AusBonsai

A client cancelled a regular appointment on Thursday morning so I had a few hours more than usual.
I've been working towards developing some good strong shohin junipers over the past few years. Unfortunately these are REALLY slow so it looks like an even longer term project than I first planned
This tree, and a couple of other slightly larger ones, have been grown as taller twisted trees with a view to adding plenty of jin and shari as they develop. I thought this one was thick enough to start to add the first shari. My plan is to keep widening the dead area as the tree grows. It should give more natural contours to the deadwood over time.
For size reference, this is in a 15cm diameter plastic pot
Here it is before: You may be able to see the spot where I have previously started a small area of shari wrapping around the trunk to incorporate a branch that was removed as a jin.

and after opening up the initial dead area further: Some of the remaining branches (lower left) are intentional sacrifice branches and I expect a few of the upper branches will also go as the tree develops.

As always, constructive criticism is welcome.

Awesome looking tree Neil! If it were mine I think I'd be compressing it a bit more.
Have you roughed up the heartwood or is it still smooth?
How many years since you did the initial shaping of the trunk?

Regards,
Steven

Thanks Steven. There are others that are far more compressed, almost tied into knots and others that will be far shorter and, hopefully, thicker. This was one of the earlier attempts and I'm happy with the taller, elegant trunk at this stage.
So far, all I've done is scrape/peel the bark and cambium off with a grafting knife and scissors. There are still a few little slivers of wood attached which I expect to fall off when they dry out a bit. I can't see much point in finishing the bare wood until it is ready for potting and show. The shari will be extended every few years as the tree grows and develops and the branched need to fill out a lot yet.

Not sure I can pin down a starting date though Steven. At a guess these would have been started as cuttings around 2010? The initial 30 cm tree wired and compressed to around 10 cm tall then allowed to grow freely for another year or 18 months. By then the elongating tip shoot is around 30cm long again so more wire and form the next couple of bends. Feed and grow for another couple of years until the tip is long enough to wire again and complete the top part of the trunk. Photos in this thread from 2015 show the top part rewired to make some changes to the top curves - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1307&hilit=japanese ... &start=180
Since then I've been just waiting for the trunks to thicken enough to start the deadwood. As I said, slow growing = slow progress.

After Treeman's reminder to lime sulphur deadwood I spent some time painting foul smelling yellow fluid onto all dead wood I could find. Also took the opportunity to take more photos of some of the other junipers I am developing, including this more compressed one because Steven said to. 15 cm pot, long branches are sacrifices and will be reduced to jin at some stage. Develop the foliage from the small branches at the apex.

Next one has a slightly more powerful trunk but still taller and upright. Another sacrifice branch at the apex to increase overall trunk thickness. One or more of the lower branches may also end up as jin.

This one is a few years older than the others. I think another branch on the apex needs to go. There's also a couple of sacrifice branches along the cascading trunk that will contribute to trunk development over the next few years. That pot is around 25 cm diam.

Thanks a lot guys now i want 10 seedlings of Shimpaku's to start my own i can already hear the missus....don't know where i'll source them tho, the nursery here isn't too crash hot and pricey

I have not used all of them up. I keep setting more cuttings each year so there are always a few available to make another generation of these or for others to do the same.
Also have quite a few that have had the first wire and bending.

just waiting on some pics from a source who will be in Canberra otherwise Shibui you'd be the go-to-man mate

Shibui will be in Canberra for Bonsai week workshop
and again for the Canberra Bonsai Society meeting April 1 (They've picked a very appropriate guest speaker for that meeting date )

I can deliver trees for Canberra customers at either event