Hi all,

This is my first post here. Canadian guy based in Tokyo. After feeling like I have needed a calming and creative outlook for quite some time and decided to look into Bonsai. After reading an entire book (in Japanese) on styling and care of Bonsai, I finally decided that If I had the patience to read the book, I probably have the patience to actually care for something.

I decided I would like to try a pine/juniper species but was having no luck at any of the home/garden centers in my area. As it turns out, one of the biggest bonsai nurseries in Tokyo is a short walk from my house. Went this afternoon, spent quite a long time looking at the materials available, got some great advice (and a free calendar ) from the owner and came home with this little Juniper.

As you can see, it has some taper and interesting trunk movement, but I cannot decide what styles might potentially suite this little tree. I'm hoping that some of you might have some ideas of how I could prune and shape it for the coming growing season?

Anyway, these pictures are after pruning off all of the dead/weak growth.
Looking forward to some responses from you,

Thanks!

Just to make sure.. Is this a joke?

Hi Leatherback,

No, not a joke, but I'm guessing you think so?
My first thought was to dismiss you as the typical internet forum troll who gets their jollies by beating up on people who are new to something. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen this.

However, trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, I did a little research on how bonsai practices differ in the West. I could be wrong here, but it appears that only trees with significant trunk development, that were likely grown in the ground are worthy of being dug up and developed into bonsai.

Assuming that is at least close to your definition, you might call what I have here little more than a twig in a pot.

However, all of my knowledge about bonsai until now, comes from strictly Japanese sources. Typically, bonsai here are developed from seeds/seedlings/very young plants through continuous cycles of training/growth/display (even from a tiny twig).

Wanting to follow that methodology myself, yes, I am already considering the future of this young plant and its potential. Keep in mind, in this climate, my experience is that everything grows very quickly.

Totally fine if this is not your definition of worthy material, or material that should be put in the ground for ten more years, but that will not be the way that I proceed.

I think your first point would be to define your best line from base to tip.

You have one off to the left and another to the right which obviously gives little flow. I would probably remove/ jin the right said when the time comes.

I think you should come up with some pote til ideas but at this stage you need all the growth you can get to induce some further strength / new growth.

Yamabudoudanshi wrote: However, all of my knowledge about bonsai until now, comes from strictly Japanese sources. Typically, bonsai here are developed from seeds/seedlings/very young plants through continuous cycles of training/growth/display (even from a tiny twig).

After your first post, I did not think you were joking. Now I think you are.

Fist tip:
Ask advise before you prune. Can't see what you have pruned, but you are left with branches with little foliage to the trunk - and it will not easily grow back.

Next, I'd put this in the ground for a couple of years.

Yamabudoudanshi wrote: Hi Leatherback,
No, not a joke, but I'm guessing you think so?
My first thought was to dismiss you as the typical internet forum troll who gets their jollies by beating up on people who are new to something. It wouldn't be the first time I've seen this.

And I am ure you have also noted that people whose first post to a forum are so unrealistic that it must be a joke, or in your work, a typical forum troll?

- You are in Tokyo, near to you is one of the most well known bonsai regions of the world
- You read japanese so you are able to communicate in Japanese
- You spent an afternoon in a nursery, and this is what you bought. You received advise on how to grow this
- You come to a forum explaining all this to people you do not know, asking them for advice how to proceed with this?

Sorry, but my first question ALWAYS is, what did the place where you got the plant from say the species is, how to grow it etc. So, you being in Japan, near a nursery where you got this, .. It feels a bit odd to ask advice here.

As for how you need to develop it.. What size do you have in mind for your final tree. This will determine how to proceed. Be it pruning, wiring, or chucking it in a bigger pot and growing it out more. That being said.. I am not sure what you pruned. But it looks like yo uremoved all the inner foliage. As such. for styling you might have to wait a bit. Not much left you can do, except for bending a few rbanches. Normally you make a bit of a plan and then you start your trimming.