Juniper collection, with a good story along with it

youngsai

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First off, I was tempted to name this thread top notch juniper material, bc I did that when I was new here and made myself feel like an idiot and wanted in some way to redeem this. However, I think if it is anything at all, the difference between what I then considered good to what I now consider good material is bc of the kindness and help people on this site have showed me.

Now onto the story...

Last fall, I was taking my gf somewhere, and while she went into the store, I did what I always do and wandered around the property looking at trees. I noticed some haggard looking junipers, half dead, half choked by ivy, but with beautiful live and dead veins, twisting and meandering. The foliage was sparce, but what did exist was nice and tight, adult with an almost blue tint, and it made me think of shimpaku (still not sure what it is). I walked into the store that had these tree on their property and asked to see the manager. The manager proceeded to make fun of my hobby, & dismiss me in a very condescending way. I asked for the owner's name & I told him, "the trees are dying, wouldn't you want to give them a chance to live, if it is all the same to you, I'll just trade them out with some nice flowering stuff!?" His response (almost verbatim) was, "Those trees will never leave here alive, they will die here, then they will be removed." I saw red, as any unjust or unnecessary cruelty really boils my blood, and I seethed, "We'll see about that pal, those trees are mine." Then I stormed out. I was still waiting for the gf, and muttering curses at the manager under my breath when I noticed a few workers from the store next door. I began a conversation with them, and we quickly found a common link in all of us agreeing that the manager next door was a **** (fill in your own choice 4 letters please). I felt a ray of hope when one of them told me that he would try to get the owner's info for me. He kept his word, and I reached out to the owner and offered my usual urban yamadori spiel- Your trees are dying, they have mites, scale, fungus, and all other manners of juju's upon it. I offer to you to remove said juju'ed trees in exchange for bright and shiny young spritely azaleas, and you will never again see those silly old gnarly twisted good for nothings again. The owner of the property did not cave so easily however, and I had to wine and dine him, sending him pictures of the azaleas, past work I had done, my entire plan, and an agreement to temporarily join his insurance (guess he thought I was trying to scam him). It seemed incredulous to him that I would want these old sickly trees. He finally okayed the collection, but it was fall by that time, so I asked him to wait until spring. He said ok, and I would periodically go to the location and clean out the ivy, fertilize the trees, treat the mites, and cull all the dead stuff.

FINALLY!!! Yesterday, (last Saturday) the pre-ordained day had come, and I collected 5 very large twisted junipers, and 1 pretty nice mulberry that was under a canopy of one of the juni's. Anyways, here are some of the first pictures of them! And I'll post more as I take them. The size range from 2-4 ft tall, with bases at their thickest from 6"-9". Does anyone recognize what cultivar these may be? I was thinking shimpaky, but the blue foliage is throwing me off...
 

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Poink88

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You did really good. Congrats and hope they make it. :)

I see you are a very tenacious guy...keep it up! :cool:
 

RKatzin

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What a great score! You done good! I'd have to see a closeup of the foliage, but in these they look like a junie I have. There's not but a few junies with blue foliage. I looked trying to id mine. There's the blue rug and blue star which are common and then there's a couple that are not so common. I have a Green Mound with blue foliage and the new shoots in spring are white. I found two with these characteristics. One is Nonin Isles and I think the other was just called White Tip Juniper. You know how these names are, they are likely the same or varieties of the same, J. procumbens.

Mine was very poorly and was totally green when I got it. It turned blue as I nursed it back to health and has been a nice blue since. It was so badly battered I could not see any kind of tree in it. I buried the whole tree in a large tub and spread out the branches leaving some side shoots emerging. Feed and water, full sun and three+ years and this spring I dug it up and seperated into 14 nice little trees for a junie forest. Do these look like yours?
 

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youngsai

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Poink88, you r right I can be tenacious, most especially on things I feel passionate about/people tell me I can't do it...

RK, I agree it's a good score and I'm happy with these, they do look a lot like your pictures however it is a like difficult to tell because mine are almost completely adult foliage...

I'll post more pictures today!
 

youngsai

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Poink88 I would agree that we do :)

Don I was thinking the same thing but also hoping it would sport from somewhere closer on the trunk better suited or is that wishful thinking? I say this because I actually like the foliage, it's tight adult foliage that only can be separated from shimp by the blue tint...

I'll take better pictures tomorrow, I felled another monster yesterday with a friend, except that the friend got drunk and was throwing up halfway through the collection, so I was on my own. The latest tree dwarfs anything I have ever collected, a gigantic hinoki, with a foot or more thick trunk and a nebari and base dead wood about three feet wide, it was all I could do to lift it even after cleaning off the soil. I'll post pictures tomorrow
 
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Don I was thinking the same thing but also hoping it would sport from somewhere closer on the trunk better suited or is that wishful thinking? I say this because I actually like the foliage, it's tight adult foliage that only can be separated from shimp by the blue tint...

How about approach grafts? That way you are not mixing foliage.
 

Poink88

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First things first...get them established/thriving before we talk styling. ;)

That beautiful mulberry...we can discuss now because unless youngsai really messes it up...it should survive (easy). ;)
 

youngsai

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help me!!! I'm worried about all my conifers, the second paragraph refers issue

These all seem to be still alive, as I have one which lost a branch and it is noticeably differently dry from the rest. I see the cuts on the mulberry need cleaning, and the wood seems to be acting like dead wood, not like uro so I might leave it?

The problem I'm referring to in my title is that these juniper, along with almost all of my conifer, have juniper scale. I just bought bonide and am wondering if I should spray the recently collected with it or with something else bc of the foliar drying side effect of bonide. Please help me, I'm starting to worry, I'm fighting a losing battle against the annoying little scrambled eggs shits...
 

youngsai

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trying bonide but should I use a suffocation based oil on newly collected trees!?

Fore, I was under the impression that juniper scale was to be treated differently...


To sharpen my question a bit, I'm wondering whether a horticultural oil like bonide should be used on recently collected material....
 

youngsai

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On another note, the mulberry just popped out buds today, so I guess now I can start talking/doing work to it? Any suggestions? An I crazy or does mulberry have strong enough wood for jin and Shari?

I'm a pretty big noob at bonsai, so if you guys tell me step by step to ramify/develop the mulberry I would much be grateful. Poink88 since you started the dialogue on it, want to give me your suggestions on steroids I should take?
 

Poink88

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On another note, the mulberry just popped out buds today, so I guess now I can start talking/doing work to it? Any suggestions? An I crazy or does mulberry have strong enough wood for jin and Shari?

I'm a pretty big noob at bonsai, so if you guys tell me step by step to ramify/develop the mulberry I would much be grateful. Poink88 since you started the dialogue on it, want to give me your suggestions on steroids I should take?

I've seen mulberry got hacked numerous times a year over 9 years from outside my office window and it kept coming back...that is the extent of my experience with it. LOL

I am Mr. Itchy fingers and do things with my collected trees what others suggest I should never do. I even got assured by most to kill my plants. I have also been here long enough to learn that what (risky things) I do...I should avoid giving as advise to others. So! I would suggest you leave it for a year, let it get established, study it, decide on your front, make a design plan/goal, and style it based on that next year. :)

I am trying not to share advise in steroids anymore (it gets me crucified)...I am keeping the good stuff for myself! LOL :p ;)
 

youngsai

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Oh wtf Poink88, way to syke me up for nothing!!! Can I special request your steroids info via pm!?

I have learned to test any advice on roots cutting or low value stuff and trust in the ole, "if I have seen it with my own eyes" adage. So I won't let anything die from your info, at least nothing of high value =)
 
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