Juniper style

[Clint]

Hello,
I have had this juniper for almost 2 years now and have just let it go so as to give me something to work with. I am however at a loss as to pruning/styling it. I have attached some pics from all angles and would greatly appreciate any advice.

[dansai]

Hey Clint. Good job keeping you juniper alive and also leaving for a time to be able to do some work to it. You have a number of options that I can see for your tree at this point;

1: the most boring - keep it alive and let it grow a bit more very slowly. And if it doesn't die, it will look pretty much the same in a few years.

2: the one I think you probably want to do - trim the extending shoots back along the branch they are on, clean out old needles and wire a bit of shape into what's left. It will look pretty cool. Either repot now, or in autumn, or maybe wait to spring, and put it back into the same pot and in a few years time it will look different to now and more like a "Bonsai"

or

3: the one I would chose, advise and happy to be blunt about - plant it with a quality mix into a nursery pot and water and feed it and it a couple of years from now you will have a lot more to work with. Example below

Juniper stock - 1 (1).jpeg

Whichever you chose you should get some good solid advice from the community here.

[Phil Rabl]

You may hate this idea, but you could do what I did with a Juniper some years ago: I removed about 95% of the foliage and made it look like this.

IMG_0841.jpeg

You have a very low branch that could become the only branch. It will need to grow and thicken up, but I think it would look pretty good in a few years time. If you were to do this major chop, you will get the benefit of trunk looking larger and more powerful than it currently does. Just an idea for you to consider.

[shibui]

I think the problem with making a decision is that there's currently too many options to decide on.
There are 2 ways to approach this quandry
1. Leave it to grow and develop until one option becomes clear.
2. Make a decision and get on with it. I've found that when there are several competing options and all are good it is much harder to get started however if all the options look good that just means it does not matter which one you choose - toss a coin if necessary to help with the initial decision.

Bonsai do not need to be designed and finished in one sitting. Many of my junipers have taken 7-12 years of regular work doing a bit at a time so don't worry if you initially only do something toward the future. The rest will follow in due course.

One strategy that may make deciding a little easier is to start by removing growth that is obviously not useful like shoots growing from inside curves, etc.

[Clint]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.