Mame Shimpaku Juniper

Shohin-bonsai nursery Akimoto, Japan

During my travel to Japan this year in July, I had the opportunity to visit several shohin bonsai growers. In Angyo I visited the nursery of Akimoto, a very friendly man, who sold me a small Shimpaku Juniper for a friendly prize. This coming Mame sized bonsai had a lot of good branches, a small compact trunk with good movement and tapering. So I decided to go with it, and in autumn I removed some foliage and turned living branches in to deadwood (jin) to add dramatic and reducing the size.

Today I took some time to adjust the foliage and place the branches. A few thin branches are not positioned because they are too thin and need just to be pinched when the overall foliage mass improves as it grows. Most of the future work will be careful pinching of the new growth to develop the wanted foliage pads.

The size now is 9 cm /  3,5 inches from base to the top jin.

First branches removed.
Jin (deadwood branches) are styled (September 2011).
Back side view.
Top view.

Wiring the first branches.
Positioning branches.
Deadwood area extended slightly at the trunk.
Initial styling ended. The small foliage pads looking untidy will be pinched in summer to adjust with the rest of the foliage, that now will need growth and carefull steady pinching to develop to dense foliage pads. Height is now 9 cm / 3,5 inches.

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