Having Fun With The Juniper Procumbens
Part One

By Thomas J. U.S.A.

In a previous article, I wrote about how many bonsai enthusiasts, myself included, must do their collecting at local nurseries. The collection species this time is the very common Juniper Procumbens seen at almost every nursery and garden center in North America. Many advanced enthusiasts shy away from the procumbens juniper simply because it has been labeled for bonsai beginners and is the one that is most commonly referred to as the “mallsai”. There have been some exceptionally good specimens though, styled by some top name artists. Having been a deciduous tree person for all of my bonsai life, I decided to try my hand at these very common trees. I found out very soon that there is a fine line with these junipers, between looking like a shrub in a bonsai pot, and a bonsai tree in a bonsai pot. That fine line is branch structure. Most if not all one gallon procumbens junipers are too young to do any real styling immediately after purchase to make them look somewhat pleasing to the eye, and that is because they lack any real branch structure. Branch structure on any type of juniper is what makes it a work of art. On deciduous trees the term ramification is used to specify the fine detailed branch structure, and the same term could be applied to these junipers also.

After I realized I finally had something to wire in the way of branch structure, I started to trim and wire. The next picture shows the tree a few hours later trimmed and wired and placed in a different pot.

And here it is almost six years out of its one gallon container

I was happy with the results of the styling on this juniper but decided I would buy nothing less than a three gallon procumbens from now on. At least I would have a thicker trunk and some branch structure already formed that would just need to be thinned and wired. That’s when I came across this next one already somewhat styled by its previous owner but needing a lot of work all the same.

Since the tree was already wired to shape, all that was needed was to fill in a lot of the empty spaces to give it more of a finished look. For this I used the technique of pinching to shape. I was quite amazed at the progress I was getting by using this technique which causes the tree to backbud and fill in. The one drawback to doing constant pinching like this means it will be almost impossible not to get some browning on the tips of the foliage. This next picture shows a span of only three months. Notice how much it filled in. I probably fertilized once within this time span using a slow release fertilizer. All the growth is from the pinching technique.

Here it is two years later, full and with very compact foliage, the result of pinching and proper daily maintenance and a good fertilizer regiment.

This next procumbens was bought at the vendor area at the Kimura convention in Dallas in 2002.

I had high hopes for this one since it wasn’t very pricey. Since it was purchased in mid April, I chose to wait until next repotting to do any root work and pot selection. Working on this tree right at purchase probably wouldn't have caused it any major problems since these junipers are pretty forgiving, but I was relatively new to junipers at the time and decided to wait and give it a good chance. I mainly just pinched and kept the growth in check. When I finally got it out of its nursery container and into a pot and cleaned and wired it up, I realized that the trunk had a terrible reverse taper right at the base. Don’t ask me how it took me almost a year to notice it.

I’ve seen trees with reverse tapers that somehow really didn’t matter to the overall appearance of the tree, that is to say that it really wasn’t that distracting. That wasn’t the case with this one though. The more I looked at it, the more frustrated I got. Something had to be done, or this tree was going to be history. After I took some time to really look at the tree, I thought I might be able to use that reverse taper to somehow blend in with the rest of the tree. When I cleaned the tree up some more, I saw that the whole trunk was contorted more or less. I figured if I did some wiring and some more cleaning up, I might just be able to salvage this tree. What I finally ended up with is what you see here.

I’m really pleased with the way it came out. I’m sure there are those who would rather have maybe done an air layer at the point of the reverse taper. I chose rather to use what I had and give it more of an abstract look rather than the typical clean cut bonsai. It still needs a lot more work that will come in time.

End of Part One