Because i have a lot of smaller shohin projects lately i thought it would be nice to have one bigger one for this year.
So i found myself a nice Shimpaku juniper yamadori. The Nursery were i bought it had it for about eight years and before that it was imported and dug out of the mountains of Japan.
This particular tree is of higher age and the it was the movement of the trunk, life veins and primary branches that caught my attention.
I decided to ask Teunis Jan a well known bonsai artist if he wanted to style it with me because i love advise from people with a lot of experience and i like his more western approach on bonsai.

First time we worked on it Masashi Hirao a Bonsai master who is responsible for the Mansei-en collection and garden and also the apprentice of the late Master Kato was there too and was kind enough to give me his vision and advise on this tree.
Some of the tips these two gave me was to always follow the character and movement of the tree, always style trees with a future perspective and whatever i did dont loose the big Jin,
And the biggest advice was to take it real slow especially on older trees, never rush things as the tree will respond with things you don't want and will take a long while to recover.

After being dug out and importing this tree responded with heaps of needle like juvenile foliage.
About 85% was juvenile foliage. It took Teunis Jan and the tree 8 years to get the mature foliage back.

So with all this in mind i started cleaning the trunk, adding some Jin and shari on the dead parts and minor pruning.
the last days i've been wiring the tree and i am still not ready or satisfied.
It's been wired lightly only with the purpose of bringing light and air into the tree and future design.
Detailed wiring such as wiring foliage upward will be done next year.
And on the last picture the back isn't wired and the apex has to be redone to get lower and more compact.
So more to come..

1st front


Chosen front


Before trunk cleaning


After trunk cleaning and adding shari


Little wiring but still not anywhere near to the final design.



So a little progression and i will post more in time.
to be continued.....

What a beautiful tree and im sure its only gonna get better with time thnx for sharing.

what a tree. and what a end result im jealous

thanks guys! i'll keep you posted on any progression.

This is wonderful, so I would like to ask you a couple of questions about this type of tree. I have brown edges on my Shimpaku. It I have read that this is caused by over-watering, or could it be too much heat outside? I really love these trees and wish to learn as much as possible. Thank You

That can have a lot of reasons. Do you mean brown tips or die back of foliage?
You can easily overwater them and it's best to let them dry out a little bit not whole (!) in between watering.
Junipers do grow in cracks and rocks of mountains or places were they are in soil with less nutrition. And holds almost no water and mostly has a great drainage.
They can withstand the hardest conditions and are really strong trees.

So in a pot make sure the soil drains really well but also make sure to add some for example akadama because it will hold enough water and can hold temperatures in the pot really well. The roots need that for healthy growth.
If the have root rot branches, foliage or the entire tree can die back.

About the heat.. Depends on were the tree stands in the garden and how big it is.
They like full sun but during the hottest part of the day especially summer season it's best to protect them, because also junipers and pines can burn the foliage.
My experience is that bigger trees can withstand the sun better than the smaller ones.
My smaller ones are in the shade during the hot midday sun.

They get sun full from sunset till about 1 o' clock than the garden is in the shade of some large trees and a house. at about 4 o'clock full sun comes back untill sundown.

Brown tips can come after pinching or pruning or when the smaller flowers at the tips are done.
Even parts that don't receive enough light can turn brown or die back whole.

As you can see things can have a lot of reasons so maybe you should post a picture because it's hard to determine what the problem is.

A little update today I did a little redesign on the tree.
I tilted the tree more so the trunkline goes down along side the pot.
This gave better movement and resulted in easier lowering the apex and repositioning the lower branches.
The overall look of the tree is now more compact and movement is better.

Still needs a lot of styling and redesigning, but it's enough work for now.
Ready for the winter.

Great work Chris!!

Thanks for the update! The tree is beautiful!

I like compact junipers, but this time I slightly overdone it.
Yesterday I lowered the lower trunk and arranged the foliage pads some more.
Also cut away some more branches.

The result is that the tree is still compact but more open and in line with the trunks movement.
Time will fill up the pads more and make it a full tree but more balanced.