Juniper styling

[donamitu]

Hello all,
I got this little juniper from a small nursery, sliced off the bottom of the rootball and stuck it in a flat with a mix of pumice, lava and akadama. It stands at 15" and has a base of 3". I need some styling suggestions please. Help.
Thanks so much.

 

[jk_lewis]

Very nice tree. Picture 1 is the front, I think. Since you just sliced off a good part of the roots, I'd do very little more surgical work to this tree this year. One thing you could do now is rig a turnbuckle between those trunks and try to pull them closer together. This has the makings of a nice twin trunk, but you have a bit too much of a "slingshot" appearance now. If you could pull those trunks together it would be an improvement.

It will take some time to do this. You'll have to pull the trunks together in stages. Put some padding on the trunks where the turnbuckle wires are attached.

 

[donamitu]

Thank you jkl for your thoughts. This tree was horribly root bound and neglected when I found it. Doesn't that make for good bonsai material sometimes? I did not think it prudent to just leave it or even pot it up. As it is, I had to practically destroy the original container to get the tree out!

 

[DesertBonsai]

Nice I think this tree has a lot of potential. Maybe some deadwood would look nice too.

 

[greerhw]

Leave it alone at least this for this season, if you have the patience. Too many insults in one year = brown juniper.

keep it green,
Harry

 

[donamitu]

I need to force myself to have the patience! I promise not to touch this tree for the rest of this year. Water and lots of fertilising perhaps? Any suggestions with the feeding regime? I will come back with this next year though. I hope you will have some advice for me regarding styling, all this assuming it is still alive .

 

[greerhw]

I need to force myself to have the patience! I promise not to touch this tree for the rest of this year. Water and lots of fertilising perhaps? Any suggestions with the feeding regime? I will come back with this next year though. I hope you will have some advice for me regarding styling, all this assuming it is still alive .

We Americans don't fertilize our trees enough, so fertlliize the hell out of it this summer and it should be ready for a style next year.

keep it green,
Harry

 

[jk_lewis]

You could start winching those slingshot branches closer together. That's not surgery.

 

[october]

Hello donamitu... I think there is potential with this material...It might have been a good idea to style it first, then do the root pruning.... There is kind of a double edged sword here........ Yes, you would want a tree to rest after that much root work. However, since you cut off so many roots, it is a good idea to also prune branches and foliage.. This way, the limited root system does not have to sustain the entire tree.

In my opinion... doing some styling, such as the elimination of branches that you know are going to be removed, might be a good idea...I would not do anything that would entail doing heavy pulling on the tree so that it is pulling it out of the container..such as heavy bending...

Rob

 

[donamitu]

I'm beginning to feel like I was a little hasty with the roots but this tree was so horribly neglected that the root ball was like cement. Something had to be done. I'm hoping that between the pumice and the Anderson Flat, the juniper will grow beautiful roots.
JKL, I can probably bring the trunks closer together but I think I will sit out this year and act upon your advice next year.
Rob, I understand the direction you want me to take but I'm beginning to think I lack the courage This I've got to change.

 

[october]

What you call lack of courage..actually sounds like you taking time to make some good decisions regarding the tree.. Sometimes, the right decision will come to you just by passing by and casually glancing at a tree week after week, month after month etc...

Also, in my opinion, you may want to hold off on fertilizing this tree for a little bit.. I would not fertilize until I started to see new growth or maybe after 1- 1 1/2 months or so have passed.. Which ever comes first.

Rob

 

[rockm]

You can "fertilize the H-E-Double Hockey sticks out of it," but it's going to do little good at this point and the foreseable future. The tree has a small, damaged root mass that is recovering. Throwing a lot of fertilizers on it won't really do it any good and if you throw enough, you may wind up inhibiting root growth.

I'd just go with a "normal" feeding program, --once every two weeks, full strength Miracle Grow.

 

[greerhw]

Sorry you're getting differing opinions on how to take care of your tree, you are finding out everyone does it different, good luck with which method you elect to use. Just don't do any serious styling this year ! Keep an eye out for spider mites.

keep it green,
Harry

 

[donamitu]

More opinions = more food for thought and I love it. Thank you all for your advice. I think I'm going to sit out this spring with regular fertilising and no pruning. Come summer, if the tree is healthy yet, I will get on the power fert and do some light pruning. It survived complete neglect in the past, how can it ignore so much love?