Advice on a new Juni please

[Craig]

Anyone?

Hi Julz, as you are very new to bonsai and this is a nice bit of juni stock with some potential, this is my advice,,,

Clean out all the foliage of dead needles and twigs, then DO NOTHING, if you keep this tree for a while, just growing it and learning about how it grows, it's habits ,how to pinch and trim it , then in a year or two when your a little more practised you can have a go at starting to work it. There is NO rush when it comes to Junipers, you are far wiser to study the tree ,learn about it , keep it alive through a couple of repots and gain experience in general before worrying about what to do with it .

[rodm]

Hi JulzD,
Nice material, first sort out the roots most important, secondly go to the top and thin a bit more of the foliage out to let in air and light for future development,thirdly yes defiantly try to bend the trunk to reduce the height. Give your juni some seasol and powerfeed ( thats what I feed my junis with) promotes good health and ' well being'. Good luck with it ideal species for novices. rodm

[JulzD]

Thanks Rodm.
To get the roots sorted do you suggest getting that done now or is it best to wait until spring?
Also, is it going to be best to get them raked out and not cut any of them back at this stage? I am wary of taking too much more out of them right now. When I got this I took it out of the pot to see whether or not it would take staying in this pot for 12 months and I took some out of the roots - not much but just enough so that there was some space in the pot and it wasn't going to choke.

Let me know what you think and I would love some more perspectives on this. Also, given that I live outside Brisbane and the weather here tends to lack any sort of "cold" period to speak of I am curious as to what this means for root pruning.

While I'm at it, I've turned it around, given it plenty of sun and water on the side that is yellowing and it's not gotten a lot beter. Thoughts??

[Craig]

The first link i posted for you covered the rootpruning and spreading out, did you read it and understand it ?

heres the link for junipers, viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9083 , read it .

[JulzD]

Forgive me Craig, but I can't seem to find any other link than the one in your most recent post.
Did I miss it? I'll go through this most recent one now.

I have trolled through the forum a bit looking for as much advice as I can but as I'm not entirely familiar with the site yet I am obviously going to miss some important information that I'm sure is located in an entirely logical and easy-to-find location.

I do think that the roots do need to be cleaned out though, but I will read on and if any questions thereafter I will post forthwith.

[Craig]

sorry Julz , i just noticed i forgot to leave the other link - i owe you a -- viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9062 .

I still suggest this -

Anyone?

Hi Julz, as you are very new to bonsai and this is a nice bit of juni stock with some potential, this is my advice,,,

Clean out all the foliage of dead needles and twigs, then DO NOTHING, if you keep this tree for a while, just growing it and learning about how it grows, it's habits ,how to pinch and trim it , then in a year or two when your a little more practised you can have a go at starting to work it. There is NO rush when it comes to Junipers, you are far wiser to study the tree ,learn about it , keep it alive through a couple of repots and gain experience in general before worrying about what to do with it .

Forgive me Craig, but I can't seem to find any other link than the one in your most recent post.
Did I miss it? I'll go through this most recent one now.

I have trolled through the forum a bit looking for as much advice as I can but as I'm not entirely familiar with the site yet I am obviously going to miss some important information that I'm sure is located in an entirely logical and easy-to-find location.

I do think that the roots do need to be cleaned out though, but I will read on and if any questions thereafter I will post forthwith.

[JulzD]

Thanks Craig.

I am still a bit concerned about the root system though. I'll keep it healthy through what we have as an excuse for winter and look at raking out the roots and getting them healthy once it starts to warm up a bit again.

Thanks again guys.
Time to learn about the PJF I bought yesterday for my wife.

[rodm]

Hi Julz

[rodm]

Hi Julz,
Back again,( not real good at this computer stuff takes awhile). Junis can be given a light root prune now -most Junipers can be work on year, but the secret is to let them rest between workings at least 2-3 weeks. I livein Tamworth and gets down to -7 degrees in winter. Forge ahead with caution only trim off dead and over sized roots at present. rodm

[kcpoole]

Thanks Craig.

I am still a bit concerned about the root system though. I'll keep it healthy through what we have as an excuse for winter and look at raking out the roots and getting them healthy once it starts to warm up a bit again.

Thanks again guys.
Time to learn about the PJF I bought yesterday for my wife.

HI julz
Have a look thru the Wiki for timing of when to do what to our trees
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... hould_I%3F

Ken

[JulzD]

Hey Ken.

I have done so, and I have bookmarked it so that I can refer to it regularly.

[Andrew R]

Love this forum. So many good ideas and helpful people

[JulzD]

Hi all. I'm back to continue the thread on this Juniper.

I've not done much to it in the last two years except repot it and let it get used to its environment out here.
I'm about an hour southwest of Brisbane so climate dictates I'll see a good amount of growth on this until about mid-May.
So, what I have done in the last week is pinch out the seriously overgrown foliage back to the barest essentials with a view to branches within the next few weeks.
I am still torn however between a Cascade with seriously reduced height or more of a Literati/Informal Upright by standing the tree more upright again.

I'll post photos below for comments and/or suggestions. As always, anything is greatly appreciated.

[JulzD]

Ok folks. Here's some images of it pinched right out to get the branch structure out there and visible. Sooooo many branches to choose from.
Getting the final image of the tree in my mind is the difficult part right now. I have spent so much time looking at images of other trees for both inspiration and guidance I think I am in overload.
A fresh pair of eyes on this might see the final image in an instant...

[Damian79]

Pics?