juniper squamata cascade

[peterb]

Hi everyone I've had this juni for 2-3 years and generally left it to grow to thicken . It was in a cascade form when I got it but the trunk was very straight and the bend down was quite round. So I wired the trunk with thick wire and made the first bend more sharp and put some bends in the trunk, but then just left it as I didn't really have any idea how to work with it . Then Kez gave us that step by step which was very informative and I thought I'm going to have a go , so here it is. I've thinned out the foliage and tried to cut off everything growing above and below the pads and then wire it . I'm a little unsure of which way I'm going to go at the bottom of the cascade.
no1 do I cut this off,jin it and bring no2 more around to the left so that no3 is the bottom of the cascade or do I jin no3 the blue dotted area and make no1 as the bottom pad and use no2 as the branch above no1

[peterb]

Hey guys , how about a bit of input on the options that I'm looking at here. Which way would you go , longer or shorter
cheers peterb

[kcpoole]

Not much to do in my view just a little tweaking

In a virt, I have reduced the apex somewhat ( I do not like much above the bend on a cascade),
bent down the first left foliage pad to match the angle of the others.
Removed the bottom left one entirely.
made the upper foliage pads larger and then reducing moving down the tree.

additionally, is it possible to compress the bends to bring the foliage pads closer together?

Ken

[peterb]

Hi Ken, thanks for the virt . I've toyed with the idea of removing all the foliage above the bend but sort of followed the cascades I'd seen on the net, so i think I'll revisit that idea. I left the large bottom left pad because i was worried I'd cut off to much foliage , so i thought it would help keep up the vigour but then looked at the tree and wasn't to sure which to keep. Your virt helps make it clearer much appreciated. Just one more question, in that large a grow on pot how long do you think i can leave it between repots , it's been in that pot for 2 years now
Peterb

[kcpoole]

I would repot every 2 years just to make sure they have enough room to grow, The more roots that grow, the more above the roots will grow.

Ken

[peterb]

Thanks Ken , I'll repot it this year then. Appreciate the input
peterb