RMJ

Hartinez

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Hey Everyone. Been pretty silent on here lately. Though I've still been quite busy with Bonsai stuff. Personal life has been all over the place. Sold a house, moved, bought land, moved again, designing a new house, 3 KIDS ALL DAY EVERY DAY, trying to keep my business afloat, KIDS ALL DAY EVERY DAY, all amongST a shut down and pandemic. Ive got quite a few other threads to update, for better and worse. Ended up reducing my collection by about 12 or so. I decided to take a close look at what was worth my time and what wasn't. Also eliminated trees that were clearly dead or on their way out from fungal infections.

Here as an RMJ I picked up from Plant World here in Abq in early May. The blue green foliage was obviously lovely, but I also enjoyed how compact the foliage was growing. Wether I can maintain that or not remains to be seen. Ive grown quite fond of multi trunk, more slender trunk lines and saw potential in this tree. Also, plant world as a great selection and prices, and through my local club I get 20% off of all purchases. This was about $55 after discount.

When I got it home I immediately sawed off about half of the root ball, removed any loose duff and exposed a bit of the base. There is def a better base, but I will explore that next year. I removed quite a bit of foliage off of the top leaving what I was thinking Id use in my final design. After potting in an Anderson flat, I only watered and fertilized heavy for the next 2.5 months. In that time the branches that were left exploded with growth. 6+ in extensions across the board.

I initially had plans to keep the trees as a twin trunk only, but decided that some of the branches that would just be low branches would be tertiary trunks. I may remove these or restyle at some point. Either way, Im happy with the result and confident the tree will push even more growth before the year is out.
 

PiñonJ

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Cool. Looks like competing leaders was a good choice for this tree. Just don’t let it go candelabra on you. 😝
I haven’t done anything with my P. nigra, yet. I think I’ll do branch selection soon to deal with structural issues, then repot next spring. I want to do a nursery crawl at Isleta and Trees That Please before the monsoon’s over. BTW, I was working in Taos the week before last and I collected a small Sagebrush. So far so good.
 

August44

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I know nothing about RMJ, but don't know how you get away with serious root and foliage work all at the same time, especially in your climate.
 

Hartinez

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I know nothing about RMJ, but don't know how you get away with serious root and foliage work all at the same time, especially in your climate.
Hey Peter. Did semi major root work in May then let the tree respond. If the growth was weak I wouldn’t have styled. But it grew VIGOROUSLY. And honestly. I’ve had more success, sawing rootballs, and doing major foliage work all at the same time with nursery grown junipers. I certainly wouldn’t do that with a collected juniper. But the nursery stock seems to handle it just fine here in the SW.
 
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Hartinez

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Cool. Looks like competing leaders was a good choice for this tree. Just don’t let it go candelabra on you. 😝
I haven’t done anything with my P. nigra, yet. I think I’ll do branch selection soon to deal with structural issues, then repot next spring. I want to do a nursery crawl at Isleta and Trees That Please before the monsoon’s over. BTW, I was working in Taos the week before last and I collected a small Sagebrush. So far so good.
wether I leave it this way remains to be seen! But it works at the moment. More and more I am drawn though, to multiple apex trees.

I moved back in to Abq so I’m not in Los Lunas anymore, but if you go to Trees That Please I think you’ll be pleased with the selection of oaks, dawn redwoods and non Acer Maples. Let me know. Also, I’ve been scouting potential trees to dig at my land so if you wanna romp around there one day to scout a few yourself, we could do that.
 

August44

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Ah, I see. For some reason I missed that it was nursery stock. Thanks for setting me straight! ;)
 

August44

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I agree with you. That is already a pretty nice tree. Wish I could buy one of these in a nursery around here.
 

Hartinez

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I agree with you. That is already a pretty nice tree. Wish I could buy one of these in a nursery around here.
Thanks for saying Peter. And I’m surprised you can’t. While I’m sure where you live in NE Oregon is not teaming with bonsai perfect nurseries, Albuquerque isn’t exactly a hot bed for this stuff! 😂
 

August44

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Are they sold as Rocky Mountain Junipers...that's how they are tagged?
 

Hartinez

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Are they sold as Rocky Mountain Junipers...that's how they are tagged?
They are. They are not the best candidates. Typically. At least that’s my understanding. The tight foliage on this one seemed different than most.
 

Hartinez

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Are they sold as Rocky Mountain Junipers...that's how they are tagged?
i wish I had more to choose from locally though. Though I’ve ordered a few small trident maples, I don’t love the idea of mail order trees. I think I need to get over it though! 😆
 

Hartinez

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Since the cutback and styling this tree has already begun excellent growth. And for an RMJ the foliage is tight and not so droopy. 👍🏻D8A6964E-63EF-4965-BCAE-D7B5A448E2A4.jpeg
 

Colorado

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Nice looking tree! I have a nursery stock RMJ that has decent foliage too:
53006F06-DFE5-4B63-8532-C0521870EECC.jpeg

Not the tiniest by any means, but not too bad for growing freely all year. I’ve been thinking about picking up another one of these, and your thread is inspiring me to go get after it!
 

jaco94

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I think the result is very successful, in a few years it will be superb.
I prefer the photo of August 18, when the movement of the tree goes to the left.
In yesterday's photo the shari is perhaps a bit too eye-catching.
 
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