First time posting here. Hoping to learn and grow in the community, just like my bonsai.

Bought my first tree recently and he seems quite healthy overall. After looking over some styling techniques and caring guides, I'm thinking to eventually add some jin to the trunks. The end result will hopefully resemble something to the below 2 images; which is basically adding jin to part of the main trunk and branches, while keeping the greens bunched to the end of the right side of the cascade.

sergivaldo.projetobonsai.com/wp-content/.../dimens%C3%A3o05.jpg
aidobonsai.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/be-25-pag-51.jpg

I would like to get your opinions on the feasibility of this style for this particular tree. Do you think it's achievable? Or is there some other styles that is more suited for my tree's particular shape? Some images of the tree is attached below.

Thank you and looking forward to discussing these ideas with you all.

Hi, and welcome to the club.

Your vision is nice but unrealistic. The juniper you showed us is decennia older than the cutting you have. You have to think a lot smaller with the plant you are showing us.

If you are keeping it inside it will be dead in a month

leatherback wrote:

Hi, and welcome to the club.

Your vision is nice but unrealistic. The juniper you showed us is decennia older than the cutting you have. You have to think a lot smaller with the plant you are showing us.

Thanks for your advise. Didn't know the styling is something that needs to progress with age of the tree, will definitely look into this. So there is no way to add jin to this tree at all? How old do you think this tree is?

m5eaygeoff wrote:

If you are keeping it inside it will be dead in a month

Definitely keeping it outdoors. Bought it inside to get better lighting for the pictures.

You could add Jin and Shari to the tree because its your tree to do with as you please

I would focus on re-potting it into some nice soil in spring time next year and watch the growth habits of the tree for a year before cutting away anything. By the way the tree has grown and styling I would be tempted to grow it into a semi-cascade style in a nice un-glazed square pot. That way you can train it by wire, watch it grow and you can also grow sacrifice branches for cutting off in 3-4 years for some small Jin and Shari

I would definitely get yourself a nice un-glazed pot as the red bark will compliment the red clay look as they both become older and wiser

Junipers are a very slow growing tree so don't expect it to be the size of the images online in 5 years time :/

The second link is a Japanese Black pine I believe which is a different tree all together and grown in the Literati style.

Hope that I helped you out some and at the end of the day your just learning like I am

It is a verry young plant and there is a loy you could do, including getting rid of that stone, it does not5hing for it. There are branches that could be thinned out but it is immpossible without seeing it. It needs to have a few years in the ground to get some girt on the trunk and a lot more growth to be able to choose the branching. Style wise it could be semi cascade, but there are other options and it is far too soon to decide.

shaunbrook7104 wrote:

Junipers are a very slow growing tree so don't expect it to be the size of the images online in 5 years time :/

I'd replace 5 by 20.

shaunbrook7104 wrote:

You could add Jin and Shari to the tree because its your tree to do with as you please

I would focus on re-potting it into some nice soil in spring time next year and watch the growth habits of the tree for a year before cutting away anything. By the way the tree has grown and styling I would be tempted to grow it into a semi-cascade style in a nice un-glazed square pot. That way you can train it by wire, watch it grow and you can also grow sacrifice branches for cutting off in 3-4 years for some small Jin and Shari

I would definitely get yourself a nice un-glazed pot as the red bark will compliment the red clay look as they both become older and wiser

Junipers are a very slow growing tree so don't expect it to be the size of the images online in 5 years time :/

The second link is a Japanese Black pine I believe which is a different tree all together and grown in the Literati style.

Hope that I helped you out some and at the end of the day your just learning like I am

Thanks for all the tips!

I am definitely not expecting the tree to be big by any means. Was showing the pictures to convey the half jin half cascade idea I had in mind. But seems like the most important thing I can do now is to just wait and let the plant grow. Will definitely repot it in the spring, but overall, I don't want it to get too big. They seem to be a lot harder to take care of and manage then.

m5eaygeoff wrote:

It is a verry young plant and there is a loy you could do, including getting rid of that stone, it does not5hing for it. There are branches that could be thinned out but it is immpossible without seeing it. It needs to have a few years in the ground to get some girt on the trunk and a lot more growth to be able to choose the branching. Style wise it could be semi cascade, but there are other options and it is far too soon to decide.

Thanks! From what I'm hearing it seems that I should just let this plant grow for a few years. Maybe with some care and maintenance I can get some ideas on how to style it for in the long run.

Another question, I know I'm still new to the bonsai world and shouldn't rush into things, but do most of you have several plants? Seems like bonsai-Ing takes a lot of patience and the plants take months or years to grow. It seems that if I want to get really good at this hobby it's probably good to have several plants so I can get exposed to more species and get to trim/style them more frequently.

What people always seem to be forgetting is that trees live at a very, very much slower pace than we do.
I have a few bonsai, a couple of pre-bonasi, and quite a few plants that may become pre-bonsai. Apart from repottnig the ones that needed repotting, this year I have not done much more than trimming some shoots that grew too long.

New bonsaiists can't seem to wait until they can start cutting, chopping, pruning, repotting, and end up with young, thin trees that will never look like bonsai.

First thing you need to learn is to be patient and just let 'm grow.