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Hi, Here is a Shimpaku juniper I bought at the store for a cheap price. The tree measures 6 inches in height after styling not including container height. The nebari is just under the soil because this was its first new pot. It went directly from a 1 gallon nursery container to this red bonsai pot. Please, give it a good critique. Thank you, Gardener Guy Before:
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by greenman28 Nor Cal 7/8 (My Page) on Tue, May 25, 10 at 9:16
| Honestly, not a bad start! I might have left it in the larger container, however. Thanks for sharing! Josh |
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| If you had asked before you did the pruning, I think I would have tried to talk you into leaving all the branches, inducing some movement into the trunk so the branches weren't in a straight line, and planting it as a raft/grove/clump, moving eventually toward a 5 trunk grove planting - possibly a 3 trunk, which you could still do if you choose. As a windswept: I think I would change the planting angle of the main trunk to ALSO reflect the effects of the wind - IOW, orient it's slant to flow with the direction of the branches and not against the flow. Also, windswept trees usually look best with their branches in an upward attitude, rather than downward - as if the wind was blowing a more vertical branch to a more horizontal plane and the tree is resisting the wind's effect - you create a 'tension' between the tree and the wind that you can 'feel'. A more pronounced 'upswept' look at branch tips looks most natural. If the jin at the top is still fresh, wire it so you get the feeling it was also antagonized by the wind, but eventually the wind won. Shorten the jin on the windward side so it looks like it has been 'scoured off' by wind/sand/snow. Creating shari on the windward side after the tree recovers will also make it look like the wind at work and make the tree look like it's been battling the elements all its life. I can't see how the branches are oriented, but the lower branch should be moving slightly toward you, the middle branch slightly away from you, and the top branch a little more toward you than the bottom branch. Alternately, you could have the bottom branch oriented a little more toward you than mentioned originally and the top branch centered between the lower two. Al |
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- Posted by gardener_guy 6 (My Page) on Wed, May 26, 10 at 7:00
| Thank you AL for that great critique. If you saw the tree before I pruned it and wired it, you would have seen all of its problems. That is why I took off all of those branches. Originally I saw this tree as a cascade but then found, after pruning, that the main trunk was too straight and too unbendable. If the tree had been larger I might have split the trunk in two so it could be bent. This tree is way too small to go through that. Basically I am making do with what I have. After this first wiring, I will feed it boat loads of fertilizer so that I can get it as green and lush as possible. I need more stuff happening to it. As for your advice, the branch placement is correct with the middle in the back and the others forward. As for now, the tree is not making me smile yet. I hope someday I can look back at how this tree started and laugh. I want this tree to change drastically but still stay on a path as far as the style goes. Thank you, Gardener Guy |
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