A Random User
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Wanted to share this tree for a couple of reasons...
First off it is a Parsoni Juniper, which common thought is they do not make good Bonsai, due to their longer and less compact foliage.
They do... and their foliage actually reduces rather easily and compacts very well. Now, perhaps not as small a a Shimpaku does... but pretty close. Like within less than a 1/4 of an inch close. So, only slightly larger, and no problem with obtaining appropriate size foliage to match the scale of the tree. Even on very small shohin sized trees, as this one is.
They are fast growers and can easily put on an inch of trunk diameter in a year in warm climates, if allowed to grow free. They are very rugged material, extremely drought tolerant, in fact the best way if obtaining adult foliage, and foliage reduction is quite literally by slowing the tree down to a craw, not watering them... just water foliage to keep healthy and green and free of mites once a day, and water the tree itself, once a week. Then sit them in the full sun to bake!
So, pretty much nothing to maintain.
At the sane time, they do well with lots of water and shade... which is great when one needs to grow them out, and speed up the growth of the tree.
Now, this tree I obtained last year in August from not a Bonsai nursey, just a local nursery... I paid $15 dollars for it. So, no amazing "Good Material" here. Just stuff any beginner can easily obtain.
Because of it's rugged characteristics, I was able to easily kill off an entire live vein, making up the whole front of the trunk on it's first initial styling. All branches except one were removed, so the whole tree is comprised of just one branch, which was then made the continuation of the trunk. This branch was then wrapped in raffia, and was severely bent back onto itself 180 degrees. Lastly the rest of the finer branching was wired into place for its first style.
A couple months later, I looked at the tree and noticed that with a complete flip of the trees planting angle from the one I had chosen, I could make a much more interesting tree, and very minimal movement of the wired finer branching, I could make it work. So, I went for it.
It then sat till this week revovering, pushing out new growth and not skipping a beat. I removed all of the raffia, except that underneath the guy wire used to hold the bend in place. The bend is holding and is about 70 percent healed. In all honesty, the guy wire could probably be removed... but no problem leaving it on, just repositioned it slightly so no bite in marks. Not worth taking the chance of one accidental bump. With guy wires on severe bends like this, I usually plan on leaving them in place for about 3 to 4 years on the minimal. So, plan appropriately when putting them on.
The rest of the wire was removed and because the tree is moving along... all new wire was reintroduced, and the design of the tree was given it's second styling.
Padding was now introduced... with this tree's design and branch placement, I opted for more flat padding. Flat padding, is a much longer process than individual, more organic padding. You are quite literally laying the branching and padding out flat and it takes much more time to develop a fuller canopy using this method. Seeing all the spacing between pads has to grow in still.
However, what this does is that it allows for much more light to enter the tree... as well, where the branch is bent down, new growth will want to pop more near the top of the arch, seeing even junipers want to grow tall... and the top of the arch is now the apex of each branch. Important to understand, even with deciduous trees!
This allows for back budding and chasing back a tree, wirh no actual disturbance to it continuing to grow. No continual cutting at the ends.
Now, why flat padding verses a more natural and organic design? This tree is just a smidgen over 8 inches tall. So, just as it sits currently, the padding and foliage size is pretty compact! And in one year of development time! By using the flat padding, it will allow for more light, and more back budding, further compacting the placement of the foliage of the tree. It also allows for more foliage and branching... more foliage means equals smaller foliage. And lastly, at a latter time, if I wanted too... I could easily adjust the styling of the flat padding to more of a natural organic padding.
The shari still needs work obviously, and the design might change some over time, with more negative spacing perhaps introduced and some branching removed. All of which is tomorrow's problem as the tree continues to develop and the style becomes further designed.
At this moment in a trees development, the goal is to do the intial major work needed to be done. To try and solve the main issues... I have done this with the choice of angle I chose, the removal of what I know needed to be removed, the bending of the major branch, and setting up the continuation of the trunk of the tree. I have kept every finer branch that the tree had and almost no foliage was removed. Only the underside, seeing this is energy spent on material that will not grow properly anyways due to being shaded out. The goal at this stage of b development is to keep the material strong and moving forward. You are not trying to do a final design here... even though this tree looks pretty far along, you are only looking for a shape to the design. Over time you will define this shape.
Because of this, there has been no point in removing the tree from it's nursery soil. The soil it is in actually works better for maintaining health and allowing it to grow stronger faster. As long as it freely drains, the more moisture at this stage the better within the soil, so yes... pine bark and dirt are fine. Besides, a replant would only set the tree back further. The tree at this stage is still in it's Pre-bonsai state... that is to say we are still setting up the tree... we are doing the construction and the growing out needed to begin our work.
As the tree develops, and when it is time to begin to move forward with the Refinement of the tree... to make it a Bonsai... We will begin to work on foliage, the amount of foliage, the scale of the foliage and the amount of finer branching, the tree will need to be repotted into a Bonsai type soil. At this stage, all of this type of growth is directly driven by the amount of oxygen the soil recieves, as well a much more dryer soil condition. This type of growth is totally different from the type needed to do the construction work with. Here the goal is to do just the opposite... to slow the tree and it's growth down. To make it everything grow smaller in scale. Roots will not grow long... but instead will grow more of them in a smaller amount of space. Branching will do the same as well as foliage.
Properly understanding all of this and not rushing to put a tree in a soil that is not conducive to the type of work you are currently doing, will expedite the whole process and keep yor tree growing strong. You will notice, that this tree is still in it's nursery soil... and will probably not be removed until another year.
The tree before and at the time of the first styling...
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