Chinese Juniper Wind Swept

Hey all, herewith my first attempt at a windswept, still a long way from finished & need a more suitable & final pot but thought I would share anyway, comments & suggestions as always are appreciated.

Good start Joe. I would put some waves in both branches. Being straight is unnatural and uncomfortable to me. Let us know how it is doing in a few months.

I realy think that conifers don't look good as fukinagashi. You choose the most difficult style of bonsai.

Bolas wrote:I realy think that conifers don't look good as fukinagashi. You choose the most difficult style of bonsai.

Hi joewebb I think Bolas Right .I think you can turn Literati style much better ?

Thanks
Young

Hey Joe.

I'm with Doug, but, windswept is a notoriously difficult style as per Young and Bolas.

On a side note, whereabouts are you based? Surroundings look familiar

Cheers
Brent

Yes. Twin trunk literati would be better -- and doable.

Literati is also very difficult to do well.

My suggestions for this windswept.
- Open up/round the curve of the upper trunk a bit so it better matches the lower trunk
- Add some curves/undulations as suggested earlier - both up and down and side to side
- Separate some of the smaller branches from the main line of their trunks - up, down, front, back and a combination of these
- Make the curve of the lower trunk tighter so it becomes more of a cascade branch
- Make sure one of the branches is in the front and the other in the rear to add depth

Overall a nice start on a difficult style. I guess some of my suggestions are to move it into more of a semi-cascade which is generally an easier style.

in regards to marty's comments, it appears that the upper branch might be more front, with the lower one to the rear, though it is hard to see in the photo (and it being hard to see, i could be wrong).

and to my relative newbie understanding, it seems that it already is a semi-cascade as it does appear to go below the bottom of the pot (again, hard to tell in the photo and i could be wrong in my understanding of the technical difference between semi and full cascade)

at any rate, most of the suggestions to add curves and undulations are spot-on and will also serve to bring the foliage much closer to the trunk which will improve the look immensely... and one thing to keep in mind with windswept is that every single twig is windswept because the force of nature that shapes a tree by wind power will not allow a twig or branch to escape that force.

but having said all that, perhaps you could go for a semi-cascade-windswept-literati style
(seriously)

Hm.. Just a thought..

I do not know of a lot of winds that have a downward force on plants. So I would assume a windswept would have branches horizontal or upwards growing. not downwards?

At least the tips of windswept branches usually have an upward trend.

Bought the tree as nursery stock for less than $3 & wanted to create something to practice some skills as I'm a complete newbie at bonsai.

I tend to lean towards the semi cascade side myself after reading the comments posted & some study of online photos & literature of windswept. Beer city snake, the tip is indeed lower than the bottom of the pot. Marty, the top branch is in the front & the bottom branch is at the back, am definitively going to implement the suggestions as posted.

Brent, I'm based in Pretoria East South Africa