Neli's Box Store Challenge Tree Critique

[Neli]

Thank you Neli for the critique. Two of the points you made are what I have the most problem with on junipers. When is a branch tertiary and not just foliage? When it's no longer green?
It is very hard to distinguish since junipers dont have the conventional leaves. The scale part, where there are visible scales should be considered foliage, though it will cook like little branches too.
Tertiary which is used for creating the tuffs on the pads in a last branch that had its foliage at the base removed and a tuff left at the end.



And then, I'm never certain what to do with the foliage for pad development. Do you wire it or just prune it back?

Juniper pads are wired up to the last small branch, and the tip of the branch is turned up. All foliage under the pad is removed.
You will need to cut some of the tertiary back so you have a completed neat shape...not any sticking out or inside.
If it is a small pad, I put tertiary between each finger...hand under the pad, and using the fingers I try to put them into correct wiring position. At this point the foliage on the stem of the tertiary is not even removed. Ones I am sure I have a plan in place where each branch goes, I cut them to size, and then clean the base.
Some time that is not possible. Some tertiary might be too long and with no foliage near the place where you want to create a tuff. Then you have two options. Wire the terttiary and bend it crazy to fit, or :
And this is where proper preparation of material comes into place.
Trim the end and try to make it to back bud so it fits within the pad...so you can shorten it later.
In the first place you need to have the tertiary in place before you start creating a pad.
That is why junipers go through so many stages of development, in order to prepare them for that.
You see the junies I posted here...the first step is creating the bones....primary branches...fattening them...cutting them back ...regrowing them, cutting back again and developing the tertiary after that.
I was given a scots juniper to style in japan...Did I sweat or what??? Foliage was terrible sparce...and very hard to work with...but eventually I managed something from it.
Itoigawa is the easiest to style.