Kelly
Yamadori
Greetings! I haven't been able to post much for a couple years as we moved and life sorta took over. I joined the Bonsai Club of Campbell River, BC, Canada. Zone 7b. Pacific Northwest but drier than Seattle. A couple days ago, a charter member indicated he was getting out of bonsai as he wasn't keeping up with his trees. He sold me this unknown scale juniper with a pot for 15 bucks ... (Cdn). He couldn't remember what type of juniper it was ... so I am asking if anyone can help me ID it ... Also, as can been seen from the pics, the trunk has nice taper but there are multiple branches coming out of the top of the trunk, one with a 360 twist. Then they all go out in various directions for a good foot or 18 inches before there is healthy scale needles with all branches healthy and growing. Despite the lateness, I brought it home and did a sort of slip pot repot with a mixture of 50 % lava and granite (~1/8-1/4 inch) and 50 % "sea soil" which is a local product made up of composted cedar, fir, (whatever) bark and composted fish industry leftovers ... no it doesn't smell but is the preferred medium here by some pretty savy bonsai guys. It drains well and the largest bark pieces are 1 inch. I didn't fertilize the tree but have watered it daily after some, let's say "dry periods. I have in mostly full sun ... mottle sun after 2 pm. I didn't invade the roots to any extent but got rid of invasive moss, loose old soil and maybe 1 inch of the pot bound roots to enable me to repot it. My question is ... Is this tree salvageable? Can I trim the branch ends and hope to get new buds next year closer in to the tree to begin to retrain it into an acceptable bonsai? I was thinking I could snip the leaders off leaving say 3-4 growing branchlets and hope it budded back ... The ruler in the photos is 35 inches so this tree is really reaching ... I will add the pictures. I appreciate any advice or wisdom you all may be able to provide. Overall, the tree is healthy but has been left to grow however it wanted. Cheers Kelly
