Twin trunk Juniper

[kirsa]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post on this forum, but I've been following for a while and y'all always seem to offer good and useful advice.

Anyway...
I won this juniper in a raffle held by the local club and it needs a bit of work, thinning and refining etc. It had just been repotted so I'm not going to do any work straight away.
I'm not a huge fan of multiple trunk trees and this one has a bad "slingshot" in the centre. I'm also not keen on the current front. It may not be obvious in the photos but there is a branch about half way up that sticks straight out to the front. I may end up rotating slightly anti-clockwise to improve this but this angle accentuates the "slingshot".

If this was your tree what would you do? Any idea of species?

Cheers
Kirsa

NB ruler for scale is 12in

front


left


back


right

 

[edprocoat]

You will probably be told to lose a trunk but I think either the right or the left view is outstanding. They look like a very convincing tree in nature to me so I will hate you if you remove one.

ed

 

[Nybonsai12]

Nice tree. Close up shot of the foliage will help identify species. I'll guess juniperus rigida but I'm horrible at naming species.

 

[kirsa]

Here is a close up of the foliage.



Thanks for your comments ed. I'd probably only remove one of the trunks as a last resort. The remaining trunk might get lonely...

 

[Vance Wood]

Please don't remove one of the trunks this tree needs them both. You are going to have to live with this tree for a while to examine in your mind the possibilities.

I would consider shortening the smaller of the two trunks but not removing it entirely. There is also a tendency with a Juniper to think of the tree having branches that come down as opposed to the kind of upward facing branches.

It is a matter of species and I think I would be interested to styling this tree with upward growing branches if you can make yourself see them as a mature tree.

 

[jk_lewis]

I dunno. To me, the smaller "trunk" leaves the main trunk much too high for it to be truly a "twin trunk." That's more like a branch. The best "twin trunk" bonsai have both trunks separating much closer to the base of the tree.

If the canopy were thinned quite a bit, I think this would do nicely: