Time for an update.
Beginning of last year, in winter, the foliage of the juniper turned purplish. There are junipers that do that and it is normal. Mine however always stayed green during winter. The tree did not grow well that year, and when autumn started, things went bad. Tips of the trees started dying off, beginning at the lowest branch, but gradually spreading to all the branches.

Needles turning brown is normal - if it are old needles, at the base of the branches. Tips going brown is not good.

I am not sure what the cause was - root damage in winter, root damage in summer (pot getting too hot), bad drainage, overfertilizing, bugs (I did find a few tiny scale on some of the needles, but not enough to be the real cause of the issue.

I purchased a large container (had to drill a hole in it for drainage), filled it with split and placed the tree in it and poked holes in the soil. This to improve drainage,
that wasn't too great anymore (fallen apart Akadama). I purchased a small plastic greenhouse to keep it dry in winter (we've had loads of raim). This whole year I've been plucking dead needles / dead tips.
The tree did grow new tips, and it is looking a lot better now, though I still see buds that are weaker than usual.

Not having done anything else with the tree for almost 2 years, it kinda got out of shape. So, time to wire it. I think the tree is strong enough for that now.
It's a lot of work... I've only done the lower branch. Photos are not great, I may make better ones later.
Wiring will not win a price, but it holds - and it's not going to an exhibition any time soon

Glad to hear that the tree is getting stronger.
From what I see, it looks like you have some nice structure on the pads. The first branch looks like it overwhelms the tree (from the photo's so far). Was there a weaker first branch where the Shari is?
I ask because I want to learn.

And again,I realize how important it is to make photos.

I see this tree daily. I work on it often, especially this year, to remove dead needles, bad tips and to keep it clean.
When I see it, all I see is a tree that needs work and isn't there yet. When I see the previous picture though... I realize it has changed and I think it's making progress.

simplysaid wrote:

The first branch looks like it overwhelms the tree (from the photo's so far). Was there a weaker first branch where the Shari is?

Initially, this tree had multiple branches growing up - all the same girth so you could say the main trunk split into multiple trunks.

Not sure what you mean with 'overwhelms'? I know the trunk is relatively heavy and long, but there's not much I can do about it.
Note that only this trunk was wired, the rest will be done later and the higher branches will be brought down, to create more balance. However, I'm going to need a fair big of growth of these branches so that' s going to take time.

Auk wrote:

simplysaid wrote:

The first branch looks like it overwhelms the tree (from the photo's so far). Was there a weaker first branch where the Shari is?

Initially, this tree had multiple branches growing up - all the same girth so you could say the main trunk split into multiple trunks.

Not sure what you mean with 'overwhelms'? I know the trunk is relatively heavy and long, but there's not much I can do about it.

From these two photo's, the first branch seems to be a strong focal point. Will you post the front of the tree?

simplysaid wrote:

From these two photo's, the first branch seems to be a strong focal point. Will you post the front of the tree?

True. Note this is the back (or maybe the former back, i'm not sure yet) of the tree. Yes, I'll post more photos.

Very nice tree.
I love the picnic basket/bonsai tool kit.

Congrats, this is a damn good tree. Love the big branch, seems like it's saying "i'm the boss here!". Keep us updated, i'm looking forward to see his complete shape when you end the wiring process. Congrats again!

As I wrote in the previous update, the tree seemed to be recovering. There were many tips dying off, which is not a good thing. I lost a branch, and later two more, smaller ones. However, new buds formed, and the tree seemed to be doing getting stronger. I thought it was strong enough to wire it, so I did, the whole tree. Took me a few days, a few hours per day.

Then autumn came, and suddenly the tree turned purple again. It never did that before it was potted. It got through winter though, and at the end of winter, it quite quickly turned green again. There are still some weak spots, but new buds appear and they do not seem to die off. I hope I'll get more vigorous growth this year.

I thought it was really necessary to repot the tree. I found the current pot too deep and a bit too small. As I did not want to move the tree, the required size was a bit of a guess. I liked this pot, the depth is right, the colour is good. However... it appeared to big. Guess I'll have to change it. Probably not this year though.

Here's the picture taken with my Iphone. I may post another one when I find my camera.

This tree is simply outstanding