Chinese Juniper

Hi all
I've been growing bonsai for about 24 years (with a few breaks due to career and place to live and such). I want to share a few and hope to make a few friends.
These are a pair of Chinese Junipers I collected from a friends' yard about 20 years ago. They were huge... almost 5 ft tall at the time.
I pruned them back enough to ensure survival and have worked throughout the years trimming them back to their current height and style. Most of the current branches were tiny shoots when they first were let to grow out.
I'm currently working on "finishing" them, they've been ready for some time now for that but work always keeps me from it!
I hope you like' em and I look forward to your feedback!

I like the first one quite a bit, especially the root flare, which I find really difficult to attain on these prostrate junipers. The things that I find my eye drawn to are the first branch on the right, which seems out of place, but this could also be due to the foliage being at the end only. I like your patience with these trees! It shows...

I think what you've done with them is really nice. And yes, the patience is certainly paying off. I've never been a real fan of the literati style, yet the way they have progressed accentuates a more "natural" feel to them.

Keep up the great work and keep us posted on the progress.

I'm not quite sure what to do with that "right" first branch which is really a second branch.
They both have interesting surface roots, which is why I've stuck with them.
Part of me wants to break the rules. The other part says this will be a neater tree without it altogether.
I have been taking the approach of letting the trees do their thing and I try to respond with these two.
Not being a professional bonsai artist I have the leisure of time and nature and really low expectations on my side.
Thanks for the feedback... I look forward to more!

When you get a chance to tighten up the foliage pads , the branch on the right in question may have a different feel to you and you might see it as 'surplus' to the design.

I'm going to do more pinching in this Summer to tighten things up more. By then the spring pinching session will have yielded some closer shoots. Thanks for the perspective... I will be eyeballing that branch more closely!

I like the style from the 2nd picture. The leaf stake is un-normal look like open stake. It will take some time to recover but when it do it will look nice.

First picture styling suggestion for my personal opinion
Remove No 1:- Remove until follow the shape of the main trunk.
Remove No 2:- Remove the small branches.
Bend Upwards - Too able to see the below trunk.

Samson
Thanks so much for the detailed advice. I am seriously considering all of your suggestions.
I'm not sure what you meant by leaf stake. My iPad does autofill... I'm wondering if that's what happened.

Can you elaborate what you meant? I'm interested in seeing what you were saying.

Thanks

John

I am not sure I use the right words "open leaf stake". So sorry for the poor image quality. Below picture was cut from my Taiwan Juniper Bonsai. Please correct me if u have other words that represent below explanation. Usually below problem occur after purning & pinching. It will appear after a few days or week it depands. It will recover but need to take some time...Still can't find the best solution to solve below issue. Any good idea or method can be share?

Ahhhh I see what you mean.
Some Chinese Junipers have both. When that happens all you can do is encourage the leaf state you like. On these I encourage the "open" version. It seems to be the dominant leaf state on these Junipers.
Shimpaku can get a few immature open needle branches... especially when they are new cuttings or get a harsh trimming. That goes away over time.

Maybe one day I'll try to graft Shimpaku onto them!

Samson Chong wrote:I am not sure I use the right words "open leaf stake". So sorry for the poor image quality. Below picture was cut from my Taiwan Juniper Bonsai. Please correct me if u have other words that represent below explanation. Usually below problem occur after pruning & pinching. It will appear after a few days or week it depends. It will recover but need to take some time...Still can't find the best solution to solve below issue. Any good idea or method can be share?

The growth you refer to as "open leaf stake" is really juvenile or immature growth, and the growth you refer to as "healthy leaf stake" is mature growth. The immature growth is stimulated by pruning and/or pinching. There is really no way to totally prevent this but it can be reduced some by not using too much fertilizer and more frequent but limited pruning/pinching. Some varieties of Juniper have more of this growth than others. One reason I like Shimpaku is that it has a limited amount of this growth. Your tropical location also encourages the immature growth.