Newbie Juniper

A Home Depot Juniper that I've had in 100% oil absorbent, 20-20-20 fertilizer, and half day full sun with mostly shade the rest of the evening. It's been in this oil absorbent from O'Reily Auto Parts for four months now.

I've done some wiring and pruning.

How does one put these in the ground and maintain any cascade effect training? Does this little guy look healthy? Any suggestions before leaving it to grow another year or two?

From what I can see in those pictures, you need to put some movement into the branches -- some curves (side to side and up and down). That's why you wire the branches; so you can bend them. Nothing in nature is that straight.

Nice material. I agree with Jim on the movement part. I think your gonna have fun with this one. Maybe do some sketches to give you some different ideas. Good luck and keep us posted. Joe

Thank you for the replies thus far. I've given the two longest branches a test bend and they are willing as far as pictured. After walking away from it for a while, I've decided I would like to see it with all three branches curved toward the longest. I heard the middle branch squeak saying "Not bending that way yet!" so I'll let the branches acclimate to the initial styling before pushing my luck again.

Will post photo progressions thruoghout though. Again, thanks for your help!

To look natural, I think your tree is going to need more than just a smooth, round bend. It needs to zig-zag. The bends need to be vertical as well as horizontal. You will be surprised at how sharp you can make those bends in the branches. The sharper the better for a natural look.

Here we are Sunday morning. I had to change wires - ugh! Don't ya love the inexperienced cleaning up their mess! I learned as I've now been told here and in other forums that this sp of Juniper is extremely flexible and forgivng but you must have a gauge wire that'll hold the bend or it slowly snaps back.

As suggested, I've managed a little more movement on the branches. Thank you all for giving me the courage to bend and shape the branches as I've never worked with this variety and found this one out of a couple of hundred and several trips to the garden center.

I'm amazed at how well it's done in this oil absorbent material. The water runs right through and Juniper is ready for another and another drink with no stagnant wet spots.

How do you experts ever put up with us....

Here's the progress.

How do you experts ever put up with us....

Oh, it's a struggle . . .

Looking better.

I suggest you Google on images of cascade juniper. Some of them show clearly what you need to work towards. I suggest right now you take the wires off, since that is not the step you are at. First you need to make one trunk (the thicker one) much longer than the other, so they don't compete. Then you need to work on back budding on those long bare sections. Once you have branches all up and down the trunk, you will know where the bends go. Meanwhile, you can loosely wire the trunks in just the general direction they need to go. Jim will correct me if I'm wrong.
Iris

Nope. You're right.

Well, I've decided against that cascade notion and just tightened up the overall body even further. The greenery seems OK so far and no die off after two weeks of being wired. After it sat with the initial styling (if you can call it that), I found the bends so much easier. This is not what I had envisioned for this little $10 plant but then again, what can you expect from a newbie, the given materials, and learning curb on how to pick 'em right.

A very interesting journey for me.



I've also created another Juniper procumbens topic here that I tried to style and turned way out in left field and beyond. I thought I saw something else in it but when I cleared some of the forest, well, it's there for any input. https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/bonsai-questions-f7/newbie-juniper-2-t4125.htm