new material.. junipers and yews

[benw3790]

I wanted to share my new material with you guys to see what you think and maybe get some insight to some of it.. Ill explain What steps I plan on taking next and would like to know what you would personally do with this kind of material. It should be fun and informative for beginners who come across material like this. All of these plants were 5$ a piece, even the bigger older yew. Also, are any of these j unipers shimpaku?? All the junipers are gonna be used to make literati style trees and maybe one used in a tanuki/pheonix graft. Thanks in advance!! What do you guys think?? here are two of the junipers. I got them for their foliage. Hoping it would be some sort of shimpaku/kishu/itoigawa the next picture is of the other one and it has juvenile foliage on it wgich makes me think it may be procumbens.

 

[benw3790]

And here are the yews. guess ill just let the two younger yews grow out. The older one has nice bark and good potential i know its pretty old but its growing lateraly and could end up making a nice cascade or something but i REALLY dont want it to go that way so im hoping there is some way i can turn it up right somehow. But ill work with what ive got i just want a beautiful tree, regardless. Im not that familiar with yews but i know it will back bud and wire easily and has good hard wood for carving and jin.

 

[Eric Group]

That third pic you posted... It is just begging to get some raffia and heavy enough wire to bend in crazy ways.. Then go full Yamadori style on it. I saw a couple pretty good ones posted recently. I think Saw a Grass did one with a really long Jin on top, and someone else... If you need a little inspiration...

 

[M. Frary]

Those junipers look like one of those chinese junipers that grow straight up. Like maybe skyrocket.
Procumbens is a low growing ground hugging plant. Procumbens this young will hardly have any adult foliage if at all.
Shimpaku grow in a mound shape. Their foliage is shorter and finer than yours.

 

[benw3790]

That third pic you posted... It is just begging to get some raffia and heavy enough wire to bend in crazy ways.. Then go full Yamadori style on it. I saw a couple pretty good ones posted recently. I think Saw a Grass did one with a really long Jin on top, and someone else... If you need a little inspiration...

Right!? All of the junipers need a good dose of raffia and heavy bending! Which i will be doing! When will I be able to do all that? The plants wouldnt stand up on their own when i.bought them so I slip potted them into bigger pots and loosened up the roots a bit. No pruning. Im kinda worried about the shock from doing all that.

 

[benw3790]

Those junipers look like one of those chinese junipers that grow straight up. Like maybe skyrocket.
Procumbens is a low growing ground hugging plant. Procumbens this young will hardly have any adult foliage if at all.
Shimpaku grow in a mound shape. Their foliage is shorter and finer than yours.

So youre thinking chinese junipers? ?

 

[benw3790]

Now thst I think about it, shimpaku does seem a lot of shorter and tighter. Adult foliage just looks so sexy though.

 

[Eric Group]

Right!? All of the junipers need a good dose of raffia and heavy bending! Which i will be doing! When will I be able to do all that? The plants wouldnt stand up on their own when i.bought them so I slip potted them into bigger pots and loosened up the roots a bit. No pruning. Im kinda worried about the shock from doing all that.

Well.. If you just repotted them, Probably want to wait until there are bright green growing tips on all the branches for a couple weeks before you think about any heavy bending.. Best case is wait until Fall or even next year.

 

[benw3790]

Well.. If you just repotted them, Probably want to wait until there are bright green growing tips on all the branches for a couple weeks before you think about any heavy bending.. Best case is wait until Fall or even next year.

Yeah thats the plan for now.. fall. And If not then, next year. All I did was slip pot them though. Nothing too crazy just more room for roots to grow and a pot big enough to hold them up without falling over lol. They all have healthy green tips on them now, just gotta wait and make sure it stays that way or see if they extend. Thank you for your suggestions. As always.

 

[M. Frary]

So youre thinking chinese junipers? ?

Of some sort.

 

[Paradox]

Highly unlikely to find a shimpaku of any type in a landscape nursery, and probably impossible at a box store.

 

[benw3790]

Highly unlikely to find a shimpaku of any type in a landscape nursery, and probably impossible at a box store.

Yeah so I thought. The guy told me he had carried some for another bonsai guy years ago. That was the first time I went. So this time when I went, I saw those with the adult/scale foliage and grabbed em. couldnt tell if they were shimoaku or not at the time but knew theyd make good bunjin candidates. The foliage obvisouky isnt short or tight enough for shimoaku but still nice, nonetheless.

 

[Paradox]

Yeah so I thought. The guy told me he had carried some for another bonsai guy years ago. That was the first time I went. So this time when I went, I saw those with the adult/scale foliage and grabbed em. couldnt tell if they were shimoaku or not at the time but knew theyd make good bunjin candidates. The foliage obvisouky isnt short or tight enough for shimoaku but still nice, nonetheless.

I have a couple of J. chinensis blue pfizer variety with the adult foliage. When I found them thats when I learned that other varieties have the adult foliage, not just shimpaku. They dont carry shimpaku in Landscape nurseries around here, probably because they are more expensive than other varieties and most homeowners dont care anyway.

 

[Alain]

Nice trees for $5 a piece!

i have no advice whatsoever because I'm kind of brand new in the conifer world...

I have a question though, it was discussed a couple of days ago on another thread but I can't remember which one so sorry but I'll kind of squat your thread.
It was said that junipers have to be wired with copper but I don't remember why. Is it poisonous if Al is used or is it just because copper is stronger and the tree will hold its position better?
Also is it just for junipers or all conifers?

 

[benw3790]

I have a couple of J. chinensis blue pfizer variety with the adult foliage. When I found them thats when I learned that other varieties have the adult foliage, not just shimpaku. They dont carry shimpaku in Landscape nurseries around here, probably because they are more expensive than other varieties and most homeowners dont care anyway.

True. You cant find shimpaku around here ANYWHERE either. That guy told me that he could get some though. Who knows if he's full of crap or not. I just like the adult foliage simply because all I can ever find and or had is p nana. So its exciting to have some junipers with nice foliage.

 

[benw3790]

Nice trees for $5 a piece!

i have no advice whatsoever because I'm kind of brand new in the conifer world...

I have a question though, it was discussed a couple of days ago on another thread but I can't remember which one so sorry but I'll kind of squat your thread.
It was said that junipers have to be wired with copper but I don't remember why. Is it poisonous if Al is used or is it just because copper is stronger and the tree will hold its position better?
Also is it just for junipers or all conifers?

From what I undetstand, its because it is stronger but ive had sucess setting juniper branches with aluminum. Copper would hold better though. Just be sure to keep copper away from azaleas!! Copper is poisonous to them.

 

[Eric Group]

Highly unlikely to find a shimpaku of any type in a landscape nursery, and probably impossible at a box store.

I don't know- some guy in another thread found a Shimpaku in a hardware store garden center!

 

[Paradox]

I don't know- some guy in another thread found a Shimpaku in a hardware store garden center!

One in how many 1000s that people have bought junipers at regular landscape and box stores. Seems pretty rare to me.

 

[Eric Group]

From what I undetstand, its because it is stronger but ive had sucess setting juniper branches with aluminum. Copper would hold better though. Just be sure to keep copper away from azaleas!! Copper is poisonous to them.

Is it? In copious amounts it can be toxic to any plant I think... But, the presence of a little copper in soil is not instant poison for azaleas. It can in fact cause chlorosis and eventually leaf and shoot die back if there is a copper DEFICIENCY in an azalea's soil according to Azalea.org...
http://www.azaleas.org/index.pl/azdiseasetext.html

We had a discussion about this in Another thread regarding ALUMINUM being toxic. I said the same thing about aluminum wire for azaleas that I had read it can be toxic (which it IS BTW, again in large quantities)... Others chimed in and said that was hogwash... Rather That it was not likely to leach out into the soil at toxic levels from wire... I'd suspect the same for copper wire. Though aluminum by nature does not easily rust and deteriorate fast, and copper does tend to tarnish and break down a bit faster maybe? I cannot find it if there is recorded literature on the net showing copper (or aluminum for that matter) wire causing poisoning in azaleas, and I have in fact read quite a few instances of trees wired into pots with big that did fine... (And have azaleas in my yard right now with both types of wire on them)

Not trying to beat you up man, just saying- we talked about this stuff before, and a I think the concern should be about soil additives adding toxic levels of Aluminum or Copper, not wire...

 

[Eric Group]

One in how many 1000s that people have bought junipers at regular landscape and box stores. Seems pretty rare to me.

I know man, I was just joking around... That is the only instance I had ever heard of someone finding a Shimpaku anywhere but in a bonsai nursery! Although a nursery right by my house has regular old Sargents labeled as Sargent juniper/ "Shimpaku" but they just made a mistake I guess...