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The fall show for my bonsai club is coming up in a couple of weeks. Our fall show is open to any member who would like to bring trees to show, and it is not judged. It’s just a great opportunity to share bonsai with the public. 

I know several of our most experienced members will have trees unavailable for the show because of another exhibition, so I really would like to show at least two bonsai. Looking over my trees though, I felt like there was only one in “showable” condition. Maybe I could get this San Jose Juniper (Juniperus chinensis ‘San Jose’) cleaned up and ready to show. 


It’s a bit sloppy at the moment. Let’s see what I can do. First, I need to get the moss off the trunk. I want to get as much moss off the bark as possible without damaging the bark texture, so it’s careful tweezers work. 


I’ve had a couple of branches held with guy wires for several months. New wire will go on today, so I am going to remove these first. If they are still needed, I can put them back on later. 


Then it’s really all about wiring the branches so I can position them and clean up the shape of the tree. I’d like to do this while removing as little foliage as possible. The tree is doing well, but I don’t want it to lose any strength for this. 

I wire the lowest branch first. 


And gradually work my way up developing horizontal pads of foliage. 


I find wiring and positioning the branches of the apex particularly difficult, but I was happy with the compact form I was able to achieve. 


Since my goal is to show this, I also want to moss the surface of the soil. Not all in my club think this is important, but I like the way it looks. 

For this Juniper, I went with a pale, bluish lichen and moss mix.  I think it looks nice. 


Ready for the money shot? First, here’s before…


…and after:


If you’d like to see it in person, come out to the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society (NVBS) fall show at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, September 16-17.