I thought I would share with you the progression of a little Juniper of mine. I have only had it briefly thus far so its not a big progression.
Junipers and I have always had a love hate relationship, I love them, they hate me and this resulted in an unbridalled hatred towards them. I have had a few over the years, but when my interest wained and my focus was elsewhere, they were always some of the first to perish. If there were a bonsai to be called "Instabonsai" then my attitude was always that towards them. Sad and bitter one might think I am, but I am not as I could draw no other conclusion but that has since changed and this is the one that has done it.
I got this in October last year from Bonsai South, I got it home and managed to take a photo before nothing was done, which is it here:
From there I proceeded to wire up every branch and pot it up into an oversized pot. This was the result of that:
I was content with that for the time being. Come January, it had recovered well from the repot and had put on some growth. The fact I hadn't killed it in that time was a miracle for me. These next photo's are from Jan 25:
*front
*side
I purposely kept every branch on it at the time of when it first styled and repotted it, I thought the extra foliage cannot hurt it in the recovery process from repotting and also, its there if needed come stage 2. I had some great ideas given to me from some mates and one in particular was always in the back of my mind (Cheers Craig for that
). I printed his virt out and took it outside with me when i went to work on it. I'm glad I did as I also had this next photo with me, the red denotes being removed:And the next minute it was:
I was thinking at the time after I had done it, Oh dear, please tell me it wasn't a...... moment. I reconcilled with myself that its for the better and was needed to be done, I can laugh at that now but at the time I could have cracked one or two macadamia's I'm sure. Now we're in April. After removing the unwanted branches, it seemed to then push out some nice growth in the remaining few, I guess they weren't competing for energy. Here is the tree on 16 April:
*thats the proposed front
*a view from the old front
In July I caught up with a good friend and upon a visit to a nursery, I came home with a pot that I thought would be a good match with this tree. Now I think it might have been dumb luck, perhaps a little bit of methodlogy behind the madness but decided to throw caution to the wind and repot it after wiring it up. This was it when it was repotted :
I wasn't happy that there was a void on the left hand side, it has been filled in from then. SInce I repotted it, I am happy with the growth it has put on. Not alot as its only a couple of months, but it seems happy nonetheless and content in its new pot. Here is a shot from today:
I'll be 100% honest and say yes, I am quite happy with where it sits at present but can see improvements that will occur in time. Let's face it, its still a baby and needs to mature, the shari will be developed but its only a few months since I created it. I got some great advice from Sir Ric upon a recent visit to such hallowed ground and a branch needs to be brought down closer to the trunk and then angled out. The pads need to grow, mature and fill out and the nebari needs to mature, its there but still fairly hidden. I do intend to keep it raised in this pot as I think it suits it moreso than if it were level with the rim.
I wil update this mid summer after it has put on some growth. Any comments or thoughts are genuinely welcomed.
Cheers
David
it shows how much you have learnt along the way.
