Picked up a procum

[brentwood]

Lots of questions, first being what are these balls? Not many, are they flower related?

 

[just.wing.it]

Procumbens with Scale foliage! Ooolala! Look at you!....with your fancy scale foliage....
Haha! Just kidding....
Seriously though....it seems kinda rare, but I hear its true....

The balls I think are going to be the little flowers or fruits, or whatever ....yeah.

 

[sorce]

Procum! Balls!?

Pollen Cones!

Sorce

 

[just.wing.it]

Procum! Balls!?

Pollen Cones!

Sorce

Yeah! Pollen cones! Thats what I was trying to say!

 

[brentwood]

Looking at the pic and not using my eyes, they do look like cones - thanks for the input here

B

 

[brentwood]

Procumbens with Scale foliage! Ooolala! Look at you!....with your fancy scale foliage....
Haha! Just kidding....
Seriously though....it seems kinda rare, but I hear its true....

The balls I think are going to be the little flowers or fruits, or whatever ....yeah.

And now I have to research scale foliage ?. Fun, yet another thing I don't know - curse you, new hobby! Nice holiday project, for sure though - found this guy at our local garden store, seemed interesting.

Brent

 

[theone420]

And now I have to research scale foliage ?. Fun, yet another thing I don't know - curse you, new hobby! Nice holiday project, for sure though - found this guy at our local garden store, seemed interesting.

Brent

scale foliage is the tight looking foliage you have at the tips usually happens when the tree is happy. The foliage you have at the bottom that is more open is what you will see a lot on procumbens and the scale foliage often opens up when stressed like after a root prune or repot.

 

[brentwood]

That's nice to know, thank you. Here's a pic of it now, put into larger pot to grow a while... Terribly root bound, hopefully happier
Brent

 

[Adair M]

That's nice to know, thank you. Here's a pic of it now, put into larger pot to grow a while... Terribly root bound, hopefully happier
View attachment 221463Brent

Well, there you go! You’ll get juvenile needle foliage now. They only go scale when potbound.

Being pot bound is not always a problem. If you want a lot of growth, having the tree potbound IS a problem as the roots can’t grow. But if you are trying to maintain the current size, repotting will allow and encourage the roots to grow. If the roots grow, the top will grow. And with procumbens, if the roots grow, the top foliage will grow, and the fastest way for that top to grow is the needle foliage, NOT scale! So, usually a procumbens that has scale foliage will revert to needle foliage after repotting.

 

[Adair M]

Oh... the balls are called “berries”. Juniper seeds. Generally, we pluck them off.

 

[brentwood]

Oh... the balls are called “berries”. Juniper seeds. Generally, we pluck them off.

That's good to know - I had started to, worried I was killing foliage beyond that point.
I want to cut off some of the leggier branches, at least back to branches nearer the trunk. It's had some odd trimming done, will try and do better.

B