Six years shaping a nursery juniper into a bonsai

Some trees are bought with the trunk in mind, and this nursery juniper is a good example. Bonsai Empire documents six years of work on a tree that was about 20 years old when they bought it, and had already spent roughly ten years growing in the nursery to build up material. It cost around 200 USD, a serious investment that the authors feel was justified by the thickness and movement of the trunk.

The first styling was the most aggressive. They removed one branch that had grown too thick and replaced it with younger branches that bend more easily, and they removed between 30 and 40 percent of the foliage because the tree was healthy. They then cleared the hanging growth, paired branches of similar thickness, and wired them from the main branches toward the tips, using finer wire on the thin branches.

During repotting they covered the drainage holes with mesh and fixed two long wires to anchor the tree. They removed part of the nursery's organic soil and some old, dark roots, and used a mix of akadama, volcanic rock and pumice. The old soil is replaced gradually over several repottings so the roots are not stressed.

In years 2 to 4 they did very little beyond light pruning twice a year. In year 5 came a second styling with small branches and angles, plus another repotting. Today the tree is nearly finished, with denser foliage pads.

What I like most is the idea that a bonsai has no fixed goal: it gets refined every season. A curious detail is that the video title mentions 26 years, which probably also counts the earlier years in the nursery.

Source: Bonsai Empire