AusBonsai

had another look at this tree today and it needed a serious trim, and i started to simplify the areas a bit as well,
still unsure about the vast space but need to look at it for a little longer.

re my photographs i use a canon 400d for all my pics, with either a sigma 10-20mm or a canon 50mm f1.8

mate

you need to let this tree recover now, and feed it will, once it is growing strong again you are going to have to pinch out hard to chase some foliage back to the trunk. this will be a process over a fair while to. sorry pal

jamie

I agree with Jamie but good on you Alexgee for having a go in the first place. It often takes quite a bit of guts to make such a drastic cut to a tree so congrats on being confident, I would however watch that we arent just cutting more foliage off for the fun of it. I would like to see the foliage pads thicken up, you may be able to get the branches closer to the trunch by wiring more curves into them, this way they wont look soo far away from the trunk.

Also it is a little tricky to tell by the photos but the 3rd branch from the base, is it a back branch or a side branch? I would encourage this as a back branch to help give more depth to the design.

Keep on enjoying your tree!

Bonsaiboy87

bonsaiboy87 wrote:I agree with Jamie but good on you Alexgee for having a go in the first place. It often takes quite a bit of guts to make such a drastic cut to a tree so congrats on being confident, I would however watch that we arent just cutting more foliage off for the fun of it. I would like to see the foliage pads thicken up, you may be able to get the branches closer to the trunch by wiring more curves into them, this way they wont look soo far away from the trunk.

Also it is a little tricky to tell by the photos but the 3rd branch from the base, is it a back branch or a side branch? I would encourage this as a back branch to help give more depth to the design.

Keep on enjoying your tree!

Bonsaiboy87

this is true, compression wiring can help bring the pads in but it will also make the tree look taller by making the pads being smaller.

and yes everything else you have said is spot on mate

jamie

the third and forth are more front to back and the rest sideish

it was really clumped up and congested at most of the foliage areas, holding dead and brown foliage in with it, and most of the branches, had in the last few months grown into there wire.

yer i don't have the best luck with junipers but this seems a really strong tree and hopefully good will come of it

have a look at my thread on halfing the height of a juniper it was a tree i thought was ugly and i couldnt work with now looking like it has a future

quite a strong tree has pushed out lots of new growth , and has thrived with its redesign

woohooohooohooo thats been bent hard!!!

with some strong growth like you have been getting this will get better in time!


jamie

Wow you have changed this tree so much, you are certainly having fun with it, but the word junipretzel is now stuck in my mind...
Mine would lend itself very easily to that kind of treatment, but I will resist and continue to thicken it up. Looking at 2-3 years before I can do anything except take the occasional cutting. Still think you should have grown it on a bit more, but hey, its your tree, and junipers are relatively cheap.

Never reject any possible future unless you are sure you have nothing to learn from it.

Well done Alex; this has been a great excercise and practise in compression and survival. Now get your self another one one and think about how you can do all this AND get your design to flow. For this one is as ozzy stated earlier, all over the place. There is no direction and and flow in the design. therefor no credible story. BUT 10 points for the courageous manipulation of this tree. Keep it up!

still going

very healthy and finaly resembling something now.



full head of hair

Nice transformation Alex in only a year

I think it is too full with foliage now so get stuck in an start pinching to thin out

Good stuff

Ken

Have been building the deadwood up the main trunk. And the foliage is strong and thick , am just undecided were I am going with the foliage. I like the full complete shape just think it needs some spreading out.