Collect or not to collect?

Maloghurst

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Pros:
1.Amazing nebari. The trunk is about 5” across and the radial root spread is about 10” all the way around. Pics don’t do justice.
2. Should be an easy dig, shallow root system, hence the spreading nebari.
Cons:
1. Almost all juvenile foliage, I think this type of juniper is always this way? There is some adult foliage but not much.
2. foliage is way out on branches.
3. I would need to cut most of the foliage off. Dangerous for juniper.
Does anyone know this type of juniper? How it would react to drastic prune? Is this a boulevard cypress?

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Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
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Not Boulevard. Chamaecyparis is soft to the touch, Junipers are picky.
 

TN_Jim

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Pros:
1.Amazing nebari. The trunk is about 5” across and the radial root spread is about 10” all the way around. Pics don’t do justice.
2. Should be an easy dig, shallow root system, hence the spreading nebari.
Cons:
1. Almost all juvenile foliage, I think this type of juniper is always this way? There is some adult foliage but not much.
2. foliage is way out on branches.
3. I would need to cut most of the foliage off. Dangerous for juniper.
Does anyone know this type of juniper? How it would react to drastic prune? Is this a boulevard cypress?

View attachment 278107View attachment 278108View attachment 278109View attachment 278113View attachment 278106View attachment 278115
No matter what collect, entirely.

1. put in pot, leave as is. amazing

2. keep as is, have in large pot, remove center disc and put food on it (rotating)

3. What’s wrong with needle foliage on a juniper anyway!!? Has anyone looked at a pine tree lately? Really. Needles is the problem? Good grief. Would like to see a pine with leaves this small.

That said, why does this one get neglected so much more than the others??
E9031B11-5271-4DCF-96CD-7F205BF394C2.jpeg
 

MrWunderful

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I would pass and focus on better material, unless its due for compost. I dont think it will make a convincing bonsai, maybe in 20-30 years. Unless you just want a topiary in a pot.
 

TN_Jim

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I would pass and focus on better material, unless its due for compost. I dont think it will make a convincing bonsai, maybe in 20-30 years. Unless you just want a topiary in a pot.
If it were horticulture hedged over the years it would look like a bomb pop
 

Maloghurst

Chumono
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Not Boulevard. Chamaecyparis is soft to the touch, Junipers are picky.
Definitely prickly needles
I would pass and focus on better material, unless its due for compost. I dont think it will make a convincing bonsai, maybe in 20-30 years. Unless you just want a topiary in a pot.
Main question is will this type take a drastic pruning. If this species back buds well then it could make a great bonsai imo. It is due for compost and collection seems pretty easy as stated. It has a twin that was blown over in strong winds recently.
No matter what collect, entirely.

1. put in pot, leave as is. amazing

2. keep as is, have in large pot, remove center disc and put food on it (rotating)

3. What’s wrong with needle foliage on a juniper anyway!!? Has anyone looked at a pine tree lately? Really. Needles is the problem? Good grief. Would like to see a pine with leaves this small.

That said, why does this one get neglected so much more than the others??
View attachment 278130
Thank for the reply I don’t want this monster in my yard unless it can be drastically pruned first. Unless this thing can be pruned hard and back bud all over it’s not coming home with me. The only reason I’m considering is the base is truly fantastic in person.
 

Forsoothe!

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I disagree. With as much butchering as you are going to have to do: =>>98%, I would reduce it as much as possible in the ground where it has the root system in its entirety to either recover and become collectable, or not. (As I see it) you need to chop it down to ~30 inches. Do that and reduce all the branches to the most interior cluster of foliage on twice as many well placed branches as you think you need and feed it like a fool. It will either backbud, or not, and give you the answer to, "Collect it, or not" by June. I'm guessing you are going to be forced to make the top into a lightening strike, so you need a proportionally long piece of dead top wood to introduce taper where there is none. Maybe chop at ~42" and bare down to ~24"? Whatever, leave enough.
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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This tree may have pretty good nebari, but that's about it. The big trunk on top of it is taperless, which is a huge problem. You'd have to induce some kind of taper, or carve the hell out of it to even make look half decent. Backbudding on junipers is not reliable, which would probably mean grafting some new branches (saplings) low on the trunk.

All that said, simply getting that tree out of the ground alive will be no small task.
 

BrianBay9

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Not a great bonsai candidate. Lots of work for a tree that has a basically unusable trunk at the bottom.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Looks like the stricta cultivar, which is a variety of J. chinensis.
I own a couple of those. They are pretty cheap here in Europe, I think I've seen ones roughly the same size for less than 80 euros.

Good material to rev up your collecting skills, but that's about it, I think. But you're absolutely free to surprise us with what you can come up with.
 

Maloghurst

Chumono
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I’m passing thanks everyone!
Its hard for me to squeeze time in to do this and I doubt it would recover from the pruning.
If I had the land to collect as is or the time to just prune, collect and hope for the best then I would do it. But my time is in short supply. Anyone near Seattle interested I can let you know!
 
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