Coastal juniper

[Ali]

Hi guy's,
after doing a bit of reading and discovering that small is not always good, I went and bought this Coastal Juniper.
It's quite big and bushy and has a trunk that you can see ( a lot better than the twiglike trunks on other tree's I have ) and some quite thick branches.
I know now is the time to trim the roots ect but any ideas on a way to go style wise ?
Please excuse the heaps of pics but wanted to try and get all sides and angles
I'm quite pleased with this one because to my untrained bonsai eye, I think it could end up looking quite nice... with some help







Ps can't figure out how to add pics that you click on to get bigger

[toohey]

Hi,
looks like a nice thick trunk.
I wish you could pull away the soil to reveal and further roots.
I could see a possibility from the last picture as a start to take of the bottom right branch and then other on the left a bit further up to give movement to your trunk.
Regards,
Michael

[Jamie]

gday

good to see a beginner trying to get a little bigger stock than "starters" that need a lot of growing! this piece has a fair few options and lots of branching which helps heaps!

the thing with shore juniper is the foliage is a little tougher to work with than other juni type. it is somewhat more coarse and has that appearance all the time unfortunately, but anyways, you could always trying grafting if you felt the need. shore juni are tough little buggers so dont be afraid to cut back hard. before the op I had to clear out a garden bed which has a big shore juni and a couple of big procumbens in it. they will be coming out thats for sure, they have to much potential to leave, but I got my cousin to cut all of them right back to bare trunks, the shore juni was the first to pop and now has a cm or so of shoot extension.

will finish the post after. gotta cruise.

[Chris Di Nola]

They are` great trees mate take a look at my album you will see one of mine that I have been working on for some years.
Shores Juniper or Juniperus conferta well worth the effort and very under used.

Cheers
Chris

[kcpoole]

Nice stock
some lovely Movement in that trunk to use and Plently of branches to select from

Are you going to style yourself, or workshop with someone?

ps, you probably have pplaced the pictures "inline", there is a selction box to do that when you upload

Ken

[hugh grant]

very nice stock.
just some quick advice for this one, dont just look at the tree from this angle but from all different angles. there's endless possibilities if you look at it differently

[Ali]

Nice stock
some lovely Movement in that trunk to use and Plently of branches to select from

Are you going to style yourself, or workshop with someone?

ps, you probably have pplaced the pictures "inline", there is a selction box to do that when you upload

Ken

Thanks guys, I'm going to have a go at this one myself ...just have to decide which way to go, either to wire up a branch as it has no main trunk so to speak, or give it a hard cutting back.
I will have to read up about how much to cut and where, it's quite daunting . On the upside it will grow back, so back I go to the books and net for ideas.

[GavinG]

For mine, don't cut back the top or the roots too hard, or too fast. And look underneath from all different angles, for the best trunk/branch line to follow. Most of what you have will eventually go, to get one zigzagging line with some clouds off it. Mostly with this species you'll end up semi-cascade or full cascade. They're not all that popular due to the "coarse needles", but compared to pines and so on, what's coarse about them? I think they are underused.

Good luck.

Gavin

[kcpoole]

Awesome and you will learn heaps

just 2 things to remeber with Junipers, a branch MUST have foliage left on it or will die. If you need to cut back hard and need back shooting, then you have to creep it back. Cut back to a branch or foliage and then wait till you get storing growth back further, then you can go in again a remove more.

And do not do hard pruning on the foliage and roots at the same time. Leave a season between each work.

Ken