New Sabina Juniper. Best course of action?

[Ply]

Passed a nursery on my way home and dropped in to pick up a procumbens. Unfortunately they were out of those, but they did have some sabina junipers. The specific cultivar is juniperus sabina "hicksii", a cultivar I hadn't heard of before nor could find much about. But for €12.50 I was willing to give it a shot.

It's seemingly healthy and vigorous, and somewhat on the larger side. About 65cm tall (~2ft) at it's highest point and 1,4m wide (~5 ft), at it's widest. 3cm (1 1/4") trunk. Nothing spectacular but good enough to mess around with.

What would be the best plan of action?

All I know so far is that ill be repotting it next year in early spring into a fully inorganic mix (pumice/lava/granite).

- Can I prune right now? If so how much is safe? Found some contradictory stuff as to when junipers can be pruned.
- I noticed the nursery put some osmocote on the soil. Is that enough for fertilisation? Or would it benefit from additional (liquid) fertilizer? How often?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

What would be the best plan of action?

Find a front and wire. When you've decided on a design, you can prune.
But be careful wiring a tree in the growing season. Junipers tend to slip their bark when the weather is warm.

 

[Ply]

Find a front and wire. When you've decided on a design, you can prune.
But be careful wiring a tree in the growing season. Junipers tend to slip their bark when the weather is warm.

But is it safe to prune a juniper now (in august)?

Also what's your fertilizing regime for your junipers?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I fertilize in summer, spring and fall. As for structural pruning, I do that whenever I think it needs it. I'm not sure if there's a best time for it.
Make sure you work from the outside inwards to chase foliage back towards the trunk.
Maintenance pruning after the first flush, and a second time in summer if the growth is there.

 

[StarGazer]

Save some of the branches you are planning to remove for use as deadwood, strip the bark and cambium to make some jin.

 

[Shibui]

Best time to prune junipers is when you have a juniper than needs pruning and branch cutters. IOW prune any time of year.
Slight bends can be done any time but save hard bending for dormant period.
Fertilize any time the plant is growing. Down here they never really go dormant so I fertilize at reduced frequency right through winter and increase as they start to grow in spring through summer.

Always hard to style a tree from photos because we can't see subtle details or slight changes of angle. Junipers are even harder as foliage hides many details so you'll probably have to make some decisions yourself.

Personally I'd take sabina back to the nursery. I've never managed to make any decent bonsai with sabina. Foliage of that species is too spread out and open for my liking.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I've never managed to make any decent bonsai with sabina. Foliage of that species is too spread out and open for my liking

The south European rastrera cultivar has pretty compact foliage that doesn't compare in any way to nursery material. Cuttings root easily too.
But it's true that most sabina hybrids have foliage that poses a challenge.

 

[Ply]

Personally I'd take sabina back to the nursery. I've never managed to make any decent bonsai with sabina. Foliage of that species is too spread out and open for my liking.

I've seen some nice examples of sabina juniper bonsais, so I'll just see what I can do with it. If it doesn't work out that's fine too.

Cleaned it up a little, left most as possible jins for now. Only removed branches I knew for sure I wasn't gonna use, and cut it back a little so it isn't as big. Removed maybe 20% of foliage so far.

Think I wanna go for a twink trunk style, 'small tree big tree' style. Something like this (not my drawing). There's a branch coming off right at the base that seems suitable, it has the right thickness relative to the main trunk and still has a lot of foliage down low (the one slightly behind the main trunk).

One reason why I haven't cut off more is that I don't know how far down the real root base is. As we're in summer I'm not sure how much further I can dig without stressing the tree too much.

Any ideas on styling welcome.

 

[Kadebe]

But is it safe to prune a juniper now (in august)?

Also what's your fertilizing regime for your junipers?