Procumbens Juniper Styling Progression

[Nate.bonsai]

This is a procumbens juniper that I purchased from my favourite nursery in South Sydney in September 2013.

An extremely healthy tree on purchase, with a mass/mess (in a good way) of branches.

The first step was to select a front and then open up the front a bit so that I could see what was going on.

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The next step was to remove some of the unwanted mass. Rather than fixing an end result in my head and aiming for it, I tried to follow the form of the tree and keep/remove branches as worked for this particular trunk.

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There were several significant branches of which I was unsure, so left them on for further consideration, rather than being hasty. Over the ensuing period, I have gone back and successively removed most of these (my gut was right, it would seem).

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Once I had removed the unwanted branches, I wired the lower half of the tree (just the main branch lines) to start to get a feel for where the design would end up.

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I wired a little too tight and ended up removing all of the wire in June 2014 (less than 1 year later).

This growing season, the tree has burst into new growth and is now rather bushy. Today (November 2014) I have removed one of those branches that had been troubling me, being a set of three connected branches which came off at the first substantial bend on the right side of the trunk. I felt that they were filling what would otherwise be some nice negative space that would help to highlight the movement in the trunk at that level.

The planting angle that I think works best is to tilt the tree slightly to the right, to give it a bit more balance. However, I was about to set to and wire the whole tree properly when I thought to play one final time with the planting angle, tipping the tree on its side. Interesting.

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Now, before wiring the tree and setting the branches in their permanent place, I thought to check with the brains trust and see which position people thought was better.

I look forward to hearing.

[shibui]

On your upright version that horizontal part of the trunk grates with me. Not sure whether it is the lack of taper or just that small horizontal bit in an upright trunk???

In the cascade option these 2 factors do not seem to be a problem so looks better to me. Question is- Will the roots allow you to plant it at this angle? and are there branches to match the cascading trunk?

[Ray M]

Hi Nate.bonsai,
What do you think of these ideas? You would have to do something with the bottom right branch.

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Regards Ray

[Elmar]

Hi Nate.bonsai,
What do you think of these ideas? You would have to do something with the bottom right hand branch

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Regards Ray

Ray I love the pot! And I think that #2 is the better look - my opinion...



Cheers
EZ
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nate.bonsai]

Shibui, that section has been troubling me too. I have two solutions.

First, a very slight change of angle can make quite a difference. Perhaps I didn't take the shot from exactly the right angle. Here is another taken with a very slight change of viewpoint, which I think reduces the jarring nature of the straight section.

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However, it might be a little unrealistic to mark an "x" on the ground in front of the tree at the exact right viewing angle and ask any viewer to stand there. Ray's suggestion (image 2) is a good one. I still want to retain some of the movement and drama of the trunk leaning towards the left, and Ray's image 2 does this.

Second, the curve leading into the problematic section is a little too thick and heavy looking in the flesh. Te ease it off visually, I was considering removing a strip of bark. Following the growth pattern, it would look something like this (excuse the old-school 'virt', I am not tech savvy). I think that this masks the straight nature of the section reasonably well.

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I note that Shibui and Ray have both given suggestions for the upright, as opposed to the cascade composition. Does this mean that the upright is the clear natural choice?

[shibui]

Your last picture, with the shari curving round that bend does wonders for that section. I think that is probably the best solution for this tree.

[Elmar]

Agreed with shibui!


Cheers
EZ
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk