Just got a Juniper...

[DavidBoren]

Friend of the family pulled this up on their property and gave it to me. Probably a Western or a Rocky Mountain, but I don't know. Has some deadwood in it already, which I have realized is pretty common in Junipers.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

That's a thuja. Not a juniper.
The fronds on these are flat (left and right if the twig is held horizontally), not three dimensional like junipers (up, down, left and right when a twig is held horizontally). Scale foliage of junipers is sausage-shape round, these are flat.
I have a couple like these, pretty vigorous! But rather difficult to design because of those fronds.

 

[DavidBoren]

I will have to read up on Thula. Thank you for pointing that out.

Knowing is half the battle... violence is the other half.

 

[DavidBoren]

Assuming I can keep myself from killing it, this little Thuja may, indeed, prove to be relief for a bored soul.

I already thinned some stuff out... had to see what I was working with. I have a little bit of a plan, now. I will take some pictures tomorrow to illustrate said plan. Not planning on repotting it any time too soon, but apparently the Thuja can handle a little harassment in the meantime.

 

[DavidBoren]

Really not liking the deadwood apex... straight as an arrow, it is... so I think I am going to pick the lowest branch I find interesting and point it to the sky. This throws that deadwood point off center.

What do you think?

 

[DavidBoren]

A little bit of wire later... first time ever wiring a tree. It's just some steel wire that was sitting around, probably not the best. It wasn't TOO difficult to work with, though. Still not anywhere near done, as I really underestimated how much time this process takes.

 

[DavidBoren]

Still such a long way to go...