Juniperus Shimpaku 2005

[anthonyW]

I purchased some Juni cuttings from a garden nurseryman 2006 or about after a year or so from his start,,,memory shite, they were in 4 inch containers and only few inches tall, why I do not know LOL as they are notorious slow to grow in containers and my feeding regime over the good 13 approx years has been pretty slack, so as they grew I would some bends/curls as I potted up over time...poor things

I would pay for lack of feed, really need another !4 yrs growing, but patience is up...time to make the most of what we have.

Anyway i thought I would put a spin on two yesterday, way to go but a start....cheers

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[shibui]

You are correct about the slow growth rates even with good conditions. Makes it hard to grow and sell shimpaku at a price that makes economic sense.
One of the good things about slow development is that you get closer internodes and plenty of opportunity to fix problems before they overwhelm the tree. Many fast grown trees of all species lack character and develop huge problems but we still seem to want fast growth, even at the expense of good outcomes.

Well done on the bends and twists. Looks quite random and natural. 14 years ago most were making regular corkscrews

[MJL]

You’re a patient man AnthonyW. Well played! Oh for your patience (and knowledge!). Funny I just watched a video where Ryan Neil was saying how junipers get their vigour from their foliage and now I realise the gravity of the disaster when I took 90% of the foliage off a mature juniper recently ... oops, doh!

[boom64]

Hi Anthony ,not to shabby for a lax approach. Some great movement in there, Looking forward to some fancy carving in the future .Cheers John.

[LLK]

Yes, give them a few more years with good care, and they'll be worth bonsai-potting. One thing you could improve on: with the trunks so exposed and important to the design, it's important you get no wire marks. In your place I'd redo the wiring over some protection, bicycle tyre bands or the like.
All the best!

Lisa

[anthonyW]

Thanks Neil, yes can very much agree a very tough gig for nurseryman with this material, also I have noticed the tight growth, was wondering as you said, is it compact from slow development or/and both a nice strain of the species ?..thank you for your thoughts there and experience Neil, Im always learning from you,,cheers

Thanks Mark, stay with the material it is beautiful material to play with, we are all learning mate, you are always enjoying your self that is main thing and of course Ryan and Grahame Potter are great to watch in video, very valuable info there.

Cheers John, minimal carving experience, but keen to learn more.

Cheers Lisa, very good thoughts for all there..thank you.

This guy is another from the same vintage, I have cleaned it out some but alot more needed, no design hard and fast yet, just studying some images at this point, might shorten the tail a bit on this one for a start as a lot of energy is needed to get there especially that vertical I believe and having the head that heavy is not helping .
So the angle might have to come up bit also.

If you have some thoughts please share, great here other approaches...cheers

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[shibui]

If this is the same strain as we are growing as 'shimpku' it does have nice tight foliage. I guess that's why it was imported (or smuggled?).
A few growers have also mentioned that they have the variety known as 'Itiogawa' now. The foliage of Itiogawa is supposed to be even more compact but I have not seen it yet. Both are far better than some of the older strains of J. chinensis if your aim is for neat foliage pads and compact growth.

Normal growth habit is long, straight sections and the wood gets very hard in just a few years so it pays to do as you have and progressively wire and bend the fresh shoots as they develop.

In that latest tree you have discovered apical dominance. it is not quiet as pronounced in shimapku as some other species but when upper parts are allowed to grow strong, lower branches do grow less and eventually start to die back.
If you intend to follow the cascade you really need to reduce the top. In my view a cascade tree should cascade rather than grow in both directions, both for horticultural reasons as well as aesthetic. Our eyes and minds do not like being pulled in 2 different directions so to make a tree look attractive make the bulk of any tree either up or down, left or right rather than in 2 different directions.
You should be able to keep a perfectly healthy vertical cascade as long as the top apex is minimal and kept well pruned.
Even if you decide to change the angle the above still applies - visual flow should be mostly in one direction so you will still need to reduce either the cascade or the top for the tree to look good.
Some of those upper branches may be useful for jins to add to the starkness of a cascade tree.

[anthonyW]

Thanks Neil for your response, once again great thoughts and ideas.

Well yesterdays conditions with wind and cold were atrocious, so while the wife is away with daugh-sher for weekend, the mice will play lol, whip it into the spare room, tarp down and away we go.
So i would compress the head down a fair bit and bring the head slightly forward, lift the tail and apply little bit more flow/angle if you like which also shortens the tail, then chock it into the silhouette...then refine, there you go, pretty happy with it. BTW the tail is approached grafted just has not been severed....cheers

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chocked into a silhouette

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refined and a couple of angles

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[鸕盆栽 Gamauji Bonsai]

Lookin good

[anthonyW]

very nice six sided pot from Leong

Anthony

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[BrendaCarthy]

very nice six sided pot from Leong

Anthony

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Very beautiful. But still need to grow up to him!

[anthonyW]

Thank you Brenda

And here is one of his mates that i rescued the pot from a fig for this one...away to go!...cheers Anthony

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[anthonyW]

More styling and clean out

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[Greg F]

Looks good Anthoy. I like it in that pot too.

Greg

[anthonyW]

Another one from the same batch putting early twists and turns on it but as time would pass the neglect would conflict the left with right side having too many stiff/straight lines so I would put a spin on it last year with right , happy with the heavy head, just need another 15 to 20 years at least for trunk to catch up

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