Epoxying Stones to a Stone Slab?

Mike Hennigan

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I'd have the same question about the Thuja. If you haven't gradually reduced the plants' root mass to a flatter profile than what is coming out of that tall pot, you will have to mound soil up and corresponding muck walls. That piled look is exactly what you want to avoid with a slab planting...It took me about five years of repeatedly aggressive reduction to get bulletproof amur maples' root pads thin enough to use on a slab. I've currently got them down to an inch thick or a bit more. Thuja is going to be crankier than Amur maple...

It’s a saikei influenced forest planting, so that area to the left with more and larger stones will be much higher/deeper soil. All those lace rock stones will be partially buried at least on certain sides. I’m getting more stones to work into the design and to help keep that higher soil elevation in place on the left side (in addition to muck). This isn’t a super flat thin layer of soil across a flat slab where I need every tree to have the flattest root system. Soil will be highest on left to thinnest amount on the right side of the composition.

That being said I think the trees are smaller than you think they are. And I have one of these that I repotted from the nursery pot two years ago worked the roots down to about a one inch deep root ball and didn’t skip a beat. This variety (Primo Arborvitae, Thuja occidentalis). Is super tough in my experience.

I think this practice of incrementally working down root systems over a long period of years is applicable in a number of situations but is an overused practice or is used on species that don’t need this approach. 5 years just reducing roots on a deciduous tree sounds like something I will never do in my bonsai practice. Just an opinion.
 

Mike Hennigan

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Oh, and I’ve decided to not put the composition together this spring but take my time getting the right stones set up on the slab and do some light styling work to prepare the trees for the planting.
 
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