Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

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Promethius
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Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Promethius »

I was (profoundly, profoundly) fortunate enough to be the beneficiary of a member of my bonsai club downsizing his collection in 2021. Aside a big JBP and an almond, this is a juniper he passed on to me.

I'm less a fan of the foliage as I am of the non-spiky shimpaku, but I only have tween-adolescent shimpakus and at some point will have to know how to take those further: I see this squamata as an opportunity to gain experience in refining a more advanced tree.

As you can see, the tree has a prosaic lateral winding shape with an apex best described as a pom-pom. There is virtually no front-to-back movement. I started putting wires on, as you can see, before deciding a whole lot more than that was needed.
Front.jpg
back.jpg
side.jpg

I thought the shape could be acceptable up to branch 3-4 (counting from the bottom) before becoming monotonous. I hope to keep the lower part, up to branch 3 or 4, adding some 3D trunk movement if I can.

Plan of attack:
0. take to club meeting tomorrow
1. jin the top
2. consider a shari depending on how it looks after the jin
3. change angle at next repotting
4. consider trying to bend slightly to add some 3-D movement

This is a rough sketch that I'll be trying to adhere to:
idea.jpg

Any feedback is welcome! I'll include my trunk sketch in case others have ideas / want to create a virt of their own.
trunk.jpeg

Cheers!
Andy
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Sno
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Sno »

Any chance we can see the base ? Just my thoughts , the interesting bit is the first two branches and then the lack of taper starts to really show . You could airlayer the top off .
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Ryceman3
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Ryceman3 »

I think I agree with Sno.
I can see 3 potential trunk lines to possibly layer, with the yellow one being most interesting to me (then red, lastly blue).
There isn’t much taper as it is top to bottom, but layering is a bit of a gamble/time consuming (and not the right time of year right now typically), so jin and shari option will help to create interest in a pretty monotonous line.
:beer:
E995FE9B-7CBF-4510-8971-A4A451AE12BF.jpeg
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Promethius »

Thanks for the feedback!
I tried to excavate some of the base: it’s quite hard to see in photos, unfortunately, even after a rinse. It’s a pretty symmetrical - if small - nebari. No dominant roots I can see.
I’ll provide further updates as I go.
IMG_6336.jpg
IMG_6335.jpg
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Promethius »

This juniper was repotted in October. After some unsuccessful airlayers last year, I didn't feel up to layering it as R3 suggested, but settled for a change of angle. There is more front-back movement in the trunk than captured in the original photos, and I don't think that keeping the first segment, up to branch 2 as Sno pointed out, is completely hopeless.

The top came off in Feb 2021 and the rest last week. The second branch has been bent heavily, and I anticipate that it will become the leader eventually. The first branch needs to be shortened, but I'm letting it grow out to improve taper for now. I'm planning on leaving the current foliage and giving the trunk time to thicken while I create a shari and figure out the trunk line and primary branch sites, and will eventually graft shimpaku foliage if I think it's headed in the right direction.
IMG_3171.jpeg

I hope to change the angle back a little the next time I repot:
IMG_31712.jpeg

I'm not sure how much dead wood I'll keep, but I've turned most of the apex into a jin and have carved it as well as I could with some cheap handheld wood carving tools from eBay. It'll be easy to remove later if I decide to, but a lot harder to put back on if I change my mind...
IMG_3169.jpeg
IMG_3170.jpeg

Andy
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by Ryceman3 »

Way more potential now than where you started,
I like the shari/jin work to date too, the carving has some nice interest.
:yes: :beer:
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Re: Taming the serpent: a Juniperus squamata progression

Post by dmattar »

I’ll offer a different suggestion but it might be worth considering.

The trunk itself is taperless and the lower right branch is leggy/uninteresting so not sure if you want to include that in the final design. You also don’t have a decent root flare on the base. These aren’t bad qualities, in fact most of these are ideal for a literati tree and you may end up taking many more years before you can force the tree to produce taper, a fat base and more movement. If you rotate the tree clockwise and tip the tree up slightly, you might find that you lose the lateral movement of the curves but you also gain a more soft and interesting literati trunk line.

If you want a good intro to literati, check out Michael hagedorns more recent blog series on bunjin - there’s about 4 parts.
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