Juniper -Shimpaku?

[Craig]

Hi there, ive had this juniper for a while now. with its straightish trunk and no real style/direction, so i decided to try something new.. I havent styled a tree like this before so hopefully it looks ok,,The trunk is about 28mm thick and the heightat the moment is about 270mm,,,,, Your thought are always appreciated,,Thanks Craig

[Jamie]

Hi mate

I like where your heading with this one, if you wrap the trunk with bicycle inner tube tightly, then use a heavy wire and put some more movement if you feel the need otherwise i think you are heading in the right direction.

i dont think this one is shimpaku, i do think it is J. Chinesis x media "(variety)".

by the looks of it it can get nice tight foliage which is a good thing, trim it hard to get back budding, pinch it to increase density at the tips

Jamie

[Craig]

Thanks Jamie, I wasn't sure if it was Shimpaku so thanks for pointing that out. You read my thoughts on bending the trunk,so i'll get some heavy wire and some tube to wire a little more movement in the trunk.I wasnt too sure about taking more foliage off yet, so im letting it put on some new growth before a repot and trim/wire,.Thanks Craig

[Jamie]

hi mate

yea i am 99% sure it isnt shimpaku but definately one of the many varieties of what i said

I wouldnt remove any more foliage, wiring it now will be fine, make sure the bike tube is as tight as possible, this will guarantee the bark wont split from the trunk, using a heavy wire 5-6 mm should be good, you might need to do it twice if you do wire the second one spaced out a little from the first, this will give you a bit more support and holding strength.

look forward to seeing it done

Jamie

[Craig]

Thanks for the tech tips Jamie,,,,,,well i had a good look at the tree but i dont think i'll be able to bend the trunk as its too hard.. so for now at least i'm going to train the lower branch across to the right and use some foliage to hide a section of the trunk. Maybe when it recovers from the initial chop, i may be able to look at a more aggresive approach to bending the trunk,,till then this is what i've come up with

[Jamie]

hi mate

have a search through anttals posts, look for some threads named juniper squamata 1 , 2 or 3 and also one of mine with key words "juniper compression" it should come up with some threads where ant and myself have wrapped, strapped and compressed juni with trunks form 25-35mm. i moved one from 600mm in height to 280mm in height through compression with the same techniques, trunk was average 30mm.

jamie

[Graeme]

Looks as if you are heading in a good direction with this tree Craig.

The Juni's aren't that difficult to get movement into them, they just take brute strength. AS well as rubber tube, raffia works well, but if MUST be applied wet and it needs to be applied thickly. The method I use is to unravel the raffia before soaking it in a bucket of water. For that tree of yours I'd be looking at 2 X hanks of rafia. Wrap the raffia tightly around the tree, applying 3 thickness'before wiring with 5/6mm Aluminium wire. Then I go over the tree with another 2 X wraps of raffia. As the raffia drys you will find it actually tightens around the tree, further compressing the tree's cells, also has the effect of loosening the wire a bit, but the bends have been performed so no worries and allows the wire to remain a bit longer. When bending the trunk, dont worry about the creaking from the trunk as the raffia seals any broken cells well enough. Be very concerned over any cracking sounds tho' I usually leave the wire on untill the raffia rots away as well, no worries with the wire cutting in as the raffia rots quicker than the trunk thickens.
I have bent trunks over 35/40mm in diameter using this tecnique, although the bigger ones have needed levers and bars to get bent into shape. The juni's will probably take more bending than about any other tree used in Bonsai I think. If you get a chance, have a look at some of the bending Kimura has done. Fabulous stuff.

[Craig]

Jamie and Graeme, thanks guys , i will be searching through those posts.Graeme thats what i was concerned about, not having a great deal of experience with Junipers , when moving trunk by hand i could hear what appeared to me to be small cracking sounds, so i didnt bother to wire it up and try to bend it..Thanks to how you guys explained the process i will get some new wire and some raffia or tube and have a serious crack at it,.Thanks again , i'll let u know how it goes,,,Craig

[Craig]

Ok so found some bike tube and got some thick wire and wrapped the trunk and branch nice and firm. two wraps and then two wraps of wire(not exactly the neatest wiring job), its amazing how much wrapping the trunk helps, i didn't hear any creaking or cracking sounds at all. I think it look alot better now, ,thanks guys

[Jamie]

nice work craig!

That little bit of movement will help in the long run, you have changed it from a straight trunk to something with interest and now the foliage mass will work aswell! with your jin try and get it to flow a little better with the trunk before it sets to hard, you can use a little heat on it and it will move a little easier

Jamie

[Mitchell]

I didn't hear any creaking or cracking sounds at all.

That's because it wrapped in rubber, insulating the cracking sound.
Was compressing a bend 2 nights ago, sitting there turning the turnbuckle slowly, made great progression and shifted it as desired, not a crack or sound to be heard at all.
Until I spun the plant round and realized for the last 10 minutes of slow compressing, the branch had been tearing open along the grain and opened up the heartwood on the back of the curve. 3 inch long split, but not a single sound as it opened the grain length ways instead of cracking across the grain as you would expect...

Looks much better now Craig, even that bit of movement was enough to give it heaps more character. Well done!

[kvan64]

Very nice progress Craig. I like the movements.
DK

[Craig]

Thanks guys , its amazing how the right bit of advice can give you the confidence to do things you normally wouldn't..I'll work on the jins flow a bit more and keep you guys posted on my progress. I really appreciated all your help... Thanks again Craig

[Craig]

Hi all, looks like the juni's starting to recover, so obviously i didn't damage the branch/tree when bending. I moved the jin and i think it looks better, seems to give a better feeling of movement in the trunk line, wired some of the smaller branches aswell. I'd love to repot it now but think it'll grow stronger as is for now thanks Craig

[Graeme]

Good idea Craig, you have put that poor little fellow through a lot recently. Be an idea to just sit him in a protected spot for the next growing season and let it regain its former strength.
It is starting to look bloody good and I believe that apex jin is much nicer to the eye now.