Juniperus Squamata Meyeri - 'New Year, New Tree'

After receiving a rather generous birthday gift voucher from my Mum in December, I went off to Bushukan Bonsai Nursery in Hockley, Essex to purchase a piece of Pinus Sylvestris material I've had my eye on for months...

So naturally I ended up with another Juniper.

Run by Chrissie Leigh Walker, winner of Gold at Chelsea for Bonsai, and numerous other awards over the past few years for some fabulous pines, Bushukan is a gem. There are some extraordinary deals to be had compared to the likes of the more internet-prevalent Bonsai sites. Yes, you can drop £1500 on some kick-arse higly refined Acer or breathtaking Pinus with amazing deadwood, but what interests me is that there isn't a huge gulf in quality the lower down you go in cost if you have a good look around. I saw 2 x 80 ish cm high Larix material(part trained) at £125 each, which I'd expect to pay £300-£400 for on some of the more popular internet bonsai specialists. 

There's an absolute ton of really diverse raw material/part trained and show class trees there - framed by the world class trees they keep themselves. One of these days I'll go up and take loads of photos of the place - material et al, as I want this place to keep going and their internet presence is pretty much non existent. However, for now I'll stop waffling and concentrate on the post in hand.

I'm very pleased. If you've read any of my previous posts you'll know I'm a sucker for a Juniper. Having surveyed and inspected the trees on offer on a very wet and windy weekend, eventually deciding that the Scots Pine I've been coveting isn't quite right, I finally plumped for this Juniperus Squamata Meyeri (thanks to Corin @ Greenwoods for Species clarification) with tons of potential and wonderful presence.

Current front, I may rotate this slightly to bring the left around to the front a smidgeon more

Back view - the lower trunk is actually more pretty from this angle but the upper trunk prevents this from being the front as the apex leans away from the viewer

 

Left hand side view of trunk - you can see the frontal jin (on the right here) conveniently conceals the bend in the branch which forms the lower right canopy

 

Right hand side view

 

Frontal close up of trunk and eye poking Jin which will need reducing(it looks huge here due to the closeness of the lens, but this is just camera trickery)

It is pretty much untouched since original styling, with no evidence of any refinement other than basic structure building, but it's growing vigorously. It has a trunk approaching the thickness of a coke can, cracking aged bark with wonderful natural features, which will look beautiful once cleaned up, and some nice jins to refine/carve. I love the elegant conversation between trunkline & canopy(ies), and foliage is thick and luscious with good growth pretty much all over.


It's in need of a thinning however, having been left to grow with just the odd strong shoot being pruned back over the past 3 years. It'll need some space opening up in the middle to prevent dieback but it has a fabulous framework and I have a very clear idea of how I'll approach refining this tree. I'll give it a light going over but otherwise just leave it be for now.

 

With a repot on the horizon, I will have to wait until late this year or early next before any serious work commences, but in the meantime I'll just leave the image on here and spend some time percolating ideas and planning.... 
Another exciting project for me and one which I have a very specific idea of how I'll achieve it.
 

 
Thanks for reading... and thanks Mum xx