Now that my Juniper has been wired and repotted into a larger pot, I figured I would go out and get a new tree to work on.  I had originally planned to get a semi-established tree that I could work on straight away, but when Wendy (my wife) found this little gem, I couldn't say no.

It is a Buxus Harlandii, or Harland Boxwood.   Right now, it stands at just shy of 6 inches tall and as such, has a lot of growing to do before I do any major work on it.

The Harland Boxwood is native to china, and is quite often used as a bonsai subject.  It is a hardy plant that that withstand a lot of bending and can tolerate dryness very well, so is good for the warmer climates here in Australia.  The leaves are small and glossy, and with time and care should become even smaller.

I've been staring at the small Juniper for a few days and finally decided what i'm going to do with it. As the tree has a natural kink in the trunk, i've decided to let the tree grow with that shape and will give it an informal upright style.

Today, my task was to wire the plant and give it the overall shape I desire.

As balance is a vital part of my belief system, and central to a lot of Bonsai themes, I decided to give the initial curve in the trunk a little more twist and then re-shaped the top part of the tree back towards the top and slightly to the front. The result is a fairly natural looking curve with the top of the tree close to being aligned with the trunk.

Before and after photos:

I am quite pleased with the result, especially considering this is my first time wiring a tree.

Wiring:

I had gone out and picked up 2.5mm aluminium wire but found it too heavy for my needs for this tree, so ended up opting for the 1mm wire that I got the other day. 1 strand of wire was not quite strong enough to create the desired bend, so I used 2 of them for the lower part of the tree.

It took a few attempts to get it wired and I was worried that I might damage the tree, but it turns out this little thing is pretty damn hardy and it took a lot of punishment before I finally got the hang of what I was doing.

The picture to the right shows what I did.

Next Step:

The next step in the process is to wire the smaller branches, and then re-pot the plant.  I will be wiring the smaller branches tonight and will update with new photos tomorrow.

After that, comes re-potting.

I picked up a great small pot the other day, and have all the materials ready to go, so that is the task for tomorrow.