Chinese Juniper Blaauws 2

I bought this tree as raw starter material from Greenwood Bonsai Studio in 2001 and gave it it's first styling the following spring.  The big flaw on this tree was the roots.  Basically there was one large coiled root with very few side shoots.  I decided to persevere and aimed for a slanting style where the one sided root system could be used. I shortened the long root by as much as I dared at the time, but I still had to coil it in to the bonsai pot, hence the awkward position of the tree in the first picture. The tree was planted in to a very open soil mix which basically consisted of grit, composted bark and vermiculite and was fed with pelleted chicken manure and bonemeal to help root development,

2002

The tree was repotted in 2003 and the root had produced some fine feeder roots close to the trunk, which enabled me to shorten the main root further.  I found a piece of rock that pretty much fitted the curve in the lower trunk section to help and support the tree in the pot while the roots developed.  I continued with the same feeding regime and the tree put on good growth.  The new growth was pinched back regularly in order to develop the foliage pads.

2003

The tree had put on good growth and the foliage pads developed nicely, but the trunk did not really increase in diameter.  The root mass, while still one sided was now pretty fibrous and the long roof was removed completely. Feeding and pinching back continued as before.

2005

I was not happy with the proportion of the trunk to the overall height of the tree and decided to make a radical change.
Unfortunately I have lost the intermediate pictures due to fatal hard disk failure, so I have illustrated the process with the Computer enhanced images below.

 I chopped the tree above the first branch and used the secondary and tertiary branches to build a new apex and back branch. 

2006

The whole of the trunk and remaining branch were wired and a severe bend brought part A of the branch forward and up creating a new apex with small side branches.  This brought part C of the branch forward and down, making that the lowest side branch.on the right of the tree. Part B was brought around the back and  bent in to position between the new upper trunkline and the Jin left from removing the old trunk, in such a way that one part of it made a back branch and the other the left side branch.  .

The following year the tree was repotted and put in to a much shallower pot.  I increased the lean of the trunk to the left to give a better continuation of the base trunk line and to expose some surface root.  As you can see, the rock remained as part of the composition.  The tree was fed with Bio Gold and continuous pinching has built up the foliage pads.

The picture below is a current photo of the tree.
Further development will see the foliage pads thinned and defined in order to separate them and make the canopy lighter.

2010