My first bonsai

[bonsaiBlake]

So im completely new to bonsai but not to gardening. Upon becoming interested i did a ton of research and ordered a bunch of seeds,(lemon, weeping cheery, pondersa pine, and some chinese juniper) many of wich are currently in my fridge being stratified right now. Luckily i have a wonderful girlfriend who bought me this 4 year old juniper for me. Im thinking of doing a windswept with it. I havent began shaping or training. i want to give it a few months to get used to the new environment, especially since it came from a roadside mobile vendor. Any advice much much appreciated

 

[bonsaiBlake]

i will be posting more pictures tomorrow.

 

[edprocoat]

Thats actually looks like a Chinese Elm. It could even be a Fukien Tea though the foliage is hard to see in your pic, but its not a Juniper. Chinese Elms are nice trees to work with, very resilient too. Fukien Teas are another story. That tree will be a hard one to get in a cascade style, I am sure it could be done with many years of work.


Edit, lol I just seen windswept, dont know how I came up withe cascade. Windswept is probably one of the hardest styles to pull off convincingly, takes patience and wiring skills to get all the branches and leaves looking as if they are being blown by the wind.

BTW let me welcome you to Bonsai-Nut ! People will ask you to fill out your profile so it shows the state you live in to better offer you advice on your growing area conditions.
ed

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Thats actually looks like a Chinese Elm. It could even be a Fukien Tea though the foliage is hard to see in your pic, but its not a Juniper. Chinese Elms are nice trees to work with, very resilient too. Fukien Teas are another story. That tree will be a hard one to get in a cascade style, I am sure it could be done with many years of work.


Edit, lol I just seen windswept, dont know how I came up withe cascade. Windswept is probably one of the hardest styles to pull off convincingly, takes patience and wiring skills to get all the branches and leaves looking as if they are being blown by the wind.

BTW let me welcome you to Bonsai-Nut ! People will ask you to fill out your profile so it shows the state you live in to better offer you advice on your growing area conditions.
ed

after looking at pictures of the elm and tea trees it's definately neither of them. it is some sort of everygreen ill have more better pictures tomorrow. thanks for the suggestions

 

[Evilman626]

Thats actually looks like a Chinese Elm. It could even be a Fukien Tea though the foliage is hard to see in your pic, but its not a Juniper. Chinese Elms are nice trees to work with, very resilient too. Fukien Teas are another story. That tree will be a hard one to get in a cascade style, I am sure it could be done with many years of work.


Edit, lol I just seen windswept, dont know how I came up withe cascade. Windswept is probably one of the hardest styles to pull off convincingly, takes patience and wiring skills to get all the branches and leaves looking as if they are being blown by the wind.

BTW let me welcome you to Bonsai-Nut ! People will ask you to fill out your profile so it shows the state you live in to better offer you advice on your growing area conditions.
ed

Try to zoom in a bit ed, definitely no leaves. Cant make out for sure if its juniper though.

 

[M. Frary]

Can't tell for sure but it looks like San Jose juniper to me. What's going on with the trunk? Is that moss of some kind or is that just the bark?
Welcome to Bonsai Nut and bonsai! When you get a better picture up we'll be able to tell you what kind of tree you have for sure.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Can't tell for sure but it looks like San Jose juniper to me. What's going on with the trunk? Is that moss of some kind or is that just the bark?
Welcome to Bonsai Nut and bonsai! When you get a better picture up we'll be able to tell you what kind of tree you have for sure.

It is moss on the trunk. it came that way
Ill have some higher quality pictures up tomorrow

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Just wanted to thank everyone for helping me with this. I really dont want to kill this tree. from my understanding bonsai can be very delicate. Ill get some really good close up of my tree. I also havested a small sage bush locally to attempt to bonsai, ill post some pics of that as well.

 

[edprocoat]

Try to zoom in a bit ed, definitely no leaves. Cant make out for sure if its juniper though.

I had no idea I could click on the pic and it would zoom in. It looks like some kind of Juniper .

ed

 

[bonsaiBlake]

I had no idea I could click on the pic and it would zoom in. It looks like some kind of Juniper .

ed

awesome thats what i was hoping. Thats what the guy my girlfriend bought it from said it was. He seemed to be an experienced grower.

As far as caring for the tree. I take it out into direct sun early in the day for a few hours, then set it behind a northern facing wall(no real shade in my yard) with a tray of gravel and water during the heat of the day and at night. does this sound right, and how long should i wait before i begin trimming, training, and wiring?

 

[edprocoat]

Junipers are full sun plants. They like to dry out between waterings. The idea is to wet the roots and then allow air to enter the soil as the water dries, it keeps them from getting root rot. The soil should never stay wet. As far as trimming and wiring goes it would depend on how long its been since it was planted in the pot. If recently planted it will need time to recover. Junipers take a rest when the weather gets hot and that would be a great time to work on it as its semi-dormant, this is usually during the hottest part of the summer late July- August.

ed

 

[bonsaiBlake]

really good to know. I live in eastern washington, nothing but big sage and russian olive out here, its pretty dry out here, understandable with 300+ days of sun per year. Im worried if i leave it in full sun all day it will burn up. Is there a risk of this happening?

 

[lordy]

welcome to Bnut!
Think of the landscaping in shopping centers. At least around here on the east coast, it's ground hugging junipers. They get the crap cooked out of them all summer, and still end up looking pretty decent.
I'd recommend full sun. I'd also recommend using a soft toothbrush and water to clean off the trunk. That moss makes me think that tree has been living OUT of the sun. Kind of odd.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Thanks for everyones advice. Lordy, i like your suggestion of removing the moss, my guess is this tree came from the west side of washington which is very wet and rainy, so even in full sun the moss would have survived. It was probably added for aesthetics to make people want to buy it. Ive added some new photos so you guys can really get a good idea of what im working with. tips on fertilizer when what kind and dilution would be very helpful as well. thanks again everyone

 

[Vin]

My Sea Green had the same kind of moss on it but sure looks a lot better when removed.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

i removed all the moss i could by hand, with how hot it is out here the rest should die off pretty quick. It looks much better, more like a real tree and not a decoration of some sort.

 

[KennedyMarx]

Are the rocks on top of the soil glued on? It's hard to tell from the pictures. Lots of mass produced bonsai are shipped with rocks glued on top of the actual soil. Or is that the actual substrate the tree is planted in?

 

[bonsaiBlake]

glad u asked. they are NOT glued on. as far as i can tell the vendor/grower repotted about 6mo ago before going on the road to sell the trees. Hard to understand, his english wasnt very good, all that could be made out was "Juniper, and 4 years old". He had some beautiful trees luckily this one fell into my girlfriends price range, the others were well over $100, some upwards of $500. This is not a mass produced "Mallsai" but a tree grown by an individual intending on selling it at some point.

So there is gravel on top, with soil under, and it looks to me like he may have mixed in some sort of solid time release fertilizer, which makes me hesitant to start feeding this little guy because i dont want to overdo it.

 

[Eric Group]

awesome thats what i was hoping. Thats what the guy my girlfriend bought it from said it was. He seemed to be an experienced grower.

As far as caring for the tree. I take it out into direct sun early in the day for a few hours, then set it behind a northern facing wall(no real shade in my yard) with a tray of gravel and water during the heat of the day and at night. does this sound right, and how long should i wait before i begin trimming, training, and wiring?

Don't move it around so much- Juniper traditionally do fine in almost full sun! (As long as it is healthy and not recently stressed/ repotted, sick, heavily styled).

The first thing you probably want to do is get an old toothbrush and try to get that ugly moss off the trunk- removing as little bark as possible.

You can prune/ style your Juniper pretty much any time as long as it is heathy. If you wire- leave it on longer in the winter, shorter if applied in the Spring to avoid it biting into the bark and scaring it. Your tree looks pretty full right now, could probably find a direction a little easier if you just thin it out a bit. Start by removing any unhealthy/ brown or yellow branches, then take out most of the smaller growth that points straight down from a larger branch and see what you have. Edit- just saw your additional pics... Yeah, get that moss off there! The lower branches need to fill in and the top can be thinned out.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

Don't move it around so much- Juniper traditionally do fine in almost full sun! (As long as it is healthy and not recently stressed/ repotted, sick, heavily styled).

The first thing you probably want to do is get an old toothbrush and try to get that ugly moss off the trunk- removing as little bark as possible.

You can prune/ style your Juniper pretty much any time as long as it is heathy. If you wire- leave it on longer in the winter, shorter if applied in the Spring to avoid it biting into the bark and scaring it. Your tree looks pretty full right now, could probably find a direction a little easier if you just thin it out a bit. Start by removing any unhealthy/ brown or yellow branches, then take out most of the smaller growth that points straight down from a larger branch and see what you have. Edit- just saw your additional pics... Yeah, get that moss off there! The lower branches need to fill in and the top can be thinned out.

so ive set it in a spot that starts getting sun around 11:30-12ish and gets full sun pretty much till dusk. Im planning on doing some lite styling this evening or sunday. Ill post pictures and keep u guys updated. Any advice on fertalizing im clueless.