Needle Juniper Sinuous Root-connected Form Purchased, Designed and Wired at the Toronto Bonsai Society by David Johnson The Toronto Bonsai Society is closely linked to the history of this needle juniper (juniperus rigida). The story began when I purchased it from a vendor's table set up by Wing of the Sunflower and Gift Store at the TBS June Bonsai Show in 1998. It caught my attention because it was a needle juniper, a popular tree in Japanese bonsai. I had not seen this species available here before. The deal was done when Wing said it was winter hardy. June 1999 I did not have a design in mind but sometimes that takes time. I took the tree out of its black plastic nursery pot and transplanted it into a round plastic container to develop the root system horizontally. The tree grew this way for the rest of 1998. It was during my studies with Mr. Susumu Nakamura in February 1999 when I finally came up with a design idea for the tree. At Mr. Nakamura's Shonan School of Bonsai, I potted a needle juniper on its side and created the beginnings of a sinuous root-connected forest. With that idea in mind I brought the tree to the TBS meeting in May 2000. Several members helped me wrestle it into a long tray in an "S" pattern (the sinuous part). As is often case, the container was not large enough, so I repotted it the next day into a larger pot. Since the container was quite large, I used screened "Turfus" as the principal soil. May 2000 Following what I did at Mr. Nakamura's school, the tree was not scored underneath (scoring is often recommended to encourage roots). The branches were brought up through the soil. The existing root ball was teased out at the top and bottom to flatten the tree in the pot. Summer 2000 Five to ten per cent of the foliage was removed to compensate for any damaged roots. A year later in June 2001, some longer roots that emanated from the root ball were cut back because the tree showed good signs of growth. The vigorousness of the tree was remarkable since it did not receive any special treatment and got the usual amount of water and fertilizer. In September 2001, I dug into the soil farthest from the root ball to look for roots and found some. A definite good sign. More of the old root ball was cutback in the fall. June-July 2001 Confident that I could repot the tree into a Japanese container the following spring, I ordered a pot through the "Reiner Goebel" organized TBS pot and tool order in early 2002 before travelling to Japan. I chose a long shallow rectangular container for a forest planting with the idea of styling the trees with fairly straight trunks. The pot's dimensions were 23ퟘ inches long, 10' inches wide and 1¨‡ inches deep. In Japan I saw another needle juniper group with curving trunks in a rectangular container. I asked Mr. Nakamura his opinion of an appropriate container and he said that an oval one could be used for both straight and curved trunks. Fall 2001 In April 2002, I potted the tree into the new container after removing the old root ball since there were lots of new roots along the length of what was formerly the trunk. The new trunks, formerly branches, were straightened to grow upwards. At the same time about 50% of the foliage was removed to balance the loss of roots. At the TBS June 2002 Show, the forest trunks were wired adding slight curves. Later in August, 20% of the foliage was pruned. At this stage, one can see that the forest is too dense and needs to have some of the trees removed to create space to give the planting more definition. From left to right: some of the smaller trees have to be removed to create some space on the left side of the pot; in the mid-right area some of the trees of similar diameter should be thinned out; on the right side, about four trees should be removed to create a larger space to contrast with the left side. November 2002 Another minor concern is that a sinuous root-connected tree, unlike individual trees selected for a forest planting, is relatively young having many branches that now become trunks of a similar size. Variation in trunk size is more interesting and realistic. Therefore, I must keep this in mind when culling this year. I plan to plant the trees I remove into the ground and wire them with some sharp curves like those on small juniper bonsai and let them grow. Overall, the branches of the sinuous root forest need years of development and refinement. The height of the soil line has to be lowered as well. The prickly nature of needle juniper can be bothersome but what continues to amaze me is how vigorous this tree is. This characteristic should speed up its development into a nice bonsai.