AusBonsai

Hey all, just thought I'd post the progress of my chinese juniper. Like all beginners, I was so eager to get into it I neglected to take any photo's of it when I bought it but I can tell you it was a normal looking juniper from the local woolies. Hoping to do some root work in September and transplant it to a styro box.

Hi Phoenix238 , nice start to your Juniper . Its actually a Juniperus Squamata or needle juniper . Plants are often mislabelled , even in Bonsai nurseries i have found incorrectly labelled pines and juni's , the suppliers don't always get it right , so it pays to do some research or at least a Google search . Many plants on Google are incorrectly identified as well so you need to search numerous pages on the net in order to get a positive I.D .

Cheers Alpineart

alpineart wrote:Hi Phoenix238 , nice start to your Juniper . Its actually a Juniperus Squamata or needle juniper . Plants are often mislabelled , even in Bonsai nurseries i have found incorrectly labelled pines and juni's , the suppliers don't always get it right , so it pays to do some research or at least a Google search . Many plants on Google are incorrectly identified as well so you need to search numerous pages on the net in order to get a positive I.D .

Cheers Alpineart

Oh really? Thanks Alpine, I'll have to remember that =)

Same tree 1 year later after repot and pruning

This one is now pushing new buds, so I haven't killed it yet

My question for you guys is how long can I leave the wire on? It's been on all winter so far. Last year I left it on too long and it started to bite in...

Phoenix238 wrote:This one is now pushing new buds, so I haven't killed it yet

My question for you guys is how long can I leave the wire on? It's been on all winter so far. Last year I left it on too long and it started to bite in...

Hi mate,

They don't grow through winter so it definitely wont have set yet. Best to leave it on until summer at least, but personally I'd leave it on for as long as possible.

Junipers callus and heal wire bite very quickly, if anything it actually helps to set the shape quicker if you let it bite in a bit.

Regards,
Mo


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You can leave wires on until they start to put pressure on the bark. Like watering, there's no timeline. It depends on how well your plant is growing - sometimes only a few weeks, sometimes several years.

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Hopefully it'll grow plenty this year

Rewired and light prune this morning, first attempt at trying to build a foliage pad. Some branches haven't developed enough to wire so they were left untouched to grow out


Before


After - front


After - top

Hi Phoenix, Looking so healthy, vigorous new growth. May I respectfully suggest that if you intend for this to be a semi cascade that you wire the first branch up to become a crown. You might also want to bring the tail forward. I would go to more of a full cascade but that is just my opinion. Have fun, Michael.

Hi Michael, thanks for the comments. What would that involve, wiring the first branch more vertically? I'm afraid this is the first bonsai I've styled so I may have a case of "Rose Tinted Glasses" when looking at it

Rewired most pads and changed the potting angle a week ago, looking to fill out the foliage pads now that the framework is there for most of them. The bottom 2 right side pads weren't wired as they need a bit more growth on them yet. I'm quite pleased with the new semi cascade potting angle

This one had a lot of vigorous growth this past year, very pleased with how healthy it appears to be! Gave it a root prune, repot, prune and wire. Removed about half of the roots so I could fit it into the pot.


Found this pot amongst a pile of old plastic pots, has a crack in it but beggars can't be choosers. This is after repotting but before pruning.


After a few hours wiring and pruning. This is my first tree in a proper pot

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I like the direction of this one. keep it up.

Thanks Mt. Nasura, not sure why the trunk looks white in the second lot of photo's but it's still brown like the first lot. Strange camera

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