urban yamadori

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

Ok so one of the good things about working construction. When landscaping has to be removed you always get first dibs and everything is free. I've aquired alot of really cool material over the years , japanese maples galore, all sorts of old bonsai material. So here I have the opportunity to have about 12, 20+ year old garden junipers . They vary in size roughly 1-3 feet tall, massive trunks. There will be alot of dead wood and these still have alot of healthy foliage on them. Unfortunately they were always just hedged , but could Make some cool material one day. I pulled up one I knew I didn't want and it came up very easy with a great rootball. I really have a small window to snag these or there going in the dumpster. There are literally hundreds of these on the property and there all going. Pretty stoked.

ColinFraser · Oct 14, 2015

Sounds like you might be going into the juniper business

How are your grafting skills?

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

I've had pretty good luck. Grafting was a thought depending on the looks of the foliage once their cleared of the dead and get a good look at them . I'm going to stick them in some nursery pots and get rid of the dead, try and get some light into the inner parts and let them sit for a year or two. There will definitely be some up for grabs here soon. I'll post them on here for you guys to have first dibs if you want. Most of them have some real thick twisted trunks. Just need to get some back budding going. I can't just let them go in the dumpster though !

Cotyledon · Oct 14, 2015

That's some good material. Trees grown in the ground seem to have so much more character .

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

It's hard to tell really with these trunks too theres about 6 inches of mulch piled up on them. You could carve on these things for days though . Some really mature dead branches. I'm attempting to collect these within the next few weeks or there going to be chop suey. I'm going to try to get a big rootball as to not disturb them too much. I've never collected this time of the year.

rockm · Oct 14, 2015

Garden junipers are hard to get out of the ground alive, even in collecting season. Good luck

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

We'll see like i said before I got one up with a massive rootball with a little bit of work. I'm pretty confident it can be done

Tieball · Oct 14, 2015

I'm interested to see what you do with some of these. I have one. Just one. It was pulled from yard landscaping. A good 10" at the base. Root ball is compact. Root depth is about 6". No lower level foliage or branching though. All the foliage is out two or three feet. Trenched in March this year. Just pulled out a week ago. Grafting seems the way to go as I've not seen Juniper back bud low on mature old trunks. Keep posting progress.

ColinFraser · Oct 14, 2015

Doing a little urban digging myself today:

Another monster Bougainvillea . . .

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

They should in theory backbud once growing well and pruning new growth. That is a sweet looking trunk. Keep me posted too as I'll do the same. Yours has mature foliage must have not been messed with too muxh. These were all hedged every year so it's all juvenile. There are about 10 or so on the property that are massive 8-10 inch trunks and 6 foot tall. They just seem like a bear to handle not sure if I'm going to try anything with those they were hedged as well would take forever to get good material out of them. I did snag one a couple of months ago the guys had already pulled it out of the ground and we're hauling it to the dumpster. I stopped them and had em put it in the back of the truck. I gave it to a buddy.

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

ColinFraser said:
Doing a little urban digging myself today:
View attachment 83862
Another monster Bougainvillea . . .

Jesus haha that things a beast awesome. I really like working with the larger material. Goodluck !

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

I'm thinking we start a urban yamadori challenge , on the 5 year plan ! Any takers ?

Tieball · Oct 14, 2015

Tieball said:
I'm interested to see what you do with some of these. I have one. Just one.

When I trenched in March (near end of winter) I cut a lot of major thick roots. The Juniper continued good growth throughout the summer. When finally dug out the roots were very compact. My plan is to get good growth in 2016, stability, now that it's captured. Perhaps beginning work in 2017? I've been researching grafting. Not sure yet if I should graft native foliage or something new. Not sure. Solid base though. Roots will actually flatten out to 4" depth.

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

Shimpaku would be ideal there alot of good videos on the process. I keep a shimpaku as a sacrafice for grafting. I just let it grow wild and take cuttings as needed so that I have all size cuttings for different areas of the new tree to be grafted. I have yet to try and graft shimpaku onto procumbens or "garden junipers ". Has anyone had luck I've only done san jose

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

Tieball said:
When I trenched in March (near end of winter) I cut a lot of major thick roots. The Juniper continued good growth throughout the summer. When finally dug out the roots were very compact. My plan is to get good growth in 2016, stability, now that it's captured. Perhaps beginning work in 2017? I've been researching grafting. Not sure yet if I should graft native foliage or something new. Not sure.

I'd give it a chance at backbudding let it get established and them trim the new growth at the tips of the branches. Unless your dead set on grafting

Tieball · Oct 14, 2015

jriddell88 said:
I'd give it a chance at backbudding let it get established and them trim the new growth at the tips of the branches. Unless your dead set on grafting

Not at all dead set on grafting. I'm hoping new growth will happen. I need to learn about cutting the right way to encourage back budding.

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

Just keep an eye on the foliage that's on it now. In the spring/summer the shoots should extend out and should be very noticeable. This means that the tree is healthy . Cut those new shoots back with scissors and this should induce backbudding and will increase foliage pads . Pinching throughout the season only weakens the trees let them grow out then cut back. I would let it do its thing next season though. Just get a plan together

Stickroot · Oct 14, 2015

jriddell88 said:
I'm thinking we start a urban yamadori challenge , on the 5 year plan ! Any takers ?

I have this in front of one of my buildings, it used to be 8' long and 6' wide rectangle. I have been slowly cutting it back and clamp grafting branches to itself. It's coming out SOON!

I think the challenge will be fun!
I'm in.

jriddell88 · Oct 14, 2015

Stickroot said:
I have this in front of one of my buildings, it used to be 8' long and 6' wide rectangle. I have been slowly cutting it back and clamp grafting branches to itself. It's coming out SOON!View attachment 83866 View attachment 83867
I think the challenge will be fun!
I'm in.

Wiked ! Is that a yew ? Sweet trunk

Tieball · Oct 14, 2015

jriddell88 said:
Just keep an eye on the foliage that's on it now. In the spring/summer the shoots should extend out and should be very noticeable. This means that the tree is healthy.

Yes. I'll be waiting for spring to arrive and see if the Juniper survived the winter. The pot was to heavy to bury deeper in the ground for this winter. So, I built a "sandbox" wall well around the pot to the height of the pot. Filled with my native sand for an insulator. I'll cover the very top of the soil area with wood chips. But I want good snowfall to cover the Juniper as that added cover for our -20 windchill season.

urban yamadori

Omono

Attachments

Masterpiece

Omono

Mame

Omono

Spuds Moyogi

Omono

Masterpiece

Masterpiece

Omono

Attachments

Omono

Omono

Masterpiece

Attachments

Omono

Omono

Masterpiece

Omono

Masterpiece

Omono

Masterpiece

Similar threads