Juniper indecisiveness

[Enaisio]

Hi Everyone,

Im Brand new here, this is my first post.

Ive been pursuing Bonsai for over 10 years as a hobby and now ive had a baby so I dropped all my other hobbies and im dedicating myself to Bonsai only .

So i finally decided to join the Mirai community as I don’t see anything even remotely as inspiring.

To the point: ive had this juniper for over 10 years now, it was my first tree besides the classic ficus ginseng and other silly trees you buy when starting Bonsai. It has been developing very slowly as you will see and it reflect my journey into bonsai as I also have been advancing slowly.

Recently I joined my local bonsai club and they convinced me to take a big step with this tree. So before

Then after

so i also decided to change front

And now im in a wiring session to bring back the foliage to the new front. But I just got stuck again.

Here is where im at so far.

Problem is I cant make sense of the bottom branch that used to be the defining branch anymore, I feel like I need to just jin it all and make a literati. The more I remove the more I want to remove .

I don’t think I can push any more heavy pruning this year but what do you guys think ? Should I eventually just go for a literati or should I find a way to incorporate the lower branch and keep it windswept/semicascade ? And if so how am I going to approach that ?

[ElGuayabitoMx]

Hello and welcome to this community!!!

I share with you what I think could be a possible way to make it look more consistent, another approach I’ll take y would keep the lower branch, and make the tree with it, I like the subtle movement it has.

[Enaisio]

Hey, thanks for your response.

Are you suggesting an angle change to develop that design or just bending? Because im already having a hard time bending that main lower branch at all.

Ps: I really like the movement on that branch also, that’s why Im finding reasons to keep it.

[ElGuayabitoMx]

I think it could be both of them. Jajajajjaja

I’m imaging if it could be pushed together with a clamp or something similar…

Just to get the same vibe of movement, and if the lower branch goes up, change the angle, if the upper goes down, keep the same position., just remember to protect the bark of the juniper on both sides

[KurtP]

I liked the original silhouette. A little too extended; poetic license…

After the two bottom limbs were jinned, not so much. The remaining long limbs length is out of proportion.

If you feel you want to keep it, I would start by cuting EVERY smaller limb way, back to 2-3 viable buds; then look again.

If you still want to bend it, the above clamp pushes. This type pulls, rubber padding and heavier wire.

.

However, then it will be a cascade, not a windswept design.

I suggest… cut the limb short and leave a 3" jin. Next spring, repot into much smaller container, adjusting the angle counter clockwise about 15 degrees. I DO like the top limb in a semi cascade design.

Wire out the top foilage now with that in mind.

Now is the time of year.

Enjoy!

K

[Enaisio]

Thanks guys,

I too did like where it was before but to get it to that stage I had to cheat a little, there qere alot of crossing branches and the 3 I cut of were literally pencil width with no taper and very long, anyway, no going back on that now . So i do like the bottom branch but I love the top one, so I don’t want the bottom to compromise the tops design. Would the fact that the bottom has subtle movements and the top drastic movement make be a design flaw ?

However I will try to see what I can get away with this season and if im successful good if not literati it is. Do you guys think it could make a believable literati?

[Enaisio]

I managed to lower the lower branch a little, just enough to follow the line but I think this is as far back as I can get the foliage for now, its still way out of proportion.

What if I created an apex on the lower branch and made a twin trunk kinda thing ?

[Eastbayvet]

Hi. Ryan would say two things I think

1. Tree coming out of pot too vertical
2. Tree is not showing it wants to be semi cascade, and you’re working too hard to make it one.
   
   

[Enaisio]

Ooh I like that, complete change of perspective, I was going to change the angle next repot but for the lower branch to become the highest branch, that’s interesting and it makes alot of sense, thank you Ryan’s thought extension

[Enaisio]

Hi,

I did some thinking and arranging and ended up with this.

Im obviously not finished, not got much time because of work, but you guys think im going in the right direction?

[ElGuayabitoMx]

If it was mine, I would try to fix that triangle to not look like an equilateral triangle.

Just that

[Enaisio]

Do you mean the space between the 2 branches ? Because to be honest i hadn’t noticed it untill now

[ElGuayabitoMx]

Yesss!! Jajaja that space, was the first thing I noticed, it gave me eye tickles jajajajjajajja

If you check it it’s the same from the beginning, and I think that as long as you could modify it, would look better

[Enaisio]

Well thanks, you officially ruined my tree for me you are 100% right tho its really disturbing now that ive noticed it.

Im really trying my best to keep that branch but the more I look at it and try to change it the more I dislike it.

This is as far as I got with it but I really believe that the best thing for this tree is to abandon that branch and do something radical with the top branch.

[ElGuayabitoMx]

Jajajajajjajajajjajaja maaaan! I’m sorry!

Yo could cut a little the deadwood from the upper branch, to make it bendable or take the lower one to close the space between them, I think both trunks together could make a really nice double trunk juniper, don’t lose faith in both of them, be brave and try new things

[Enaisio]

Ok im not going to give up yet, I’ll keep trying and see what I can achieve.

[SoCalNative]

I actually like this design the best of what you presented here. With minor tweaks to bring the design back and add movement to the piece out of a good outline.

Is there deadwood in that straight branch? If not, you could try to put movement into it too

the upper piece though, where the red line is, I would either prune it back to see the lower trunk or wire it up to clean up that chunk of foliage.

hope that makes sense.

[Enaisio]

Ye there is alot of deadwood, I actually did some deadwood work on it recently because I was stuck with the design so I just went all in with it.

Thought i should mention also, I still haven’t wired the top branch yet, so I might do that next to see if that will help me decide.

[SoCalNative]

The deadwood you added looks good, sometimes it just takes time to tease out a final design to pause on. The tree is still unveiling itself to you. It’s a nice little juniper. In the future I could picture that farthest out branch becoming deadwood as well

[Enaisio]

Thank you,

Thank you all for the great advice so far, tou are helping me help the tree unveil itself to me, im slowly working on it day to day and om starting to see where its going.

I just hope im not stressing it out as much as its stressing me out