AusBonsai

I've changed my mind and made the back the front

Removed all but one primary branch and have wired some of the secondary branches. Still needs lots of fine wiring on the foliage but due to the heavy bend and compression I did, I'll leave it to rest/recover for a while.
I removed the wire from the deadwood and they have all set in place. The problem is that now I have switched fronts, the deadwood doesn't work. I'll reduce the secondary branches and do some fine carving too. Hopefully I'll be able to achieve a natural looking piece of battered wood.
Regards,
Steven

Very nice Steven!

I'm liking where the canopy is headed a lot =D

Not that i've done it myself, but i was reading somewhere in either a Bonsai Today or Bonsai Europe mag that you can bend deadwood by heavily steaming it, then bending as per usual. You'd need to protect the live parts of the tree of course....

Has anyone had experience withthis and how much can you expect to 'bend' something that has been set hard?

Stewart_Toowoomba wrote:Not that i've done it myself, but i was reading somewhere in either a Bonsai Today or Bonsai Europe mag that you can bend deadwood by heavily steaming it, then bending as per usual. You'd need to protect the live parts of the tree of course....

Has anyone had experience withthis and how much can you expect to 'bend' something that has been set hard?

Hey mate,
Ive successfully done this on one of my junipers. Basically wrapped the branch in a wet cloth and kept it wet for 24 hrs minimum, then blow torched it for a few seconds at a time to get the steam from the inside of the branch to expand the fibers and after this it bends a fair bit. I managed to turn an almost straight jinn into a decent s shape. Only advice would be to re wrap with wet cloth after bending and leave for a few hours then allow to dry naturally for a week before u remove wire.

Sorry to post an essay on your post Steven!

-Mo

G'day,

After posting my last update I received a call from a friend who commented that the direction of the foliage was wrong as the roots were all on the left hand side.
I took it on board and with a slight rotation anticlockwise, the base becomes much better with an even flare. Last night I tweaked the foliage with a twist in the opposite direction and then wired all the tiny branches. Hopefully you will agree that it is an improvement.
Regards,
Steven

Thanks Lee

There is new growth all over this one and I'm looking forward to starting the refinement of the foliage. Still need to reduce and rough up the deadwood.

Nice!
Do you plan to reduce the shari later on?

How does one reduce shari Xavier?
Steve I would wrap the live part and use heat to bend the jin more in line as how juniper jin is. Looks like deciduous now.

Oops Jinn not shari

The fast growth of this has really surprised me!
Next I'll be working on making the apex a little more rounded, creating separate 'clouds' in the foliage and as stated earlier, reducing the deadwood. Something like this:

Hi Steven,
Your juni is progressing very well. I would have tried to lower a bit the apex, by wiring some branches from the apex downwards to hide a pit the area where the dead wood joins the trunk. I would try to make one of the first primary branches much longer and lower than the other. As Oyakata used to say, juni comes from harsh environment, and needs to show that by exaggerating some elements and avoiding simetry.
Good luck! My juni is not growing much, and the foliage is rubbish. It is refusing to compact like itoigawa. It will need a lot more time nut I am still having tons of fun.
The decision to cut most of the branches was the right one.

G'day,

I thought Junipers were meant to be reasonably slow growers... Not this one! Or maybe its just that there are way more roots than foliage?
I've been pinching foliage regularly but I think I need to really get in and thin out the branches to create a better structure in the apex.

Like my others, this one needs a trim. The foliage is all juvenile and I'm hopeful that it will age if I let it grow on for a bit. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Regards,
Steven

Steven wrote:The foliage is all juvenile and I'm hopeful that it will age if I let it grow on for a bit. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Hi Steven looking very nice.
Juvenile foliage is caused by multiple things, lack of health, poor positioning, incorrect pruning etc. By the look of it id say it is sprouting juvenile foliage because it has either been pinches too much, or pruned too much. Have you been pinching all the foliage back, as in taking all the green foliage and pinching or have you been cutting extensions as they grow out? With scale foliage junipers you should only cut back extensions of growth, as in the dominant tip that extends out and cut back to another tip down lower.
To remove it you should wait for extensions to revert back to scale foliage which will appear from the juvenile. Once this happens you can prune as normal (cut extensions back to 25-50% in length and also remove juvenile growth by 50%. You must remove it in stages or else it will revert back again so cut 50% the first time and then if you prune again that season remove 25% of whats left and then the following year remove the rest.

G'day,

This guy was repotted about a month ago into this unique 'lava' pot by Lynette Smith.
I intended to do some carving on the dead wood but didn't get around to it before the repot and now will let the roots stabilise before any more work.
Over the next year I'm hopeful of getting the mature foliage back and will follow Hugh's advise from the post above.
After repotting the deadwood reached up to 255mm above the rim so I had to snip a little off last night

Height: 250mm
Pot: Lynette Smith
Accent: Lantern off my shelf