Hello guys,

Relatively new to the hobby and just getting back into it (8 trees/saplings) later. today I bought some raw material I believe it is Chinese juniper of sort.
I hope you can see from the photos the main trunk immediately divides into 3, all these sections are around 50cm long and one of these divides into 3 even branches.

I'm trying to find inspiration on the Internet on what this tree is potentially capable of and will continue to do so as I don't want to rush anything (and still waiting for wire) but wondered if you guys being more advanced can see the potential already and any photos of potential trees are most welcomed.

I'm addicted

Front


Back

RayC wrote:

Relatively new to the hobby and just getting back into it (8 trees/saplings) later. today I bought some raw material I believe it is Chinese juniper of sort.

It's so much better to figure out what you buy before buying it. Ask the nursery where you bought it what it is exactly.

wondered if you guys being more advanced can see the potential

Nope, sorry, not based on these photos.

For future reference, not every tree can be turned into Bonsai.
Not every tree has potential, and so care must be taken in selecting a plant (I had a link but I lost it and it's too late for me to bother looking again. maybe someone else will have one)

Imho your tree, or at least what we can see of your tree, does not have much potential. Sorry.

Ed

I'm not saying it has no potential. We'd need a much better picture to be able to see the structure of the tree.
There could be a nice small tree in there.

I appreciate the photos aren't the best. It's sunny old England (sarcasm) the lighting was very bad today and the dense foliage does not help matters. I appreciate your input auk as I have been reading through the forums and have learned alot already through your posts (and others), despite your toughness on "newbs" I welcome it to improve like in everything I enjoy.

I'm hoping to get some wire tommorrow so would it help if I took pictures after wiring it to show its structure?

Left branch


Middle branch




I just took it in side, to see if the photos came out any better but it's hard to see through the foliage. I do not necessarily want it in this orientation but felt I could show it best.

very hard to say..

prune off all branches you certainly won't use / cut back those extremely long branches
and let it recover for a few years?

It's a juniper, you need to leave lots of green, when you prune, or it will die. Junipers are among the "newbie" trees, but, there's a few things you can't do to them:
1)Keep them inside (they need to be out in the sun)
2)Over water (they like it dry)
3)Prune off the green (they don't back bud well)

Maybe, there's a bonsai club close by.

be patient, let it grow while you learn. I can't see anything to cut, perhaps if you found someone that can touch it, they might be of help.

Dominion wrote:

prune off all branches you certainly won't use / cut back those extremely long branches
and let it recover for a few years?

I would leave the long branches. Remove the foliage from the first 30cm or so from the centre, so tht you get long bare branches with tufts of foliage at the end. Keep a few bits of foliage on the main trunk, and use the long side-branches as sacrifice branches to get the main trunk thicker. But find someone who can put his/her hands on the plant, turn it around etc. Judging what to do with a tree is very hard in 2D, and near impossible with a dense juniper.

Thank you again for the wonderful advice. I will do as instructed and then give it time to develop more.

When you say sacrifice branches leatherback, do you mean the real long branches or the little ones coming off of the main trunk towards the bottom?