ZombieNick's Procumbens 'Nana' Juniper #1

[ZombieNick]

This thread is to document the progression of this Nana I got in February of 2021, a little over three years ago now.

February 2021

I had been doing bonsai for a year or so at this point and did not have a lot of experience outside of this forum and other online resources. I purchased the tree from House of Bonsai, a local bonsai nursery. I dug through a sea of similar prebonsai and selected the one with the biggest trunk:


March 2022

I didn't work on it at all until a year later, in a workshop at Kimura Bonsai Nursery. I removed one of the major branches and spent the rest of the time stripping the jin, as it was the first time I had ever done this type of work:


April - May 2022

I became a student at Bonsai Jidai and finished styling it there across a few different sessions. Cleaned up the jins and began wiring everything down:


October 2022

Removed the wire as it had started to bite. Filling in nicely:


Jan 2023

Gave it it's first bonsai pot. I decided to flip the tree around, so I potted with the new front in mind:


(Reached image limit, continued below)

 

[ZombieNick]

March 2023
Second wiring. I changed the front and pulled all the branches down further.

Before:


After:

 

[ZombieNick]

October 2023
I put the tree in the beginner section of my club's show. We only allow copper wire in the show, so I had to rewire the tree again, third wiring.

Before:


After:

 

[ZombieNick]

March 2024
It really didn't need a repot but I was starting to hate the pot it was in.

Before:


After:

 

[ZombieNick]

May 2024
Our club had another show, and I put it in the beginner section again. It still had the wire on from the last show.

 

[ZombieNick]

Aug 2024
Removed the wire and did some light clean up. The shari along the length of the trunk is natural, I helped removed the rest of the bark that was flaking off. I don't love the position, but I tried to carve a little off the right side to give it a twisting illusion.

Before:


After:


I plan to let it rest and recover as I did a lot of work last year. Once it fills in and is ready to work again, I am considering removing the lowest branches on both sides to compact the tree substantially.

 

[gooeytek]

Sweet work! I like how it just kept getting better and better.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Very nice progression!
I think you did a great job selecting a nice trunk and creating a nice design. Well done.

 

[LuZiKui]

I also bought my first tree at House of Bonsai (Also a Nana), wish I would have known better when I did and found something bigger like this. Great tree, love the progression!

 

[pandacular]

Awesome tree. Really jealous of the procumbens you have available! I think they’re pretty fun to work with, but I never find any with good trunks.

 

[coltranem]

Nice work. I like how you are slowly creating the sharing. I am not sure the rectangular pot is working for me though.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Very nice! I would remove some of that moss off the nebari. I think the idea of bringing the tree more compact on the right side is good but i would leave the left long, at least as long as you have the tree in this angle.

 

[ZombieNick]

I also bought my first tree at House of Bonsai (Also a Nana), wish I would have known better when I did and found something bigger like this. Great tree, love the progression!

This was the second tree I bought from them, the first one is much worse .

Nice work. I like how you are slowly creating the sharing. I am not sure the rectangular pot is working for me though.

It will get changed at some point, maybe an oval in the future.

Very nice! I would remove some of that moss off the nebari. I think the idea of bringing the tree more compact on the right side is good but i would leave the left long, at least as long as you have the tree in this angle.

I did clean the nebari just forgot to take a pic.

Here is a pic of the right branch that needs to be removed, I've just been waiting for the back branch to elongate a little more to fill in that area.

 

[Deleted member 47471]

Really nice, and the trunk has a really nice shape for potential plated/ribbon trunk with those angles and depth and the Shari that you started. Stellar trunk movement!

 

[ZombieNick]

April 2025

The tree was left to grow freely since the last update, and it put on some good growth. This time I worked on compacting the tree and setting some of the branches to start creating pads. Here are some pics of the work.

Cleaned the tree up to see what I was working with:


The branch on the right side that I mentioned in my last post was removed:


The front branches blocking the trunk line were removed:


The main branch on the left was shortened:


I wired the whole tree again, bringing many branches to the left and forward to bring all the growth closer to the trunk:

 

[ZombieNick]

Here are some before and after pics.

Back:


Top:


Front:


Next time I plan to continue working on the shari and thin the right side which is starting to get bushy.

 

[Japonicus]

Nice work, I like the trunk on this one Nick.
Could just be drought, but have you checked for mites?
I shrugged off a deviance from rich even colour on a kishu recently
only to discover the worst infestation I've ever seen the next day.
I too find nothing comparable with trunks when looking for procumbens @pandacular
but location is everything I guess.

 

[ZombieNick]

Nice work, I like the trunk on this one Nick.
Could just be drought, but have you checked for mites?
I shrugged off a deviance from rich even colour on a kishu recently
only to discover the worst infestation I've ever seen the next day.
I too find nothing comparable with trunks when looking for procumbens @pandacular
but location is everything I guess.

I noticed the same and did the mite test with a piece of white paper, but didn't find anything. Either way, I plan to spray everything this weekend to be safe.

 

[Scriv]

Here are some before and after pics.

Back:
View attachment 593853View attachment 593856

Top:
View attachment 593854View attachment 593857

Front:
View attachment 593855View attachment 593858

Next time I plan to continue working on the shari and thin the right side which is starting to get bushy.

really nice dude.

 

[Ruddigger]

Looks good, except for the aluminum wire.