I picked up a Juniperus Sargentii at a Home Depot clearance sale last weekend, and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. This is my first juniper of this size - maybe 3 feet (1 m) in diameter with a 2" (5 cm) trunk - and I've never tried to create jin or shari, so I'm hoping this will be an opportunity to try some new techniques. I'm willing to take some chances, since I paid only $11 for it. The only real risk is that I'll make a bad choice and miss an opportunity for something better.
The images below are of what I'm currently thinking will be the front. There's a large branch going off to the lower left that is almost certainly going to go. The trunk is split where this branch is attached and already has some deadwood in the wound, so I think that's a good candidate for a jin.
Otherwise, I'm undecided on where to go with the rest of it. The trunk kind of leans backward, which I don't like, but I might find that that changes when I repot it. My first impulse for pruning is to be conservative and keep everything centered over the main axis of the trunk, but I've seen many examples of junipers that lean so far that none of the live foliage is actually directly over the base of the trunk. I'm trying to be open-minded about that possibility as well, but I'm not seeing it yet.
Any and all suggestions will be appreciated - thanks!
More images, for anyone interested:
goo.gl/photos/fNGCsvjaZS8cDbgy6