Juniperus Foemina

Eric Group

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Thanks for the correction Brian, I was just going by the nursery label but I should know by now to take things with a grain of salt. Anyhow, I saw potential and instantly knew how I would style it so I jumped on it.

My photography isn't up to par so I apologise if fine details don't show up. The tree is quite healthy, is most likely reasonably pot bound but will be fine for another season or 2. All buds are showing bright green.
For ID purposed here is a closeup of the foliage. It is not Chinensis Torulosa, and I'm not aware of many Parsonii being grown in the country. The foliage is not as tight as Shimpaku.
100% SURE it is not Parsonii...
Still could be some sort of Shimpaku... I don't vie that foliage as "too tight" to be Shimpaku. I have about 3-4 that were all given/ sold to me under the nam Shimpaku that have slightly varying foliage. It looks too "loose" for Kishu.. Too tight for Parsonii/ Pronana or just a regular Juniperus Chinensis Sargenti...
 

Jeremy

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Beautiful tree nicely styled. Can only get better with time.
Thankyou Vance. Majority of my trees are grown and cut back and a work in progress. I saw an opportunity to do a pleasing first styling with this Juniper. As is often the case it looks quite good in photos from the proposed front, but this one needs time to fill out certain areas so that it looks good from any viewing angle. I'm thinking in the future a nanban style pot? Ive been teasing myself online looking at some American pottery work...

It's a really nice tree! How big is it?
I should remember to include scale reference in photos. The tree is just over 2 feet tall, the main trunk is 2 inches thick.
 

Jeremy

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5 months later and I've got myself a shrub :eek: After the initial styling the entire tree reverted to juvenile growth so I've let it build up a full head of steam over the summer to try encourage mature foliage again.
I have been reluctant to do any pruning so as to not stress the tree and continue the juvenile trend, but its becoming so dense I'm concerned about losing interior/lower branches. The last photo shows the lowest branching which is the only section that hasn't produced any runners.
Should I prune back strong growth and unnecessary branches now? And what part of the runners can I cut back to? ie; take it back to the outline of the pad which would be the lignified section of the runner, or only back to the beginning of the green section?
Any help will be greatly appreciated to tame this thing, I fear I may have left it grow too long. Where do I start @Adair M ?
 

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justBonsai

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5 months later and I've got myself a shrub :eek: After the initial styling the entire tree reverted to juvenile growth so I've let it build up a full head of steam over the summer to try encourage mature foliage again.
I have been reluctant to do any pruning so as to not stress the tree and continue the juvenile trend, but its becoming so dense I'm concerned about losing interior/lower branches. The last photo shows the lowest branching which is the only section that hasn't produced any runners.
Should I prune back strong growth and unnecessary branches now? And what part of the runners can I cut back to? ie; take it back to the outline of the pad which would be the lignified section of the runner, or only back to the beginning of the green section?
Any help will be greatly appreciated to tame this thing, I fear I may have left it grow too long. Where do I start @Adair M ?
I think its probably just a foemina. I've found that older foeminas that have been rooted in the same soil for a long time will have mature scale foliage, but once any work is done to it or is given fertilizer it starts producing juvenile foliage right away. In any case the tree looks real healthy. I think the juvenile foliage looks fine though.
 

sorce

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grow too long

My God! I didn't realize the first post was from 1985!

Thats a lot of growth!

Find the "juniper pinching" post.
And a couple resources on creating pads and cutting them.

Gangster!

Sorce
 

Adair M

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Wow! Super strong growth!

It's healthy!

Did you give it a lot of fertilizer? That groth is hard to believe!

Personally, I have not worked with foemina in years. All of them I have ever seen had needle foliage, and all of them had straight trunks. In fact, I never even knew they could make scale foliage!

So, how to get it back to scale foliage? I really don't know.

I have seen foemina with tight needle pads. So, to get it back to your styled image is possible, but it would have needle foliage instead of scale.

Where to start?

I would start with removing the downward growing branches and runners. You can cut back the runners at a joint. Doesn't matter if it's brown or green, cut back at a crotch.
 

Jeremy

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Wow! Super strong growth!

It's healthy!

Did you give it a lot of fertilizer? That groth is hard to believe!

Personally, I have not worked with foemina in years. All of them I have ever seen had needle foliage, and all of them had straight trunks. In fact, I never even knew they could make scale foliage!

So, how to get it back to scale foliage? I really don't know.

I have seen foemina with tight needle pads. So, to get it back to your styled image is possible, but it would have needle foliage instead of scale.

Where to start?

I would start with removing the downward growing branches and runners. You can cut back the runners at a joint. Doesn't matter if it's brown or green, cut back at a crotch.

The growth is surprising, considering it's still in a nursery can with what bonsai practitioners would consider poor soil. And the fertilising was quite minimal, after it began to grow back it was given a handful of 'rose food' pellets. I 'try' to give weekly doses of fish emulsion or chemical ferts during the growing season but often miss a week here and there. Thanks for the info, I'm still a little conflicted as a few posters were adamant this was not Foemina lol...IF it is, I'm guessing it can be treated the same way as Rigida in the fact you cut back very hard anywhere on the new growth and it will activate dormant buds? It is approaching autumn here but our winters are mild and this tree has a lot of energy so I would ideally like to do a bit of thinning and energy balancing while I can.
 

Smoke

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That's foemina sure as finding a sixth mistress of Ted Cruz. This is not an unusual shape for a foemina. They will grow candalabra style easily when trained young. They also make good raft subjects. Yes they can get adult scale foliage but it comes on third year growth and since these grow so hard if one waits three years to prune your bonsai will be a bush. Constant pruning and grooming makes these a juvenile foliage tree.
 

Jeremy

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Thanks for the reply @Smoke I'm off to browse the search function for info now, but I foresee a hell of a lot of 'foemina' jokes rather than solid horticultural information. If you don't mind helping me out, do I cut runners back to a stub, treating it like other needle junipers? In other words, cut wherever deep inside, so it's back to a silhouette, or is there a more methodical approach?
 

Smoke

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This is literally a juniper that you can almost defoliate (Not recommended) and it will bud back. Without being there I can only say prune to shape. Prune each pad for shape almost by shearing. Always keep the foliage short. If it gets away and gets long like that you are holding, it will get out of shape quickly. This juniper does not brown off like most when trimmed, so just have at it. Fertilizer is almost a waste of time, maybe fertilize twice a year tops. They benefit from a little organics in the soil and that's it.

Good luck finding much info on these, they are hard to get in much of the USA and even in California they are not used much anymore. The bone straight upright growth pattern has taken them out of vogue. they work well for demo's due to getting a somewhat cool looking lightning struck tree in a few hours.
 

Adair M

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That's good info, Smoke. I had one years ago. Arrow straight trunk. Made a formal upright out of it.

I've never seen one that wasn't straight up. Also, I've never seen one with scale foliage. Actually, I haven't seen any in a while... They were real popular back in the day when everybody was trying to copy "Goshin".
 

Adair M

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An Easter egg from the archives, @Smoke and maybe @Adair M, 1984, Tosh foemina demo at Alabama Bonsai Society.
Chasin Goshin...
View attachment 99278
There was a really nice one in Roswell, Ga back in the day... Larger trunked than that one. Even had the jinned apexes. There used to be a bonsai shop just on the other side of the river. Sorry, I can't remember the guy's name.

The planting was large. The trunks were 3 or 4 inches at the base. It was about 4 feet tall.

One day I went up there, and it was gone. I couldn't believe he sold it, it was his pride and joy! When I inquired, he told me it had been stolen! I was incredulous, he had pretty good security, or so I thought. And it would take a gang of three or four to pick it up...

Here's what happened: in broad daylight, late on a Saturday afternoon, a car and a pickup truck arrived. Three couples. They all appeared to know each other, they browsed around for a while. One girl gets interested in an inexpensive tropical tree, and gets the owner to repot it and mess with it back in the green house. She eventually buys it, and she and the guy she was with leave. The other four who were in the pickup are already gone. And so was the big forest.
 

jriddell88

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20151126_132820.jpg I've had this oNE for a littlw while now largest tree is around 36". Was from smokes side of the world designed by mr.inoshita . Next year I will be repotting it and thinking about tightening them all up a bit in the pot. Have all year to decide on a plan of action
 
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