AusBonsai

Yet another Juniper but this one was just given to me by Barry of Spirit of Bonsai here in Adelaide so I thought I'd enter it. Pretty typical of the Squamata's we get here, grown from a cutting and allowed to grow unchecked for a while, often wrapped around an upright stick to give some movement.

These are typically sold for about $25, it's approx. 5 years old and stands at 400mm.
Matt

Interesting, can't wait to see what you making out of it.

Finally got some time to work on this last night so here is the story do far...

My intention is to use the 2 upright branches as jins and have the main trunk curve over and weave it between the jins. The trunk isn't too thick but I decided to protect it just in case. First I wrapped it in 2 layers of water soaked raffia:
Then I added a layer of black electricians tape.
Then on goes the wire. This is the view from above.
Then it's bent into shape. You can get an idea of the final trunk shape.
I'm going to leave this alone for a while before I do the jins just to make sure the trunks survives the procedure. If not then I'll jin this trunk it and move to plan B! Otherwise it'll be time to choose the primary branches.

Matt.

Interesting idea Matt. Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses over 18 months.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Time for an update.

The tree seems to have survived the bending although a couple of the secondary branches look a bit faded and sad. Luckily there's plenty of strong growth where I need it so I thought it was time to work on the jins.

The first jin was created in late July and the second one a few days ago. There's no reason I did them separately other than I didn't have time to finish the job the first time around. After the jins were created I took the tree out of the plastic pot, combed out and trimmed the roots and planted it into a temporary bonsai pot with a nice open mix. I'll look at another replant into the final, smaller pot next year.

The plan for now is to leave it alone (other than fertilizer) and get some more strength into the secondary branches. At the moment it's hard to see the structure but it'll be clearer when I put the next round of wire on, sometime in summer when I'm happy with the growth. Looking at the pictures I'll also change the planting angle. The jins will need to be refined and reduced slightly to get them under 250mm.
Matt.

Not a lot to report on this one, just feeding the tree and letting it recover. There was quite a bit of dieback which was probably due to me restyling and repotting faster than I usually do, so I've learnt my lesson and I'll take it slower from now on. However the surviving branches are showing lots of new healthy growth so the tree will be fine.

I removed the wire from the jins and they've set nicely. I kept going and took off the wire and raffia from the branches and once again everything has held. Next step will be to refine the jins a bit and resist doing anything to the branches for a while.
Matt.

This Juniper has been enjoying the wet summer we've had and has been in the full sun since Christmas. Prior to that it had been in a more sheltered position with only full sun in the morning.

The new growth has been steady without being too rampant or leggy, which is just what I wanted. The large jins slowly lost the bends I put in them so the wire is back on and I'll use some superglue to protect the wood and hold them in place (Anyone here used superglue as a wood hardener/protector?). I wired up the primary branches and so I'll just let the tree put on more growth. Time to start thinking about the final pot.

Matt.

Coming along nicely Matt. Love the live bend. Cheers John.

Since February this Juniper has put on steady growth and is now looking pretty shaggy. Rather than refining the foliage pads I decided to repot now so it'll hits it's straps in Spring without slowing down. That was back in mid April and there's been no problems since then so I'll give it a light trim and then leave it alone over winter.

Custom pot my Luke Parsons.
Matt.

There's not much to say about this latest update. The tree has settled into it's new pot without showing any signs of stress, the primary branches have been wired into position and now I'm just waiting until I give it it's final trim and wire so there's new growth for the competition's end. In the meantime I'll refine the jins a bit. And find a stand. And an accent plant. Actually there's a fair bit to do.
Matt.

Final Submission:

This Juniper has survived everything I've thrown at it in the last 18 months and I'm fairly happy with the final result. The image I'm trying to convey is a tree in a rocky area near the coast that's been growing in a pocket of soil in a sheltered position, where the shelter changed recently exposing the extremes of the foliage and the tree is now hunkered down against the elements.

I like the way it's taken to the new pot and is looking really healthy. I also like the foliage pads weaving in and out of the jins which is hard to capture in a photo (especially with my lack of photography skills). There's some foliage near the base of trunk which I left as I intend to let it grow out to hopefully thicken the trunk a bit. In the future I'll keep on refining the foliage pads and get some better taper in the branches.

Thanks for the competition and good luck to all the other participants. I've enjoyed pushing myself up against a deadline and it's proven how much can be done in a couple of growing seasons. I've also liked having to really put some thought into getting the timing right to get the maximum results. Also thanks to Luke Parsons for the pot. He really took my ideas and ran with it!

Well done Matt!

This tree reminds me of the rather wind blown pines growing at Pt. Vincent - quite evocative!

Glad to see the pot suits the tree well too.

Cheers, Luke.

Luke Parsons
Adelaide Bonsai Pottery
https://www.facebook.com/AdelaideBonsaiPottery/