Peter's Bonsai Blog 

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Juniper No 5

This Literati style Juniper was acquired in March 2024.  It was one of a batch of trees being sold by a friend who had to give up the hobby for health reasons.

When I acquired it, the tree had been neglected for a few years and was very loose in its weed filled pot.  A lot of the foliage had died and there was a significant area of rot in the trunk, at the soil line.  The tree is approximately 750mm tall and was effectively supported by a single live vein.  There was a real danger that it could snap off.  As usual I forgot to take any pictures before I started the work.

Having cleaned out the dead foliage I realised that if the tree was to survive, I needed to strengthen the trunk at the base and to reinforce the way it was secured into the pot.

I therefore removed the loose and flaky deadwood, and treated the remaining dead material with “Ronseal Wet Rot Wood Hardener”.  I then inserted a number of hardwood timber dowels, glued into place with “Gorilla glue”.  This type of glue expands to fill any gaps and provides a very ridged connection.  I eventually used 4 separate dowels to secure the tree into the pot.  The exposed end of the dowels was simply carved with a Dremel, to make it look like a part of the deadwood.

I also inserted a number of chop sticks through the root ball, to help with securing the tree into the pot.

The images below show the base of the tree once the dowels have been carved away.

Having stabilised the base of the trunk and secured its connection into the pot it, I felt that the appearance of the trunk at the soil line needed to be improved.  Most Itoigawa junipers have a poor Nebari at the soil line, but in this instance the loss of the deadwood, was creating inverse taper, which I always find disturbing.

There are several techniques for adding material to the base of a trunk, The most obvious is to secure a piece of treated deadwood ( usually with simple wood screws)  and carving it to achieve the required shape.

In this instance I decided to build up the left hand side of the trunk with  car body filler.

This is a two part product; is available from “Toolstation”. The product I used was called “Big Boy Metal Filler.  It is a lot cheaper than wood filler, and because of its intended use on motor vehicles, the product is flexible, easily shaped with a Demel, and sticks to almost anything.

I built up the required thickness in layers, and applied acrylic paint, to get the required colour.

When you see the before and after mages (below) you can see the benefit.

On reflection this storey highlights that Bonsai is not just about horticulture and that our “Art”  can allow the use of many varied techniques to achieve an acceptible aesthetic.  This solution may not last indefinitely, but it has given the tree a second chance.  Further updates will be added as the tree evolves.