I have a common juniper, as you can tell from the picture the bottom has unique movement, but the rest of the tree is straight with 3 small branches at the top. Is there any techniques i can use to resemble a rocky mountain bonsai where the whole tree is just spectacularly shaped? Thank you guys so much!!

Is this a joke?

What do you mean? I sincerely am just asking for any tips or ideas. Its very young and i wanna start shaping it now.

Bonsai-legacy wrote:

What do you mean?

That I cannot believe you're being serious. What I see is a very young, underdeveloped, uninteresting and - actually - useless plant in wet muck.
You cannot shape this. Therés nothing to shape.

I sincerely am just asking for any tips or ideas. It's very young and i wanna start shaping it now.

Leave it alone. If it grows let it grow for several years.

If this seems harsh, sorry, but I'm just giving you the facts.

Yesterday I took an elm I had dig up to the local bonsai club workshop asking for ideas in styling. From three people I got four contradictory recommendations. Cut it off real low, cut it off medium, wire the branches off going slightly upwards, wire them up downwards to cover up the trunk. One said wait a year before doing anything, one said wire right now but don't cut anything, one said cut it off right now. They all agreed that it is my tree so I should do what I want.

So, the only thing you can really count on is that it is your tree.

One also said before making any decisions I should put it with the other trees and do something with it that adds to the collection. If I have five broom trees I don't need another. Do something that adds to the collection. That was good advice.

You did not get contradictory statements, what you got were different opinions. you asked for ideas and that is what you got. what is wrong with that? As you do not show us the tree then we cannot suggest anything either

Bonsai-legacy wrote:

I have a common juniper. Is there any techniques i can use to resemble a rocky mountain bonsai where the whole tree is just spectacularly shaped?

Yes, many techniques, but first it has to grow a lot more. Two or three seasons.
Then, IF it were mine, I would chop it down do the very first branch and restart from there.
It takes time.
And patience.

"Cut it off at six inches" and "leave it at 20 inches" sure seems contradictory to me. Both of these together would not be possible.

Advice is advice, not commands. What everyone agreed was look at it for a year and make a decision next year. Having just dug it up, major surgery would not be a good idea.