Remaking a Juniper Procumbens

By Thomas J.

As I noted in an earlier article, many people who get started in bonsai, do so by acquiring a procumbens juniper as their first tree.

Many of those will acquire their tree and immediately put it indoors on the coffee table or some other area of display, and in a short time the needles are turning brown, and the bonsai tree is all but dead.

There are also those who think that because the juniper procumbens is such a common type juniper to use for bonsai, that it must also be an easy species to work with, and one that would be referred to as "low maintenence".  Both not necessarially true.

Unless you are constantly keeping an eye on the shape, by doing your routine pinching, and keeping on a routine insect and pest schedule, along with a fertilization and iron program, your juniper will start to show signs of being nothing more than an unhappy shrub in a pot.

This article will show how I brought back one of these junipers, from a good looking bonsai to a shrub in a pot, and back to a good looking bonsai again.  I might add that none of this happened from neglect on my part, but was something that at the time was unavoidable.

Let me explain. Two years ago I purchased this procumbens at a bonsai nursery, that had been somewhat styled I guess you could say, and put in a bonsai pot for sale.

I knew exactly at the time of purchase what needed to be done to make this tree look like something that would be very appealing to the eye.

The main reason that I purchased this tree, though, was for the mature rather than juvenile foliage that it had. Little did I know at the time, that this also would be a hindrance to my plans.

Below is a picture of the restyling work I did on the tree showing the mature foliage, which is scale looking, almost like that of a shimpaku juniper.

I was really happy with what I achieved, and was hoping that it wouldn't be long before some of the bare spots near the top would fill in, and all would be well.

But then the inevitable happened, the tree started to revert back to juvenile foliage, and there went my design and future plans. As you can see from the picture below, the tree is losing not only its shape, but its attractiveness also.

Putting it in a different pot, hoping to do something that might give it a boost in appearence, was a good try, but not much help. There was only one solution hopefully, and that would be to start over, and hope for the best.

Starting over with a tree this young, is not an easy task, to make something that would be convincing as a bonsai that you would want to have, and something to hold your interest in.

The hardest part about starting over is the part where you just do nothing and just let it grow. The picture below shows what I mean.

This is also where patience comes into play. To have to look at something like this every day and wonder if you'll be able to make something good again, or whether it's just a waste of time. For those of you who don't have a teacher, or know someone with an eye for styling, my only advice to you is to look at as many  pictures of world class bonsai as you can for inspiration.  I'm not talking about copying someones work, only see how the artist did what he did, and try and develop your own eye for styling. You can view the Bonsai Gallery here on our site for this. Also, try to surf the bonsai forums and find some before and after pictures of other artists work.

Here's some links to get you going:
Bonsai Site Forums
Bonsai Talk Forums

After doing a major clean up of the branches, I knew excatly what needed to be wired to bring this tree back to something that would be acceptable as a bonsai, and something that I would continue to be interested in along with all my other favorite trees. Below is a picture showing the only two branches that needed to be wired on this tree.

And finally I have my bonsai back, remade over again, and even put back into its original pot, which I feel really compliments this design.

One very important thing to remember when doing any kind of styling, is to always keep the tree at eye level when doing this, and not looking down at it as seen in the picture below.

Even though sitting in its usual position on your outside bench, you'll probably always be looking down at the tree, this is not the position to do any kind of maintenence work such as pinching to shape. Always work the tree at eye level, because that is the way you will photograph your tree for any type of show or contest.

And yes there are some of you beginners out there reading this, who in due time will be entering their trees in world class bonsai contests.

No better time than now to prepare.