Juniper Chinensis forest of 5

Here my Juniper Chinensis forest of 5, that I started 2 years ago. As mentioned before in another topic, Juniper in Indonesia are placed in rice husk, that makes it difficult when potted in bonsai medium, some of the trees just don't make it. here are the stages. Today I cut all old branches and only left the tips, wiring starts tomorrow, will update ASAP. My plan is to place them on a a slap after the wiring and a rest period of minimum 3 month. Sorry pictures are random.

You have expended a lot of work and creativity. And thanks for sharing. I would suggest that you take advantage of Google and look at a lot of forest style bonsai (or even saikei). As for your current design when you repot, not to early, the trees should not be symmetrical, equal distance apart. The also normally are to one side or the other and the tops form a triangle. Good start and thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the reply, I got these trees just in a pot, the final will be more trees, i got something in mind. They like to die on me too, so i take it slow. However show me a picture of what you have in mind. At least someone showed interest and give me some feed back, most appreciated. Thanks again.

andreas - in regards to feedback, i myself am overwhelmed with the number of trees you have posted all at once...

i am probably not be the only one who cannot digest all of that material at once, much less offer any comments...
(but i may be the only one to mention it )

perhaps posting just a couple at a time and spread apart would give everyone a chance to truly appreciate your contributions to this forum.

Well, just had the time to do it, plenty of time to get through them!
Hope we all benefit from being at this forum.

Btw, I just being through the forum and found that so many nice trees never showed up with any progress, a shame really! I thinke we could gain more respond if we more respond to efforts made!

Hi, I find this thread to be very informative in forest design.....if you can be bothered to read all the comments

https://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t8375-reborn-forest-murraya-sp#86983

I do,I also look at others. It's 2:30 in the morning, time to go sleep!

I have seen that one, it's absolutely great!

Today I started wiring the smallest tree of 5, this was also my problem tree where the top rally was deformed and had previous crack. I manage to straighten it up without damage.It took me 7 hours today. The juniper are very brittle and easy to be damaged when small wires go on. I am happy with the result so. There are some branches that not yet line up, but this will be taking care of with new growth and clipping in the future.
If someone wonders why I expose the roots, it is part of the planning in the future. This is only the training pot, there will be 7 trees in the future.

@ BobbyLane, thanks for the hint, a very nice post indeed.

DougB wrote:You have expended a lot of work and creativity.  And thanks for sharing.  I would suggest that you take advantage of Google and look at a lot of forest style bonsai (or even saikei).  As for your current design when you repot, not to early, the trees should not be symmetrical, equal distance apart.  The also normally are to one side or the other and the  tops form a triangle.  Good start and thanks for sharing.

Hi Dough, I just spend two days searching for more Juniper around Jakarta, I found a couple that I will add to the forest, I just have repotted this trees in single pots. In Indonesia (specially Jakarta) re-potting reporting Juniper is the hardest part to do, I can't really tell why (the heat condition is one factor), but as soon you touch the root system they start acting up. Needle regrowth, brown tips, drying in the all over condition, or worse even die off. I have made some pictures of how they actually being sold.

Some of the trees just being bagged into rice husk, where they even did not bother removing the previous bag. The medium is sometimes so dry at the centre, that the roots just running down in the poly bag and start building up at the bottom and or simply rot. I made some pictures that explain the situation.

I have bought these couple of trees that I will add to the 5 trees in progress, all of these will be placed on a huge slate (picture to follow soon).
These trees are smaller and/or larger to get the desired triangle you have mentioned. As to the 5 trees, they are still in the training pot and where not placed to stay in the current formation. However I take the advice given; and hope that the all over arrangement will give the desired result. One of the tree I bought has a very nice trunk, that are almost twice the diameter then the others, this tree will be placed in the  centre. I will cut the trees in hight to get the desired triangle shape in the future, this will however take some time before I can work on them. Any tips are highly welcomed.

I potted them on their own, it will take some time before they are settled and I can work on them. They will for sure add some character to the all over look.
As to the five trees, wiring still is in progress.

I been told I work my trees to hard, that is true, but no matter what you do and how long or careful you are, they act up anytime you work on them as above explained.

The following pictures will explain the condition, how they been offered. First of all I got to see that they will survive.

on the last tree, they just stacked the tree onto rice husk and filled the top with soil, the centre of the husk was bone dry. Lets hope they feel better in the new medium. time will tell.

Here an update on the new trees, that will join the forest in the future, they doing just fine, the treatment of Garden Tee and applying some soil of my older pine, the scrub and some red worms have an positive impact, all clear for the trees they are growing. New buds and growth are showing. One tree of the smaller one was , drying up a bit, these was probably that I used the concave cutter, which should be avoided with Juniper, however I got it done before and there it was no problem.