• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Initial styling on a Rocky Mountain juniper

August 30, 2019 by Jonas Dupuich

I’ve been looking at a Rocky Mountain juniper in my garden for the last three years. The trunk is fairly straight, but there is interesting deadwood on one side.

Side A

Rocky Mountain juniper – side A

Side B

Side B

Although it was a while before I knew what I wanted to do with the tree, I’d set two goals right away: avoid vertical growth, and avoid long branches with poor taper or movement.

The first goal was easy to solve – select a new planting angle for the tree.

New angle

New planting angle

The second goal required a saw.

After pruning

After reducing the branches

With my two main goals accomplished, the next question was to come up with a plan for the foliage. The many small shoots along the trunk would make it easy to develop new branches without the need to graft, but I wasn’t convinced that leaving the tree tall was the best way to show off the tree’s best feature – the deadwood along the trunk.

To keep the focus on the natural deadwood, I removed all of the foliage except for the lowest block on the right side.

After reducing the foliage

After removing the foliage on the upper part of the trunk

Removing the small shoots really made the deadwood stand out. From here I started carving the upper branches.

Carving the first branch

After carving the top-left branch

Once the top-left branch started to take shape, I found that the middle section of the trunk was too long and straight. I reduced it and finished carving the right hand section of the trunk.

Deadwood detail

Deadwood on the top branch

Right side

View from the right side

Back side

View from the back

Styling complete

Carving complete – 15″ tall

I held off on wiring the tree as it’s already gone through a lot. I typically avoid removing so much foliage all at once, but I was curious how the tree would respond to the work. In the month since making the big cuts, the tree has grown well. I plan to repot it this winter into a smaller container suitable for a semi-cascade style tree. I’ll provide an update after the repotting.

✕

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Filed Under: Styling Tagged With: Deadwood, Pruning, Rocky Mountain Juniper

Previous Post: « Redwood Empire Bonsai Society’s 36th annual show
Next Post: Restoring health to an old Jeffrey pine – update and fall work »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. José Alberto Domingues Pereira says

    August 30, 2019 at 11:46 am

    Well…what a difference!
    Jonas, Don’t you think that is a lot of work at the same year?

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      August 30, 2019 at 2:51 pm

      Thanks José! Yes, this is more work than I recommend for this or any other time of year. It’s best to do the big cuts incrementally.

      I think of this as more of an experimental tree and I wanted to learn how the tree would respond if I did all of the work at once. I will provide an update if I learn anything about the effect of this work going forward.

      Thanks for the question!

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2023 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT