, you'll have a few years, maybe decades before you lose this structure. So take your time, maybe even make every decision twice before you take them into practice. That's the opposite of what I do, and I've ruined a few pieces of pretty good material by wanting to go too fast. Blaauws are slow growers overall, only the runners (younger branches) are the parts that go at regular juniper speed.

Thanks for the reply, interesting, i was also considering using this guy to practice some airlayering....
Would you repot now? Or if i am going to play around with some styling should i leave it as it is until next spring?
There was another similar one at the garden centre, i am thinking about going back on saturday and see if it still there ?, loving the bark on this one

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

What garden center are you talking about? I might snatch it before you do ;-)
Just kidding, my girlfriend has forbidden me to get any more conifers. But then again, she didn't count them so I might be able to sneak in a few more.

I have repotted junipers in spring, but since we're almost in the same type of climate, I would wait a little longer until you see that the frosts are gone (we had -2C last night). The blaauws over here are starting to grow since this week. That's usually repotting time.
I think most experienced people recommend the end of spring, when growth starts. I personally have repotted junipers throughout spring, sometimes even late winter, and this has worked every time. The closer I get to summer, the more I lose.

Repotting might be 'going too fast', especially with a good piece of material like you have. Of course, without a chosen front or general design direction, it's hard to find out what side will be placed on what side of the pot. Junipers can grow pretty OK in soils like these for years. So there's no need for hurrying. So I would personally do the first things first: finding the nebari by digging the top soil, and finding a good front. If you're going to air layer, you might want to keep it in this pot for now. It needs that energy, that otherwise would be spent on restoration.

 

[JoB]

What garden center are you talking about? I might snatch it before you do ;-)
Just kidding, my girlfriend has forbidden me to get any more conifers. But then again, she didn't count them so I might be able to sneak in a few more.

I have repotted junipers in spring, but since we're almost in the same type of climate, I would wait a little longer until you see that the frosts are gone (we had -2C last night). The blaauws over here are starting to grow since this week. That's usually repotting time.
I think most experienced people recommend the end of spring, when growth starts. I personally have repotted junipers throughout spring, sometimes even late winter, and this has worked every time. The closer I get to summer, the more I lose.

Repotting might be 'going too fast', especially with a good piece of material like you have. Of course, without a chosen front or general design direction, it's hard to find out what side will be placed on what side of the pot. Junipers can grow pretty OK in soils like these for years. So there's no need for hurrying. So I would personally do the first things first: finding the nebari by digging the top soil, and finding a good front. If you're going to air layer, you might want to keep it in this pot for now. It needs that energy, that otherwise would be spent on restoration.

Unfortunately the garden centre is in our village.... Far too easy to just "Pop in for a look " ?
I think your right with the repotting, he seems quite happy and then i could play with styling/wiring without worrying. I will have a delve around the nebari on saturday to see what it looks like