No. 2 Blue Rug Juniper progression

Jorow99

Sapling
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This blue rug juniper that I bought in April 2016 was one of my first trees. I think if I saw this tree today I would pass it up, so I'm not sure what I saw at the time.

I263395

May 2017:After some basic pruning in 2016 the tree looked like this. At this point I had lost a lot of interest in this tree and considered throwing it away. I couldn't see a design in it and all the branches were basically on the same plane.
263396

Shortly after I said "fuck it" and decided to do something hard to challenge me. I decided on a raft. So I cut off more branches, repotted the tree at a different angle into a chopped up 5 gallon bucket and got this.

263397

Yikes. this was probably the second tree I wired, not so good. Today, I would say I needed to fully wire and style it with an idea in mind. I hadn't found Mirai videos yet either, those helped me a lot.

May 2018: Another round of pruning and wiring, didn't get a picture of the wiring after but it was much better than the first time. I put some good movement into the trunks mostly. Unfortunately the far left trunk died off, leaving me with an even number of trunks.

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Here it is on my bench this sping, April 2019.

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This is it today, Sept 19, 2019. I decided to challenge myself even more and go for a windswept raft. I left a lot of the roots above ground after changing the potting angle, so now I want it to look like it got blown over but still survived. I fully wired the tree using only copper for the first time, and I think it turned out pretty well.

263402

I'm really hoping that all the foliage growing in the same direction for the next couple years pulls this tree together. I plan to let it rest for the next year and see what it looks like after that so I can start thinking about putting it into an actual pot. The even number of trunks doesn't seem distracting on this tree so I'm leaving it for now. I will most likely add deadwood to one or three of these to make it a little odder.

Critiques welcome!
 
Last edited:

Forsoothe!

Imperial Masterpiece
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You've come a long way. You understand now that the first order of business is to have a picture in your mind's eye of a ~style~ or shape and then plan & execute. When you find yourself with a tree, but no idea of what to do, two things can be done: just grow it on and look at it everyday, and rotate it from time-to-time as you take care of it until you develop an idea, or wire everything and move branches into positions that seem to be in concert with each other. Often, we do the latter when we should do the former.
 

sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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It has a nice overall shape.
I like how you reined it in.

Windswept? Eh. Maybe unnecessary.

Sorce
 

Vance Wood

Lord Mugo
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This blue rug juniper that I bought in April 2016 was one of my first trees. I think if I saw this tree today I would pass it up, so I'm not sure what I saw at the time.

IView attachment 263395

May 2017:After some basic pruning in 2016 the tree looked like this. At this point I had lost a lot of interest in this tree and considered throwing it away. I couldn't see a design in it and all the branches were basically on the same plane.
View attachment 263396

Shortly after I said "fuck it" and decided to do something hard to challenge me. I decided on a raft. So I cut off more branches, repotted the tree at a different angle into a chopped up 5 gallon bucket and got this.

View attachment 263397

Yikes. this was probably the second tree I wired, not so good. Today, I would say I needed to fully wire and style it with an idea in mind. I hadn't found Mirai videos yet either, those helped me a lot.

May 2018: Another round of pruning and wiring, didn't get a picture of the wiring after but it was much better than the first time. I put some good movement into the trunks mostly. Unfortunately the far left trunk died off, leaving me with an even number of trunks.

View attachment 263400

Here it is on my bench this sping, April 2019.

View attachment 263401


This is it today, Sept 19, 2019. I decided to challenge myself even more and go for a windswept raft. I left a lot of the roots above ground after changing the potting angle, so now I want it to look like it got blown over but still survived. I fully wired the tree using only copper for the first time, and I think it turned out pretty well.

View attachment 263402

I'm really hoping that all the foliage growing in the same direction for the next couple years pulls this tree together. I plan to let it rest for the next year and see what it looks like after that so I can start thinking about putting it into an actual pot. The even number of trunks doesn't seem distracting on this tree so I'm leaving it for now. I will most likely add deadwood to one or three of these to make it a little odder.

Critiques welcome!
I would seriously think about some sort of rock pot or stone slab where the concept of this type of design is justified and the natural wildness of the style can be made to stand out.
 

coltranem

Chumono
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I like the progression of this tree and the idea of a tree the blowed over but I am not sure on full windswept to achieve that. I don't see the exposed roots.
 

Pitoon

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I think you did a good job working the raft.

Do you have a back and side pics? Aerial pic? How does the tree look if one were to rotate around the tree?
 
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