The charm of Shari

Scheduled works on a Juniperus Chinensis

Twisting path

Yew : a splendid species

Thuja

 

Old Gold Juniper

On January 1996, walking through a nurnery ( Oltre Il Verde ), I noticed a nice Old Gold Juniper. It is among the best of this specie, usually it grows very luxuriant., the light green buds are numerous often with top florescence.
It was fairly probable for this tree to get its final destination in same city square or round about to make them nicer, but it wasn't like that, I bought it myself and from the moment I had this juniper on my working desk I began evaluating times and methods to realize this project of mine.
Different Juniper bonsai images coming form specialist magazines (both European and Japanese) began to intertwine on my mind.
I used the experience got frow many research and observation years, letting myself carried away from fantasy and personal taste.
It should be said that this kind of tree, if you do not reduce it on the early phase with drastical pruning it is difficult to obtain flakee vegetation (stinging); otherwise a scale vegetation would grow, an hard trouble in juniper cultivation.
Back to the point, toward the end of October I decided that was the right moment for the first modelling step on this juniper, I began thiw deadwood creation, two little jin placed one in front and the other on the right. Than I worked on the left one spending much more time because this was too long and I was in doubt whether to work it immediately, as a matter of fact watching the tree from the front this jin would have been on the back.
At the end I decided to shorten it, trying to move it as much as I could. Finally after height evaluation I noticed that keeping the top branch I never could have the right ratio, So I took of all the foliage from it and worde it as a jin, using for this purpose a special tool made by hand with the help of my friend Claudio using as a model a tool coming form master Kimura.
At this point, I began wiring to shape the tree according to the original idea and once the work was over, I repotted the tree in a hand made pot.

	Pic. # 1 - January 1996 as was it at the nursery.
	Pic. # 2 - March 1996 detail of the bend, a point to be treated with electrical drilling tools to make the tree in the right ratio.
	pic. # 3 - March 1996 after foliage selection and repotting using akadama only to ensure a good rootage and a quicker foliage growing.
	Pic. # 4 - Tree structure detail, please note the horizontal stump before working.
	Pic. # 5 - Tthis branch was very far on the back part but using rafia, 4 mm. copper wire and 2 wire guy I got it in the right position.
	Pic. # 6 - Toward the target, a few little touches and work will be over.

Pic. # 7 - Last works on the refinements: bark cleaning, lime sulphure application, repotting and moss placement.

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