AusBonsai

This is one of my very first pieces of material I started experimenting with as a newbie back in 2019. Bought from a garden nursery in a neglected corner, it didn't have any sort of label. I believe it's a Chinese Juniper of some sort. It doesn't have the best foliage it's a bit loose and floppy, but I have found it does dense up and get tighter with bonsai techniques. All part of the individual character of the tree to me.

It started out very leggy and sparse with a lot of juvenile growth. Over the years it has now started to become a slender slanting tree.

Hopefully you enjoy the photo journey. Many mistakes and learning are tied up in this tree. It's not the best piece of material going but it's a special one personally.
March 2019 from the nursery
March 2019 my first attempt at styling with no idea what I was doing
April 2021
Mid 2021 my first attempt splitting a branch and heavy bending. (Just went for it no raffia or anything)
Late 2021 reo bar removed trying to work out where to go next.
April 2022 first styling to current direction as a slanting tree. With the guidance of Tony Bebb the first time he visited little old Albany.
Winter 2023 after some free growth
Late winter 2023 into first bonsai pot and a pumice/scoria/pine bark mix. Something I had sitting around from Bad Swan Ceramics. There was always a natural shari in the trunk which I have opened up some more.
As is currently spring 2023. Unfortunately the stretching branch to the right balancing the design started browning off for some reason so I decided to just jin it.
There are many other young branches there I will grow out to replace it. Minor setback, what else can you do.

Well done. What a great progression
Cheers RodM

Just worked on this one again. A prune and removal of all the old wire + a re-wire. Cut a fair bit off, pulling things back towards being in proportion to the trunk. The top is as high as I want it now so starting to round off and build an apex. Haven't bothered to wire all the small floppy foliage at this stage, I will wait for what backbudding I get.

I've just purchased a new bonsai pot for this aswell. It's a tokoname brown clay drum pot that is slightly smaller and shallower than the current one. I think it will be better suited. Will repot later in the year.

I thought I had taken a photo before doing the work but turns out I forgot.

Repotted today into smaller new tokoname drum pot. Looks a lot better now
Roots were looking really good too.

Such a great result in a relatively short amount of time. Very nice

The foilage sparsness reminds me of the Californian Junipers you see online.

Simon

The first pic has that droopy lusitanica type look going on, not sure what colour the bark is though (colour blind). Either way the tree is starting to gain some direction.