Juniper Progress

[theta]

No idea what kind of juniper this is, found it at an old mom and pop nursery. Thought I'd start a thread on it and document it's progress, hopefully it'll be interesting one day.

This is pretty much what it looked like when I bought it, in June of last year.



Around October/November I tried to roughly give it some shape and decide where to take it (I have no idea what I'm doing). Also cleaned some of the deadwood.




This is shot before I repotted it this SPring.




Did a HBR and potted it up in boon mix. Being the noob that I am, I totally got the angle wrong when I wired it in, and didnt realize it until it was too late to fix it. It looks so unbalanced and leaning over to the left.



Here's a picture of it today, after putting on a lot of growth. Now I need to really just prune it back and bring all the foliage in closer, etc... Next year I need to repot at a better angle, I like the movement of the trunk to left and back to the right, I'm playing around with some ideas on a new angle to pot it that can make that interesting. Also, thinking about what I could do, or if I should do anything about the long straight trunk section in the middle, maybe bending that drastically somehow.... Also really need to get a better background for these photos, the lines are annoying,

 

[Kelly]

Hi ... I think it's a good start. Agree with your comments but potting angle, etc. may be secondary at this point; think you should work on the "pads" or foliage as you work. Cut, don't pinch the needles that go down or .. wire them up ... big wire at the trunk, then smaller as you progress out to the branch ends. Trim out the "ups and downs" and keep a picture of the overall separate pads of foliage you want to develop as you go. Wire each branch to give it some S bend or shape with (usually) a down flavour for the branch to give it an "older" look. You can combine different branchlets into a pad until that pad matures and then you can either redirect a branch or get rid of it. The tree is young so don't get carried away and keep a couple/few branches in reserve until the one you want survives or is well established ... keeping a few extra will also contribute to thickening the overall trunk. My two cents ...

 

[daudelus]

It looks ‘grey owl’ juniper-ish to me... I think you have some good rough material to whip into shape over the coming years... the advice already given about defining pads is spot on... but with this variety, the pads will ‘never’ have the ‘tight’ tidy look of other junipers, but that isn’t the end of the world!
At some point in the future, if this was my mine, I would determine the branches that work in a design that would allow me to pull the overall height down... it looks like there are two very bendable branches (something you are already thinking of) and bringing them down to make the smallest tree possible would be my plan... reduction over time seems to be key ??
my 2 cents!

 

[theta]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. When would be the ideal time to cut it back and wire it out like suggested? It's put on growth this spring, but should I wait longer to get more strength, or is now fine?

 

[Silentrunning]

Just thinking - if the tree doesn’t behave as you want, it would make one heck of an interesting literati down the road. A great find.

 

[daudelus]

Being in the south means you are already experiencing some heat, right? I would wait until late winter, early spring of next year... I recently did work on this type of juniper, but I live in PA and temps are still fairly cool (65-75) most days... wet and humid too, which helps with aftercare.. supplementing it with a mist of the foliage whenever I can think of it!

 

[defra]

Nice find
Well on its way i think you made a good start!
I wouldnt worry about the planting angle just make sure the roots get strong and healthy first.

Also i would wait with any work pruning or wireing etc like @daudelus say until at least late winter or spring next year let the tree get in good shape it will reward you with strong growth to work with it would be a waste to overwork this one and risk killing it!

 

[theta]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions guys, But - I Thinned it out some more, there was still a lot of downward growing stuff and stuff I could lose. Hope it wasn't too much!!!

Also am liking this as the new front, slightly turned from the other views.

 

[Handsome John]

That new front, looks good since there is some foliage that breaks up the trunk line in a more dynamic way I think.

 

[theta]

That new front, looks good since there is some foliage that breaks up the trunk line in a more dynamic way I think.

Yeah, that straight section of the trunk is a problem when you see too much of it. I'm thinking of bending it sometime down the road.

 

[theta]

So when I was working on this yesterday, I saw a bunch of really really tiny bugs crawling around on the trunk. Under flakes of bark, and around the base. Any ideas what the could be?

 

[defra]

Without a good picture it could be anything ^^

 

[theta]

Without a good picture it could be anything ^^

Was afraid of that, I'll try to get a picture of them.