This post is a bit of a pictorial progression of a Shimpaku Juniper that i have been playing around with for a few years.
The tree came from a friend and ended up in my garden in 2024. It has spend the last couple of years re-growing more dense foliage and being slowly compacted and grown into a new shape. The process is somewhat outlined below.
As I began to clean up the trunk and foliage, some interesting features began to expose themselves. The beginnings of veins and shari started showing themselves which you can begin to see in the images above.
Some areas already had died back and created shari naturally and other areas i created it. This began to identify thinner live veins along the trunk. you can see the difference between the exposed wood, with the already dead areas being a dull brown and the freshly created areas of shari being white.
Once I had identified which veins were supplying certain branches and areas of the foliage i could begin to remove some if I pruned their corresponding branches off.
From here i thinned the foliage with the aim that this would create back budding and allow much more light into the inner areas, strengthening inner growth for use in future stylings.
The end of the first session involved roughly wiring the main branches, bringing them down toward where i saw their future. This also has the side benefit of lowering the tips which in turn helps buds on the inner upper sections of the branch gain access to light and strengthen. The foliage was still very much too long and leggy so these inner buds and potential back budding was very important.
After a season’s growth, now in 2025, the tree was re-potted and further pruned and roughly styled. Back budding had started and inner growth had strengthened enough to allow me to cut back to it. This drastically improved the trunk to foliage balance but left a way to go. Further shari work was done, thinning veins and defining sap paths.
Another year on in 2026. Foliage is improving and most of the original wispy leggy growth has been removed and replaced with much healthier, compact shoots. Shari’s have been extended and some carving has been undertaken. There is a lot more carving to do to really make the shari interesting but it is something that takes time and i find i quite like to do it over many sessions rather than all in one go. There are many areas that need filling in with more growth but i think the bones of the tree are in place. This winter i aim to re-pot the tree into a much smaller drum pot that i had lying around and i think will suit it quite well. The trunk, while not full of movement is beginning to become interesting and i think some further live vein thinning and shari carving will really add to the interest in this tree.
I really consider this the trees ‘first styling’ a process that has taken 2 years from rough stock and still has a long way to go. I hope it provides some insight in the time component that it can sometimes take to get a tree into shape. This is particularly the case with junipers that have been growing uncontrolled and need a new flush of foliage to provide the material you need to style a tree. If you have a juniper at home that is a bit leggy, i would recommend thinning it and beginning to chase the foliage back, it will speed up the development once you get around to the first styling.
Nichigo Bonsai 