RESTYLE OF A CASCADE

[Dave54]

Hi guys,
just finished our monthly "Bonsai Bash" at my place with some great friends. Thinking of renaming it an "eat-athon".
Nothing like a good BBQ steak, nice wine, plenty of desserts and throw in a good dose of Bonsai.
Anyway, down to business.
I restyled two of my Juniper sqamata prostrata today, The first of which was a "Cascade" type style that is over 50 years old that I purchased on behalf of a client but the sale didn't come off, so I got stuck with it.

After purchase, I cleaned up a lot of the foliage and removed quite a few of the pads along the tail.

Today I decided that the tail had to go and a lot of the top of the tree has faults with the way that the branches leave the trunk.

I have rearranged a few branches( some still to be wired), removed the tail and repotted. The pot is deep so as not to remove too much root system in one go.

I think the tree will ultimately evolve into a "drop branch Literati" utilizing only the first Left hand side branch and a large jin on the trunk above the junction of that branch and maybe a shari down the RHS of the trunk. The trunk would require standing up more for this style. What do you think?
cheers
Dave

[Bretts]

I like it. Look forward to seeing it in the correct pot.

[Joel]

Hi Dave,

I like the restyle very much. I disliked the way the tree, as a cascade, came up so high before trailing down. Perhaps If it had been about half that height before it turned down, it could have been a very nice tree (IMO).

Can you give us some history on the fig(?) in the background? I would like to know how those roots are developed. If theres a trick to developing this sort of flare that you dont want to let out, thats fine lol. Again, nice work with the juniper!

JayC

[Asus101]

Jay, go read the article I sent you on that

[Joel]

Jay, go read the article I sent you on that

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh, i want to see if hes doing the same Theres also that thread on BT about it, that gave me an interesting idea.

JayC

[Dave54]

Hi JayC
It is an imported fig with plenty of major gafting of Main branches using nothing but aerial roots to support the branch.
Sorry, you'll have to purchase "Bonsai Ramblings" for the full details
Cheers
Dave

[Chris Johnston]

Dave,
Fantastic job on restyling the tree. It works far better in the new style than it did as a cascade. Congratulations.

Chris

[FlyBri]

Gday Dave & Co!

Like the others, I found the cascade to be unconvincing at best. Your restyle has given you lots of options for the future. Nice work!

Thanks.

Fly.

[Marc]

Dave, very nice. the pics at first were deceptive about the size of the tree, but looking at the empty pot and that strange creature standing behind with the white board, you get a better idea of the size. Very nice. I wonder..... is that new pot too big for this tree? was that a deliberate choice to let the tree grow a little more? The pot in a sense is the right size due to the large amount of branches and "canopy", however looking at the trunk, being a little thin, the pot seems a little big.

Anyways, I do that, sometimes have smaller plants in bonsai pots for growing, keeps the pot busy instead of collecting dust.

[Dave54]

Hi Marc,
yes mate the pot is far too large, but I did say in the original posting that I didn't want to reduce the rootball too much at the one time. Especially coming out of that deep cascade pot.
cheers
Dave

[Marc]

Hey yeah, so you did...