AusBonsai

Just looking at Junipers at a few Bonsai nurseries and I've noticed that none of them really have thick trunks and not much taper. Even though they sell for $100 or more. Are Junipers somethings that's difficult to get a thick trunk and good taper?

You have alot to learn. Do you know how long it takes to get a juniper trunk to 2 inches or more?years and years and taper with junipers takes experience pruning at the right stages. Expect to pay alot more then $100 for such specimens.

Yes, junipers do take a long time to get thick trunks. Slow growth means it is also more time consuming to cut back and regrow which is the main way we get taper.
The good news is that junipers naturally don't have the same trunk shape as most deciduous trees in the wild so we should not expect our juniper bonsai to have trunks and nebari like a maple. Taper looks nice and is desirable, even in junipers, but lack of nebari and lack of taper should be expected.

I have noticed the lack of taper in juniper bonsai too. I assumed it was due to the fact that is so easy to wire movement into the trunk of even large specimens that people were more inclined to work with what they have than prune for movement and get taper too. Surely Junipers in nature have at least as much taper as, say, a pine? If so, shouldn't we prioritise taper more in our Junipers? Just because it is difficult to achieve, it doesn't mean we should settle for less, surely?
I am speaking as someone with little fondness for/experience with Junipers. Despite them being very popular as bonsai, I haven't seen many that are convincing to me as trees. Probably because the conifers I see around here (Brisbane) look nothing like the twisted, skinny bonsai I see.
Rant over

I doubt we'll see much juniper in Qld that has taper, they just don't seem to grow here like they do down south. If we can time travel and come back in a couple of hundred years we might start seeing suitable material.

melbrackstone wrote:I doubt we'll see much juniper in Qld that has taper, they just don't seem to grow here like they do down south. If we can time travel and come back in a couple of hundred years we might start seeing suitable material.

Bonsai is the patient art, but 200 years

We can grow so many other trees instead of juniper, with a much shorter wait time.

Surely Junipers in nature have at least as much taper as, say, a pine? If so, shouldn't we prioritise taper more in our Junipers? Just because it is difficult to achieve, it doesn't mean we should settle for less, surely?

Not having seen wild old junipers I can't compare but I do agree that we should look for some taper, even in junipers. I try to grow junipers with taper here - lots of long, low sacrifice branches and trunks cut regularly but it takes time and there are few buyers who want to pay appropriate recompense when simple, untapered procumbens are available for far less.

I will continue to grow junipers with taper and wild bends and twists because I want some good juniper bonsai of my own. Hope others will join the slow bonsai movement

It's great that you're doing this Neil.

I saw someone on fb yesterday trying to sell a juniper in a nursery pot for a thousand dollars.... There was no evidence of taper....

From a nursery in Australia Maybe not as big (yet) as the ones in Japan but definitely on the way. All the above are around 7-9 years old now having been started after Jow started talking about this issue in 2009 viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1307&hilit=japan

I should have qualified my "They just don't grow like that here."... and add "in Brisbane."

Well done Neil, I am glad you're doing the hard work on this. There is a grower up in Toowoomba that I know of who is doing what he can to provide stock for the future as well. Toowoomba is a much better climate for them, rather than down here on the coast.

I've been growing Shimpaku Juniper for the last 4years and they are definitely slow growing. I've been wiring and rewiring them while they are in the ground every year and putting new leader. I don't have the choice but to prune, making the growing process slower.