AusBonsai

Hi guys!

Have been fairly quiet of late, but I'm back and have my latest and possibly my favorite tree to share.

This here's a Juniper Procumbens I recently acquired.
First job was to clean up the dead wood and apply some lime sulfur along with cleaning up the live vein.
Discovered a neat little base which will require cleaning when the tree is being repotted. Will have to see what's going on even lower in the soil!
And the result of a basic wiring and first styling for this tree.
Still needs to be thinned out a bit and possibly left until next autumn before a detail wiring can occur.

There's a lot of foliage on the tree at the moment which, when compared to the relatively thin trunk, seems to outbalance it quite a bit. So in addition to thinning, I shall be compressing the basic structure in order to balance the tree and give it a more elegant appearance.

Thanks for reading guys!

-Mo

Thanks for the post Mo. The difference between the shari and the live bark are quite nice and you could make this the main feature. Please keep us up-dated.

Watto - cheers mate! I hope you enjoy this as the tree develops.

Just finished thinning out most of the foliage which will be the future branches.. At which point there will hopefully be lots of back budding to allow the pads to be nice and dense.

EDIT: added updated pic

Oh god.

Can someone please place that the right way up silly computers! Always plotting against me.

Looking good Mo.

I'd love to see it in a better photo though!
With all due respect your photography is not doing your tree's any justice!

Hi Mo,

I think what you have done so far is fantastic from what you started with, the full length shari has come up a treat. Just keep an eye on it at soil level so it doesn't rot out.

This might come as a surprise but call it fate, but how your photo has come up sideways actually suits it. If you take into account the shari and its position, if the pads were to be flattened out, it could be quite an interesting tree, from a somewhat bland trunk, having a hangning canopy could be something to think about, the weather coming from the right, the exposed trunk showing the scars of it, yet it survives growing with it instead. (sorry I ramble, forgive me).

Look forward to seeing it progress.

Cheers

David

*edted for grammar

@boics

Thanks Boics, i actually got a new cam so my photog kit will be coming out as soon as I have this tree in a nice pot ! Sorry about the poor pics right now though hehe thought I'd sneak em in!

@David - thanks for the insight mate, and of course the kind words and encouragement.
The hanging foliage idea is definitely something to think about and to be honest it does have the appeal of the unique to it. Thanks for the food for thought!!

Here is my attempt at a better picture .

Cheers guys!

Much better pic mo.
Still not great but much improved!!!

Now your tree.

Looking good but.....
I think Dave has a really good point.
The trunk angle and foliage position aren't convincing to me.

The Literatiesque style Dave described may indeed be the better path for this tree.
The "story" and practicality of trunk, foliage and shari are potentially more fitting.

The issue I would have with such an arrangement is a couple of things - firstly, the base of the tree and the root mass would need to do a 180 to its current state (almost 180 lols!) and second i would lose the character of that base under the soil. Third the trunk has suffered significant rot and become very thin just above the base which unfortunately means I want it as far above the soil as possible for fear of it snapping! Fourth, the foliage is actually mostly from two points and would be much more difficult to style in the hanging or cascade style (put that down to lack of experience on my part I guess)... Finally and perhaps the most significant reason - i actually dont like hanging or cascading foliage - .

Sorry guys, I dont mean to sound arrogant or ignorant but I've put a lot of planning into the current design!

Im sure if you guys saw the tree in person you would see what I mean . On that note if either of you are in Melb I might bring it round at a meet or something to get an opinion in real life!! Would be totally different ball game if you said the same thing after seeing it for real .

Thanks heapsssss for the input though it realllly opens the mind to hear varying opinions

Thanks again!

Testing pic upload:

MoGanic wrote:Testing pic upload:

Here we go!

Repotted and branches slightly repositioned.

Like it a lot

Mo, I've followed a lot of your posts and though I'm only a newbie myself, I gotta say your wiring has come a long way. You seem to have really grasped the styling aspects of Junipers.
The lifted angle change makes the tree a lot more believeable. A very nice feminine tree, perhaps a smaller pot next year?

jezz_39 wrote:Mo, I've followed a lot of your posts and though I'm only a newbie myself, I gotta say your wiring has come a long way. You seem to have really grasped the styling aspects of Junipers.
The lifted angle change makes the tree a lot more believeable. A very nice feminine tree, perhaps a smaller pot next year?

Cheers mate, glad to know someones following haha. The wiring improvement is as a result of the teachings of Anttal and just lotssss of practice

Also, thanks for your kind words Jeremy! - I was aiming for a smaller pot however, the roots came out of a massive pot and I didn't want to do a lot of reduction this time around. I also needed to keep enough rootball to wire down for the drastic angle change. Future pot will be much smaller though to match the feminine nature of this tree.

davemc wrote:Like it a lot

Thanks Davemc! =D