Colton.Evans
Seed
Does anyone have any knowledge of working with a Mint Julep Juniper? If so, some tips on what to do with this guy would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Colton
Thanks,
Colton
Mint Julep Juniper
- Thread starter Colton.Evans
- Start date
Wires_Guy_wires
Imperial Masterpiece
I have a few of them.
They're the bad version of the 'media' or 'pfizer' junipers, which are a hybrid between J. chinensis var. chinensis and J. sabina. I say bad version, because I believe they're not ideal for bonsai 'as is'.
Why are they less ideal?
They love breaking instead of bending.
They are poisonous (sabina trait), so they'll give you an itch if you work them bare handed.
They revert to juvenile foliage if you look at them wrong.
But! They are still cool in my book. Because they grow fast and they are pretty darn forgiving. You could slice this one down the middle and both halves will make it.
They don't have as much issues with mites as most junipers do. Another thing is that they can turn that golden-brown in winter like shimpaku varieties do, if you're into that kind of stuff.
With a bare trunk like this, your best option would be to wrap them in raffia or inner-bicycle-tire and create the most radical bends you can think of. Let it recover for a year, maybe two until it holds. Then unwrap it and graft some nicer foliage on them.
I believe you've made a classical mistake, if the trimmings are your doings, to only keep the foliage on the ends of branches. This makes it hard to envision something artsy; there is no small tree in there anymore, just long bare trunks with pads on the end. I think that's part of the reason why you'd like advice. Honestly, I've been in that situation and I didn't start a thread on it because I was ashamed of that failure. If the trimmings are not your doing, then the following advice still holds.
After making the same mistake I found something to be very handy: when working with any juniper, I prefer wiring - and bending - them completely first. Then leave them be for a few months, and then make serious decisions on what to cut. This allows me to get a good feel of the design options before I do anything drastic. If nothing comes up, I remove the wire and wait a year. You'd like to keep things 'to cut back to'.
Especially in the mint julep, because once you cut back, it's going to push juvenile needle foliage for the entire year. Photosynthetically speaking, that's the good stuff. Design wise, not so much.
I do have to stress the use of rubber or raffia, because this cultivar has super rigid wood, it's going to break if you don't protect it.
They're the bad version of the 'media' or 'pfizer' junipers, which are a hybrid between J. chinensis var. chinensis and J. sabina. I say bad version, because I believe they're not ideal for bonsai 'as is'.
Why are they less ideal?
They love breaking instead of bending.
They are poisonous (sabina trait), so they'll give you an itch if you work them bare handed.
They revert to juvenile foliage if you look at them wrong.
But! They are still cool in my book. Because they grow fast and they are pretty darn forgiving. You could slice this one down the middle and both halves will make it.
They don't have as much issues with mites as most junipers do. Another thing is that they can turn that golden-brown in winter like shimpaku varieties do, if you're into that kind of stuff.
With a bare trunk like this, your best option would be to wrap them in raffia or inner-bicycle-tire and create the most radical bends you can think of. Let it recover for a year, maybe two until it holds. Then unwrap it and graft some nicer foliage on them.
I believe you've made a classical mistake, if the trimmings are your doings, to only keep the foliage on the ends of branches. This makes it hard to envision something artsy; there is no small tree in there anymore, just long bare trunks with pads on the end. I think that's part of the reason why you'd like advice. Honestly, I've been in that situation and I didn't start a thread on it because I was ashamed of that failure. If the trimmings are not your doing, then the following advice still holds.
After making the same mistake I found something to be very handy: when working with any juniper, I prefer wiring - and bending - them completely first. Then leave them be for a few months, and then make serious decisions on what to cut. This allows me to get a good feel of the design options before I do anything drastic. If nothing comes up, I remove the wire and wait a year. You'd like to keep things 'to cut back to'.
Especially in the mint julep, because once you cut back, it's going to push juvenile needle foliage for the entire year. Photosynthetically speaking, that's the good stuff. Design wise, not so much.
I do have to stress the use of rubber or raffia, because this cultivar has super rigid wood, it's going to break if you don't protect it.
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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@Wires_Guy_wires - his comments are pretty on target, though I admit I find all juniper wood rigid and difficult to bend once it is over 3 or 4 years old. I don't know how much more rigid this cultivar would be.
I would assume all the general comments and articles about styling a Shimpaku juniper would apply to 'Mint Julep'. Checked Monrovia's website, 'Mint Julep' is a trademark name of Juniper chinensis 'Monlep'. The shimpaku is a group of cultivars of Juniper chinensis, so essentially everything written about Shimpaku will apply to 'Mint Julep'. Foliage should be as good as the ''regular'' form of Shimpaku for bonsai, a little more coarse than 'Kishu' or 'Itoigawa', but well in range for making nice bonsai of any size.
Your tree have very linear straight branches, no foliage near the trunk. Myself I would have passed on it for bonsai, but then I like my junipers very curvy. Do you have a plan for this tree? If not, I would consider letting it grow, perhaps foliage would sprout near the trunk, closer to the soil line. If that happens then your new tree could be in that new foliage sprouting near the trunk.
I would assume all the general comments and articles about styling a Shimpaku juniper would apply to 'Mint Julep'. Checked Monrovia's website, 'Mint Julep' is a trademark name of Juniper chinensis 'Monlep'. The shimpaku is a group of cultivars of Juniper chinensis, so essentially everything written about Shimpaku will apply to 'Mint Julep'. Foliage should be as good as the ''regular'' form of Shimpaku for bonsai, a little more coarse than 'Kishu' or 'Itoigawa', but well in range for making nice bonsai of any size.
Your tree have very linear straight branches, no foliage near the trunk. Myself I would have passed on it for bonsai, but then I like my junipers very curvy. Do you have a plan for this tree? If not, I would consider letting it grow, perhaps foliage would sprout near the trunk, closer to the soil line. If that happens then your new tree could be in that new foliage sprouting near the trunk.
Cypress187
Masterpiece
Thats's a deep pot. Welcome to the forum!
