new (never wired or pruned) juniper. need help

This is my new juniper and it has absolutely nothing done to it yet. I really have no idea where to start and this is my first. here are some pictures.
I have been doing some research and have found that I really like the look of windswept and root-over-rock. Is this possible with what I have?
please anyone with any helpful info feel free to share your knowledge







Cale.

It's hard to give any advice on the tree with pictures taken from above. Try to take pictures at "eye" level, with a plain background.

Your little tree, however, looks rather long and leggy. It probably will need to be cut way back before you can think of a design.

here are some eye level ones. thanks for the reply.

hi,
this would be the starting cuts


This will concentrate growth down near the trunk (s) where you want it rather than miles away up the other end of the tree. While the trunk is young and flexible you could add a wire and bend it to add some interesting curves. If not in years to come you may not like the straightness so it is easier to do at this stage. in time one trunk may be cut off but for now keep them both

Root on rock is very possible - spend the next year looking for a great rock with rugged texture, grooves, hollows etc and next repotting season you could begin - have an area of ground or a big deep pot ready though as the roots and rock need to be buried for a few years to do a good job.

cheers Marcus

perfect, thank you for the help, exactly the guidance i was looking for. ill do that this weekend. cant wait to find a really cool rock to use! Would it be possible to wire it to start it in a windswept style now then next year, like you said, start the rock process?

thanks,
Cale

i'd leave the tree 'not committed' to windswept until you find the rock. You may get a great rock that will be better with a cascade style so dont limit the choices at this early stage.

Generally the wiring of the branches on a juniper like this is very quick and easy so i would get some movement in the trunks, get the tree established on the rock and then form the branches once the tree and rock is back in a bonsai pot. It isnt a quick style to achieve though as the roots will take a couple of years to naturally start to clasp the rock.

cheers Marcus

Marcus's advice is good. A good thing to do is get yourself a bonsai "picture" book - what I mean by that is a book which isn't a "how to" but where really all there is is photos of top quality trees taken at major shows. Spend some time looking at them and try to work out in your head what the differences are between the tree you have and those in the book. The first thing you'll see is that your tree is significantly thinner than the show ones.

That is really why Marcus and the others are advising that you don't do anything more than a basic cut down and some initial wiring to get a shape into the tree. If you decide not to go for root over rock, the next thing we'll be telling you is to plant it in the open ground or in a very large training pot so you can let it grow and develop some trunk thickness. If you do go for it, you'll be burying the rock with the roots attached to it deeply anyway so the thickening process happens at the same time. But the trunk could do with a bit more girth to make it convincing as a bonsai. It also lets you play around with sharis which is what adds a bit of "personality" to a juniper.


There are some good progression sequences on that Bonsai4me site we told you about in your Introduction thread.

HERE
HERE
HERE (this one might give you an alternative to windswept and might suit your tree)
There are probably more - on the site just click Articles from the top menu

Hope this helps

thank you guys this is starting to make since haha. ill have to look up the initial wiring techniques before i start tomorrow. thanks all for the help! As far as a large pot goes, like you say to move it to so the trunk can grow, is something like a 5 gallon bucket fine

thanks
Cale

A 5-gallon pot probably would be OK -- 3 gallon might be better. If you get a pot that is too big, you start having potential watering problems because the tree's roots have difficulty pulling enough water out of the soil to let it get dry. Juniper prefer drier feet than many other trees.

Impatience is the newcomer's disease with bonsai; you get a tree and you want to to become a bonsai NOW. That seldom (never) happens.

Try the public library for books on bonsai. Most how-to books will have pictures of nice bonsai that you can study.

there are so many options to choose from on the internet.
I draw and this is based on your tree[img][/img]

thanks guys! i have been looking around a lot and think i will be able to get off to a pretty good start. also i have been reading about alternating fertilizers with the tree between a 20-20-20 and an acid based fertilizer every 2 weeks. does this sound correct to any of you?