Try this

www.bonsaiempire.com/forum/help-me/13175...-help-try-here-first

But remember: this Is an art form with living material, trying kills plants....
First try to keep them alive, and use that time to learn what there is to learn about bonsai ( which will take about a lifetime...)

Thanks, lucR I've seen the links, watched the videos. They deal with large, old, bonsai trained trees. Totally doesn't answer my query. I will keep looking around, and practicing new ways.

You could tell me how you would do it?

I did suggest that you buy a book and join a club. If you do too much to the tree in one go it will suffer and you may lose the tree when there is no need. You will find that Junipers will sulk when the amount of work you have done at once is done. You do not need to make mistakes to learn, and trying to do it does not help you to learn. Stick to one thing at a time, learn how to water, it is not as easy as it might seem. Find a spot in your garden where the tree is happy, If you really want to have bonsai then join a club, you will find a good crowd of people willing to help you, it is by far the best way to learn.

Yorkshire Mike wrote: Thanks, lucR I've seen the links, watched the videos. They deal with large, old, bonsai trained trees. Totally doesn't answer my query. I will keep looking around, and practicing new ways.

You could tell me how you would do it?

Mike , I think you are pushing things a bit ( also a response on your answer in the help section).. Let me try to explain, bringing the answer into your world of art.
If I would ask you how to paint, would your answer be : yes, here is step by step what to do. The answer depends on so many variables that it is impossible to answer without writing down an entire book: have I painted yet, what have you painted, sort of paint, have you had any education in art, do you even know what art is, etcetera etcetera...
Returning to bonsai: there is no step by step guideline, there are too many variables depending on so many things. That's why I answered about trying to let your plant survive first. Horticultural knowledge goes above all other things about bonsai; if you don't have the knowledge about how to let your plant survive everything else stops. If you tell me now hey, I come from a long line of farmer/ gardeners then that's already one variable solved, but that is something we don't know. Bare in mind that questions like yours are asked here by the dozens, and only a few of us try to answer these questions, all be it for the .... th time.
Let me tell you that my very first question was exactly the same question as yours and that was only 5 years ago...
Bonsai is a marathon, not a sprint....

Yorkshire Mike wrote: So, constructive criticism please. Or don't bother.

Some experienced people trying to help, and the ungrateful mike complaining.
I will surely not bother you again.

Standard wisdom here is to repot at one time and wire a long time later. My original Sunset book from 1969 said do them all at once.

If you have a lot of trees, you probably repot them all to get within the repotting season and then wire when you get a chance. I don't see any botanical reason for not doing them at the same time.

Your pots are relatively inexpensive with dimensions resembling bonsai pots, so I would call them training pots. In the 70's pots were square or oval, brown or blue, and not a lot of variation. Modern show pots do not follow those rules. Usually they are hand made, individual sized, and you pick one to fit the exact dimensions of the tree. Or, you get something somewhere between $10 and $500 to fit your budget and your aesthetics. My trees will probably never see a show, so I don't go for expensive ones.

that's more constructive, thank you everybody.

I did not mean to complain about the guidance, some people just put sarcastic, non-productive comments, and not actually showing me any guidance. That's not how I would treat anyone wanting to get into something I have knowledge about, none of you are superior. I greatly appreciate the help and advice you have given me. I really do.

With regards to the trees, as Ivan just mentioned, he doesn't see a problem with it. Tree's near me, go through some horrendous weather, 5-10ft of snow drifts cover them and they junipers are one of the best surviving trees we have around these parts. So as I have another left in a plastic 'training pot' and it's very young, I will follow your advice, and train this one differently.

Also, I do not wish to put my tree's into competitions, their intrinsic and educational value to me is award winning and worth the effort and time spent. I have learnt a LOT from this blog, and others in a short time. I understand there are different ways to cover a canvas. I never bought a 'bonsai' labelled plant from a shop, as I want to achieve a standard myself, by failed attempts and effort.

I have found a bonsai school near me in Barnsley, hopefully, I aim to do some lessons there. As far as a club goes, there isn't one within very very long distance from me.

For me, the most important lesson would be: Ask questions. WAIT for answers. Then do.

You can seriously tick people off by posting a question, and then not even waiting as much as 24 hours to see wht responses come.
And if you come asking for help, it would help you to not start pissing people off by telling them they are not helpfull. So far, I think most posts have given you usefull information.

OK. well I've taken the advice, thanks.

it was this comment that annoyed me. "
... so you repotted, wired and pruned it at the same time? " Plays the funeral march".....

that's not really constructive is it. That's more like, you're a rookie. Laugh at him. Anyway, since then and asking for constructive feedback, people have given it. thanks

Yorkshire Mike wrote: OK. well I've taken the advice, thanks.

it was this comment that annoyed me. "
... so you repotted, wired and pruned it at the same time? " Plays the funeral march".....

that's not really constructive is it. That's more like, you're a rookie. Laugh at him. Anyway, since then and asking for constructive feedback, people have given it. thanks

That was me....first of all , as I said sometimes we are replying to the ..th person killing the ... th tree ....
Second, please understand that English is not the native language of everyone here, so what is considered humorous, or irony, or sarcasm is lost in translation or misunderstood due to cultural or grammatical differences...