Project Shimpaku

[jkd2572]

I don't like one more than the other. Very nice second after pic, but I think the original tree would have been very nice all wired out as well. I do know what it is like to want to have your hand in creating it though. Very nice change.

 

[JudyB]

Jkd, take a look at how much stronger the trunk looks now.

I think it makes a decent to middleing tree, a chance to be a good to great tree. That is what you have to see to move the trees you have forward into something better. This is just my opinion and the way I view trees that have had work done before I got them.

 

[Vance Wood]

Jkd, take a look at how much stronger the trunk looks now.

I think it makes a decent to middleing tree, a chance to be a good to great tree. That is what you have to see to move the trees you have forward into something better. This is just my opinion and the way I view trees that have had work done before I got them.

This is true. At some point in the future you may look at the trees you have today and start examining them with new eyes, deciding that now they are not so good. Several years after that you may look at them again with the decision in mind to totally redesign them abandoning the original designs altogether. I did. Sometimes starting over, hard as it may be, does not always mean throwing out everything that preceded that moment and starting a fresh with new material. Sometimes it means taking what you already have that may have many years under the bark and making something new of them.

 

[october]

I like this tree. However, the apex does not match the tree and it will most likely present many problems in the future. Right now, it is a perfect apex for a tree with about 3 times the girth of this trunk. Not only the silhouette, but the structure is for a much thicker trunked tree as well. If it were my tree, I would pick a few branches and create a sketelon like apex with a few well placed branches and then let it fill now. If the current structure is kept, the silhouette will become even larger. Also all the energy is going to go to the top of the tree to sustain all the branches. Which will be creating reverse taper. All in all, the tree looks good. I am only saying these these things from my own experiences with junipers.

Rob

 

[buddhamonk]

I agree with you. Ran into problem with the crown where all i had to work with were long leggy branches. Owner just let this juniper get too overgrown. So i just opened it up so that light get in. Once inner shoots start to grow i will get rid of the leggy foliage. I didnt want to remove so much from the top because i had already removed a lot from the bottom. Pictures dont do that tree justice. I looks a lot better in person .

 

[Vance Wood]

I think you are at a point where it is going to be necessary to watch this tree carefully as it developes over the next couple of years. If some sort of decent proportions are going to be established between the crown and the trunk it will be necessary to continually cut the tree back as back budding starts to develop along the extended branches. The more back budding you experience on a branch the more you need to cut back the tip. Continue this process for all of the branches.

The tendency will be to start pinching the tips because they form such beautiful foliage pads by themselves, it will be a mental challenge to realize that these are going to have to be sacrificed for the sake of the beautiful pads that are just starting to form in the back budding your cut backs are stimulating.

 

[october]

Hello bmonk.. Ya, I figured that. You do nice work and I thought that it might be a situation of better safe than sorry practices. You know, there are usually a whole bunch of these kinds of structured junipers at the nursry. Beautiful trees that became over grown and have no interior foliage in the apex. Rather, they have long, multiple branches. I always think, man, if only someone had stayed on these trees through the years. It would have made things much easier for the future owners.

Vance, you made some very good observations.

Rob

 

[buddhamonk]

What's interesting about shimpaku is that they always end up getting overgrown. Even when you watch videos of apprentices in Japan, trees that were once in big shows like Kokufu, are left to grow unchecked for years and eventually reworked. Lower branched always end up getting cut off because they get too long almost touching the soil. That's what happened to this tree and those are the trees I love to work on. Here is another exemple that I posted years ago.







I just love old shimpakus and changing everything...

 

[october]

Absolutely beautiful shimp there!

Rob

 

[Vance Wood]

What's interesting about shimpaku is that they always end up getting overgrown. Even when you watch videos of apprentices in Japan, trees that were once in big shows like Kokufu, are left to grow unchecked for years and eventually reworked. Lower branched always end up getting cut off because they get too long almost touching the soil. That's what happened to this tree and those are the trees I love to work on. Here is another exemple that I posted years ago.

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I just love old shimpakus and changing everything...

Very nice save. Been there had that happen.

A funny thing about Shimpaku: Tradition says that they grow slow but I say that is wrong, they grow fast but they grow sneaky. Unlike a lot of trees that grow fast at the ends with a lot of extended growth that is easy to identify, Shimpakus grow every where evenly so that the mass of foliage seems to expand and swell all over the place and you don't notice what has happened until the profile you have taken so long to refine disappears.

 

[fore]

I like what you've done to both of those Shimpaku's Bmunk! Nice vision with challenging trees. Thanks for posting!

 

[buddhamonk]

Found a pot for this tree. Hopefully will arrive in time for repotting season (March where I live). It's a Ryugaku pot...

 

[garywood]

Excelent choice Manny!

 

[buddhamonk]

Gary,

Been looking for a pot locally but no one had a nice round literati pot. Emailed Chris and Lisa but didn't hear back so got one from Japan. Would have been nice to have a Gary Wood pot for that tree tho. Lisa said (back in September) you might be bringing a batch to OR someday?

 

[garywood]

I appreciate the thought Manny but the combo you'll have will be super.

 

[Brian Underwood]

That combo is gonna be KILLER. Funny, I was JUST looking at these pots on eBay and considered buying one of the Yamaaki nambans. If you want an american-made namban, Gremel has LOTS of them.

 

[buddhamonk]

update

 

[buddhamonk]

Quick update