juniperus styling options?

[WNC Bonsai]

Before you chop everything off consider what can be made into jin. I made the mistake on one of mine of removing the excess branches and now wish they were deadwood.

 

[HENDO]

Not trying to hijack this thread but wanted to show what's possible when you thin, cut back, and wire EVERY bendable branch! This is my old shimpaku which OP's tree reminded me of.

These pictures were all taken within a year of eachother. Yes there are some spaghetti branches hidden in the last picture but they at least resulted in something decent to look at while waiting for backbudding to occur.

The shari were created very slowly over time and I agree with the posts here that shari work can mostly wait, no rush there.

 

[Potawatomi13]

my idea was to take this as - an impossible to reach - ideal

View attachment 521623

Observe please trees present root base. Totally unsuited for this style. After recent work remove big upper branch going to back of tree. Reign in low Rt branch to be more compact branch to rear of tree. Basically have kept 3 main branch as would I have done. Only big one mentioned still needs to go.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

After first cleanup. Wired one down just to check if it would be useful
View attachment 522056

A nice juniper for sure! Could tilt over to the right from this view, remove leggy branches, and wire down branches from the (currently top left portion of tree) apex.

 

[Linn01]

For now I intend to wire branches the coming days and wait until next year to remove more branches, to avoid weakening the tree too much. Gives me ample time to study the tree and to find out what it wants me to do . I, being new to juniperus, sincerely thank you all for the advice. Keep it coming please.

 

[Linn01]

Update. Work in progress. Suggestions are welcome.

 

[Nybonsai12]

I think it looks good, nice first styling.

 

[HENDO]

Update. Work in progress. Suggestions are welcome.
View attachment 527472

Great job getting some more branches wired. Nice to get some branch movement established. I typically go pretty aggressive when leggy branches are present, tight up/down and side/side bends - especially with a curvy trunk like this.

If this were my plant I would also be cutting back some of the longer primary branches to the first/second healthy secondary branch, start tightening the profile. Encourage back budding. This of course depends on the health of the tree which is difficult to gauge from pictures.

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this one. Thanks for sharing.

 

[HENDO]

Sorry one more comment from me.

From this picture it looks like the tree is leaning away from the viewer, if this is your intended front. It would be nice to see the tree leaned forward slightly, and perhaps some other front options.