Juniper Styling over Easter 2012

Back in January I was looking for a nice juniper to fill a gap in my tree collection. I was after a shimpaku, quite large, aged and with a little room to refine and finish off myself. These trees aren't easy to find in the Uk so my day started with a 400 mile drive to visit John Hanby at his Newstead Bonsai center. This is one of the few places I visit where you can find a fair selection of great imported material. I wasn't disapointed as there were at least half a dozen trees to choose from and I had a great few hours narrowing the choice down to just one.

This tree came from Japan to Ginko bonsai Center in Belgium and was selected personally by John to go onto his nursery in Yorkshire, where it arrived in 2008. This is the ealiest picture I have of the wild Juniper Chinensis sergentii.....July 2008  and in August 2009 with some branch wiring started

The following year (2010) the tree was included in the Newstead 4 show and was fully wired and had a new pot too

This brings us up to January 2012 and the tree has come home with me to Cornwall. Since the show the tree has put on a fair amount of growth all over and John passed on many great tips for keeping these trees strong. Here we go on my bench, in a custom made Walsall Ceramics pot that John had made for the tree.

I let the winter pass while just studying the tree and the pictures I took to see where the tweaks would be made and on Good Friday I set to work defining the pads better and making some spaces. The day flew by and at the end I was happy - but the top of the trunk looked thick and heavy so just before dark I started a little carving and took a quick picture.

Saturday morning and the carving was done, the wood painted in lime sulphar and allowed to dry. Here is a picture from Easter Sunday - my favorite Juniper

I think there are a few areas under the pads to clean out further and I'll include the tree at the one day Bonsai South West event this coming May. The drum pot is just off center too, so the other evening I popped the tree out of the pot, just tilted it forward a touch and lined up the gap between the pot feeet, the rivet and the front of the tree. This also had the bonus of making the trunk base appear wider.

Here's the tree all lined up and the pot clean!

Thanks for reading.... Marcus