Canoeguide's Little Christmas Tree Entry

[canoeguide]

There wasn't a lot at the local Lowes, Home Depot, or grocery store other than a TON of dwarf Alberta spruces, which I've been advised are pretty poor for bonsai. I may pick one up anyway since they are so inexpensive and then beat on it until it dies or looks interesting.

I ended up with two trees for now:

#1: Thuja occidentalis "Smaragd" or "Emerald Green Arborvitae"

$12, 1 gallon pot, 29" tall, 7/8" caliper at soil. At least this should overwinter fine if I can keep the deer away from it.





#2: Chamaecyparis lawsoniana "Elwoodii" or "Lawson Cypress"

This was a $5 "what the hell" purchase at the grocery store. 4" pot, 5/16" caliper at soil.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I didn't know they sold the smaragd cultivar abroad. Smaragd is Dutch for emerald. Good luck with them both!
And thanks for triggering my interest, now I want to find out who made the cultivar because it's probably someone from my country.

 

[canoeguide]

I didn't know they sold the smaragd cultivar abroad. Smaragd is Dutch for emerald. Good luck with them both!
And thanks for triggering my interest, now I want to find out who made the cultivar because it's probably someone from my country.

Thanks! Here you go: "This cultivar originated as a seedling selected in 1950 by D. T. Poulsen Nursery, Kvistgaard Denmark." - https://conifersociety.org/conifers/thuja-occidentalis-smaragd/

 

[Warpig]

Nice, looking forward to see how you take them. Good luck

 

[B.uneasy]

Can't wait to see where you take them!

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Thanks! Here you go: "This cultivar originated as a seedling selected in 1950 by D. T. Poulsen Nursery, Kvistgaard Denmark." - https://conifersociety.org/conifers/thuja-occidentalis-smaragd/

Awesome, thanks! It seems that they still exist as a company, but focused on roses.

 

[Djtommy]

Nice, looking forward to see how you take them. Good luck

i bet he already used the car

Can't wait to see where you take them!

to take them home...

oh well

 

[Silentrunning]

Be sure to get that red tin foil off your tree. That holds water in and can drown the roots. My tree’s soil was mud.

 

[canoeguide]

In the ground with some other random material for now. See you in 4-5 months!

 

[canoeguide]

Alright, I picked up a couple more 50%-off post-Xmas things to play with from Lowe's, bringing my total trees to 4. There were definitely still plenty of larger arborvitae and dwarf Alberta spruce available but I didn't want to spend very much. The one remaining colorado blue spruce was dropping needles like crazy and didn't look well, and someone just before me grabbed that last two mugo pines. The stone pines indoors were $1 and looked dead.

#3 Picea glauca "Conica" - Dwarf Alberta Spruce

$5.50, 1-gallon pot, 17" tall, 3/4" caliper at base of trunk, nebari 1.5". There is a potentially interesting bend/base at the soil line (not really pictured), which is why I chose this one. Also, a single trunk with no obvious whorls of reverse taper.



#4 Juniperus horizontalis "Wiltonii" - Blue Rug Juniper

$6.50, 1-gallon pot, looking very purple. Height: 3.5", caliper at soil 1/2".

 

[canoeguide]

I couldn't pass up two more possibilities on clearance for $3 total:

#5 Araucaria heterophylla - Norfolk Island Pine

This was $2 and chosen purely for the fact that it was still alive and not turning to dust. The soil was bone dry. 5 trees, with the largest being 18" and 3/8" caliper. Inspired by @Atom#28 and everyone else picking these up, I'll try to make this into a little forest/group planting.


#6 Pinus pinea - Italian Stone Pine

This *may* already be dead or on its way to death, but the foliage is still flexible and it was on clearance for $1. The soil was bone dry and I've watered thoroughly and have been misting a bit. I have a soft spot for extremely cheap plants that might be able to be nursed back to health, even if they'll never be anything special. 13" tall, ~3/8" caliper at the soil.

 

[Atom#28]

SO MANY Norfolk Pines are destined to die slow, horrible deaths in 2020 lol

 

[canoeguide]

Update:

#3 Picea glauca "Conica" - Dwarf Alberta Spruce

I basically bare-rooted this (but didn't wash/hose the roots). I removed a large number of crazy roots to get this in a training pot in lava/pumice/DE/bark. It's definitely stick-in-a-pot, but will it die?

 

[Atom#28]

I really like the subtle movement of that trunk. Keep it alive!!!!

 

[canoeguide]

Update:

#1: Thuja occidentalis "Smaragd" or "Emerald Green Arborvitae"

Repotted into an oversized oval mica pot into equal parts lava, pumice, DE, and fir bark. I don't have much styling vision for this yet, and I am focusing on the root base and just getting it established. However, a natural slant presented itself when examining the lower (previously buried) trunk and the roots, so I went with it. Maybe it will be some kind of literati or a short, broken-topped-jinned style. The vertical fronds of this cultivar seem like a challenge.

The tree should have been wired into the pot to support this lean and protect it from moving around. Definitely a mistake there. A large rock is presently supporting it. Any ideas? It's been a few days since repotting, so I don't imagine that re-repotting it is a good idea? I'm considering putting a small block of wood on the soil where the rock presently is located and wrapping a tight wire around the pot and the block of wood.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Very Christmasy.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I would re-repot, and wire it down securely. That tree will flop out of its pot if you get a stiff breeze.

The vertical fans will have to be turned by fully wiring out the tree, if not now, in a few years as you get close to a "finished" design. I have a wild collected Thuja, where the fronds tend to naturally lay flat in the horizontal plane. The vertical fronds are a problem with some Thuja and some cultivars of Chamaecyparis.

 

[canoeguide]

I would re-repot, and wire it down securely. That tree will flop out of its pot if you get a stiff breeze.

Thank you for giving me the kick in the pants to repot and wire. It's much more stable and has the planting angle that I was originally going for.

The vertical fans will have to be turned by fully wiring out the tree, if not now, in a few years as you get close to a "finished" design. I have a wild collected Thuja, where the fronds tend to naturally lay flat in the horizontal plane. The vertical fronds are a problem with some Thuja and some cultivars of Chamaecyparis.

I'm not styling or pruning this one until it recovers and I get some inspiration, but do you have any tips on figuring out which side of a vertical frond is the "top" side?

 

[B.uneasy]

My Colorado Blue Spruce will also be planted at an angle just like yours! It came in its metal pot tilted to the left, and I intend to repot it that way because one of my favorite trees in real life (a colorado blue spruce) Is tilted to the side because it was almost uprooted years back! Love where it is going!!

 

[canoeguide]

Update:

#3 Picea glauca "Conica" - Dwarf Alberta Spruce

Breaking buds edition:

Next step will be thinning the whorls to 1 branch each, etc. but none of that until at least the end of this year, I think.