Styling Suggestions for Nursery Juniper

[Apex37]

Kinda stumped on where to go from here on this nursery juniper. I’m fairly happy with the design, I’m just seeing two apexes becoming a problem here and could use some insight.

Front:

Another angle:

Back:

Other side of front:

 

[coltranem]

What type of juniper is it? It sort reminds me of an old gold I have. The foliage is a bit long and lanky and at the ends of the branches. At this point I might wire movement into everything and then work on building foliage density. Once you get more density you can down select to the branches that work best.

 

[Apex37]

What type of juniper is it? It sort reminds me of an old gold I have. The foliage is a bit long and lanky and at the ends of the branches. At this point I might wire movement into everything and then work on building foliage density. Once you get more density you can down select to the branches that work best.

Thanks!
Honestly not 100% sure what it is. It was labeled a sabina juniper, but think it might be some hybrid with some sort of chinensis.

 

[Potawatomi13]

LEAVE ALONE and allow a couple years for recovery.

 

[Shibui]

You have ploblem with 2 apices? Cut one off - no more ploblem.

Seriously though, you are correct that there's too much happening up top but need to slow down a bit before going further.
@Potawatomi13 is correct that junipers don't like too much at one time and it looks like you have already removed enough for one go. While it recovers from this first round you can consider the next steps.
I note that you have taken all green needles off a couple of branches. Do you realize that junipers are really reluctant to make new shoots on old, bare wood?
If the plan is to make dead wood from those branches you've done well so far but I would remove the bark now. Green bark usually comes off relatively easy but if you let it dry out for a few days it sticks to the underlying wood and can take forever to remove, scraping off every last piece. You may still have trouble if the tree has not started growing yet as dormant bark tends to be well stuck too.

I can't see anything inspirational in the photos so far but that could change if the dead branches are jinned.
Sometimes it just takes a few years and a bit more growth before the real bonsai shows up.

 

[Tieball]

The tree does need some growth time. I agree with the “leave it alone for now” direction. The Juniper is quite young and needs to strengthen its core for growth. But anyway, I decided to see what could happen with change even at this early stage. I can’t really see up close and in 3D what’s going on with the Juniper. I did subtract branches to just see what could be possible…curious decluttering…..after it grows more…and just because I wanted to have some fun this morning. I know there are character parts of the tree that I am missing out on right now. That’s where you add value locally. Additional growing time you allow for can change options even more. Keep the Juniper healthy right now…that should be your current goal.

 

[Apex37]

You have ploblem with 2 apices? Cut one off - no more ploblem.

Seriously though, you are correct that there's too much happening up top but need to slow down a bit before going further.
@Potawatomi13 is correct that junipers don't like too much at one time and it looks like you have already removed enough for one go. While it recovers from this first round you can consider the next steps.
I note that you have taken all green needles off a couple of branches. Do you realize that junipers are really reluctant to make new shoots on old, bare wood?
If the plan is to make dead wood from those branches you've done well so far but I would remove the bark now. Green bark usually comes off relatively easy but if you let it dry out for a few days it sticks to the underlying wood and can take forever to remove, scraping off every last piece. You may still have trouble if the tree has not started growing yet as dormant bark tends to be well stuck too.

I can't see anything inspirational in the photos so far but that could change if the dead branches are jinned.
Sometimes it just takes a few years and a bit more growth before the real bonsai shows up.

Yeah the branches with everything removed I plan to jin and probably will work on that this week.
I definitely went heavy on the pruning and really what’s left I was planning to use in the design. Goal is just to let it recover at least a year or two before working on it more. I was encouraged to work pretty heavily on this guy mostly because how healthy he was and the amount of back budding off old wood I was seeing. He’s gonna be heavily fertilized and given lots of sun this year to recover.

 

[Apex37]

The tree does need some growth time. I agree with the “leave it alone for now” direction. The Juniper is quite young and needs to strengthen its core for growth. But anyway, I decided to see what could happen with change even at this early stage. I can’t really see up close and in 3D what’s going on with the Juniper. I did subtract branches to just see what could be possible…curious decluttering…..after it grows more…and just because I wanted to have some fun this morning. I know there are character parts of the tree that I am missing out on right now. That’s where you add value locally. Additional growing time you allow for can change options even more. Keep the Juniper healthy right now…that should be your current goal.
View attachment 476450

This definitely is helpful for just seeing a future design and trying to plan out what I want to do, so seriously thank you for this! Are you guys using any sort of app or just the photo editor on your phone?

 

[Tieball]

This definitely is helpful for just seeing a future design and trying to plan out what I want to do, so seriously thank you for this! Are you guys using any sort of app or just the photo editor on your phone?

It’s just a possible design….your design will be different. I find it helpful to see what others think when they see a tree. So I just offered my sight based on one view. I use an iPad. Apps for this type of direction are either Photo Editor + or the App Procreate (and no, I don’t know if someone thought about that name when naming it. However, named as it is, it’s easy for me to remember). For me both are easy to work with without a course study required just to try things. In my image above the Procreate was used. It’s crude I know but I was not trying for perfection (which is possible). I just wanted to roughly see what could happen.

And I agree with and support the concept of reading the tree and not the book. I don’t get hung up on rules that seem to dictate direction.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Thanks!
Honestly not 100% sure what it is. It was labeled a sabina juniper, but think it might be some hybrid with some sort of chinensis.

Old gold is a media/pfitzer juniper, which is a hybrid of chinensis and sabina. Floppy foliage compared to both chinensis and sabina wildtype (especially the rastrera).

I have a bunch of these that I wire the crap out of, and then leave them alone for a couple years.
Then I dive in and think of a design.

 

[Apex37]

Just a quick update on this one. He’s been growing well since the huge cut back. I done nothing with him other than try and give him a good amount of sun and fertilizer. Here’s how he looks now:


Here’s a quick sketch idea I had for him:

Not sure if anybody but me sees that in this tree and not even sure if it’ll be what ends up happening, but we’ll see. Am I crazy? Lol

Plan is to just let it be the remainder of the year, work on some deadwood this winter and maybe revisit it next year to either repot or style more.