I am only practising Bonsai for around 4 years now and I love it plus after finding Mirai and loving Ryan my nerdiness has quadrupled, but I still get stuck on some design decisions and end up repotting only to find i have missed the front by a few mm.
I have attached 3 images of the fronts that I like on my Chinese Juniper and I would love to know what you all think should be the new front. The trunk is very narrow which has always been a weakness but there is some small but decent Nibari on the way and I love the deadwood. - Any general feedback on the trees health etc would be great too while I am here
It is my favourite little tree so I want to get it right , it is it’s first re-pot in 2 years (new slimmer rectangle pot on the way) and it is due a re-styling too but I want to get it’s container settled first and maybe a light clean as it still looks good to me.
Hey @alextucker, lovely tree. i like front 2 the most but this is just a personal opinion. I think with the two roots on the right side of the trunk in this front you will get the best nebari as soon as they thicken. Just play with the angle a little bit during repotting so you won’t get any too horizontal or vertical lines in the trunk.
Front 3 may be the best just because it eliminates the straight line of the truck however it depends on the base. What if you used front 3 with a tilt of the tree towards the viewer?
Thanks Gandolf, I am liking front 3 as well, it does hide the start of the trunk deadwood around the rear but there is still enough contrast for interest I reckon.- plus that is the widest part of the trunk.
Better proportioned photoshop job now, this should be around the size of the new container.
If you do lean the tree over do not shift it from center. Breaking the planes or boundries that the pot has will help add asymmetry. If you lean it leave it centered in the pot. Also if you repot and reduce the roots heavily do not style give the tree lots of time to recover its roots before any styling is done
I was holding off styling until I have it in the new pot so prob leave that till autumn/winter - do you think I would get away with a basic Ryan style clean after the re-pot or wait till later in the year?
I would wait I’m not very familiar with junipers so I would watch all the Juniper videos I’m sure he goes over it. But since the strength comes from the roots I would definitely wait. As hard as it may be.
I’m really happy with the front and the new slimmer red pot now … but as I did not want to take the roots back any further and risk the tree I ended up with too much of a forward lean, I might put it into a larger pot now that so I can get the angle right before the tree settles and it’s harder on it next year.
