Hi friends,

So i gained a lot of interest in Bonsai since i was like 14, which was a year ago,yes..im 15...I attempted a sage bonsai as we have a good size sage plant with an old-looking trunk,accidentally killed it because i pruned too many roots, and now im trying to train a Juniper Squamata into an informal upright style,only thing that i've done was remove all the foliage that was blocking the view of the trunk.I'm having some difficulties with deciding what branches to remove,some branches are still pretty thin so removing them can reduce the problem with styling it in the future.i will post a pic soon and any advice will be helpful..cheers!!

The first rule of bonsai:

you can only Style a living tree.
second rule:
trees that are healthy and stong respond to Training better than trees that are not.

Aside from that I can more than recommend the courses offered here. Without seeing the tree it is difficult to know which branches to prune.

herbonsai wrote:

So i gained a lot of interest in Bonsai since i was like 14, which was a year ago,yes..im 15...

Great... That is, in my opinion, a magnificent time to start learning and growing Bonsai. Fallbacks might come, just don´t give up. This hobby/art has a very strong tendency to reward those who persevere.

herbonsai wrote:

I attempted a sage bonsai as we have a good size sage plant with an old-looking trunk,accidentally killed it because i pruned too many roots,

First lesson... Please, do learn, do study, do your research, etc., before doing anything drastic to your trees/plants. Your success rate will increase exponentially if you sit, think, study, learn before acting or executing an irreversible technique over your trees/plants. Patience and time are the name here in this art/hobby.

herbonsai wrote:

and now im trying to train a Juniper Squamata into an informal upright style,only thing that i've done was remove all the foliage that was blocking the view of the trunk.

Again... Same advise as before... Idem

herbonsai wrote:

I'm having some difficulties with deciding what branches to remove,some branches are still pretty thin so removing them can reduce the problem with styling it in the future.i will post a pic soon and any advice will be helpful..cheers!!

Post a picture indeed. There isn´t much we can do without a photograph... Just one thing... Based on several previous posts that we all at some point have experienced, please, do make sure that you are keeping your Juniper outdoors and not inside your house/apartment/flat. If you do, please, do bear in mind that that is a Juniper killer issue.

Hope this might have been of help.

Alain

As you can see..the branches at the bottom are positioned in a not-so-good place,and the trunk divides into to two after that.Idk if i should even remove the second small trunk...i kind of like the look of the twin trunk,but then if i keep it it might cause inverse taper in the future

I would say, for now, focus on letting it grow and keeping it healthy. Styling can wait until it is thickened up a bit.
If you can, plant it in the ground by slipping it out of its pot (making sure to disturb the roots as little as possible). Some people prefer to keep their trees in regular plant pots while they grow, moving them into bigger pots when they outgrow their current pot. It's important to know that a tree is only put into a bonsai pot after it has done most of its growing and styling, before this point most trees are called "pre-bonsai."
That being said, I don't know too much about Junipers, so if anyone can correct me, please do.

Ed

After putting it in the ground, read the list here about what makes a bonsai. Then go out in the woods, walk around, look at some old trees, and see how they match the items on the list. If you can, find some big rocks and look at the trees growing there. Look at the roots and at the branches. How is yours different? How can you make it look like them? This may qualify as studying, but really, just enjoy looking at the trees and see what they look like.

Yeah i agree,im quite satisfied with the height,just need a thicker trunk,btw...i decided to remove one of the dividing trunks(the thick one),and keep the thinner one.I honestly think that's a good idea,as it gave a better taper.There are also 3 buds growing in the bald spots