Bonsai Juniper Trees

Juniper Cascade (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper “Karate Kid Tree” (juniper procumbens ‘nana’)
Juniper in a Water Pot (juniper procumbens “nana”)
Juniper Cascade (juniper procumbens nana)
San Jose Juniper (juniperus chinensis ’san jose’)
Juniper (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper Tree - Medium Juniper Procumbens “nana”
Juniper - Trained (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper Cascade (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper “Karate Kid Tree” (juniper procumbens ‘nana’)
Juniper in a Water Pot (juniper procumbens “nana”)
Juniper - Trained (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper (juniper procumbens nana)
Juniper Tree - Large (Juniper Procumbens “nana”)One day, while delivering a particularly intense sales pitch, I began to realize that I wasn’t lying. There really was some potential here. The more I studied the tree, the more it became apparent that I was not looking at a failure. The failure was mine—I had failed to see.I had been regarding the so-called faults as unacceptable and unforgivable. But I had been ignoring the tree’s assets: the sweep of the driftwood, the strategically positioned branches, the dense growth close to the trunk. I suddenly realized what the initial training followed by years of routine watering and the occasional feed had produced. Surely, any yamadori presenting that kind of potential would probably have equally serious faults that would require just as much work and ingenuity to resolve.


I took this tree into my workshop in late October 1994, where I worked on it for at least two or three hours every night, considering each move carefully, until early January 1995.
At the outset I decided to aim for the perfect result by disguising all evidence of the fact that this bonsai was a wraparound. To aim for anything less would defeat the purpose. I also made up my mind always to present the finished result as a phoenix graft—a distinct style in itself. If it was good enough, it would eventually gain the same integrity as a natural driftwood bonsai. To lie about it would simply turn it back into a tanuki.

1994: the real work begins

Before beginning to style this tree I spent many long hours wondering how to correct all the faults it presented. Not until I was fully satisfied that I could do this effectively, did I begin work on the design.

Getting the living trunks to fit snugly against the driftwood had proved impossible from the outset and, in places, I had neglected to remove the cambium beneath the bark inside the carved channels in the driftwood. Over the years this had caused new bark to form inside the channels. Also, in some areas there were still large gaps where I had found it necessary to carve away excessive amounts of driftwood just to enable the trunks to make reasonable contact with it throughout its length.

I had to completely remove the bark that had grown into the channels, which was not easy. As I scraped away with a variety of improvised tools, such as a sharpened screwdriver, a bent meat skewer and some odd implement I pirated from a manicure set, I became increasingly angry with myself for not being more conscientious years before.

More to come….