Wondering shimpaku

[Frozentreehugger]

Hate to start a what is this tree thread . Just curious what you guys think and can anyone confirm . I suspect this is shimpaku . I’m not a big Chinese juniper guy so not sure . But growth habit and peeling bark makes me wonder . Trees history is nursery bought grown in container first owner . Almost killed it suspect overwater . 2 years gave it to a friend larger pot better sun 3 years . Second owner . Plant in ground rock garden 7 years third owner . ( second owners sister ) third owner lived down the street offered it to me when she sold her house . I collected it 2 years ago some trim back is all it has got from me . Needs repot fresh out of winter storage in pic so needs sun to colour up some . Not that cultivar really matters at this point just what do you guys think like I said not really my cup of tea so very unsure

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

To me it looks like regular chinensis.
Itoigawa has light green foliage, kishu has more puffy and compact foliage, blaauw is blueish and super puffy too.
This plant doesn't seem to have those traits.

 

[RKatzin]

Not getting a juniper vibe at all from this tree. Maybe some kind of thuja? Or one of the false cedars or cypress. Arborvitae have this type of foliage, but not shimpaku.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Whatever cultivar it is it’s definitely juniper . And from what I have seen when it was in the ground . It’s fairly slow growing . The colour is darker it gets lighter with sun in sitting . The info I got was it’s Chinese and name starts with S according to second owner . But I have no idea other than that . Looks similar to shimpaku that I have seen in young plants in local nursery . May be a climate thing . Whatever it is I think I’ll have to work with what I got to style it . As per the slow growth .

 

[Crazy Diamond]

Regular nursery Juniperus chinensis, the foliage dont look tight enough to be Itoigawa-Kishu but isnt terrible neither

 

[Frozentreehugger]

By

Regular nursery Juniperus chinensis, the foliage dont look tight enough to be Itoigawa-Kishu but isnt terrible neither

Likely enough I realize It’s recovering from collection and it’s short growing season here . But normally from what I have seen regular Chinese grows faster here especially in the ground . Foliage is tight to the trunk leads me to think must be some sort of dwarf like I said better style with what I have . May not live long enough for it to grow into a style

 

[Paradox]

Ill second the regular juniper.
Shimpaku arent sold as nursery trees.

But wow that thing is a hot mess

 

[Frozentreehugger]

I don’t get what you mean by hot . Nothing has been done to it other than pull it out of ground and let it recover if you mean its just a over grow. Shrub in need of work I get that or do you mean something else . I have never played with juniper in planning a repot and clean it up see what I’m going to do with it . Do you see something wrong with it I don’t

 

[Frozentreehugger]

Update pic of the tree after repot and some trim this spring . Yesterday took a trip to the specialist conifer nursery it came from . Partially to see if they actually sold shinpaku . Got the last 2 they had 1 gallon looks cutting grown from nursery in Oregon had a nice chat with owner . About difficulty of getting stock because of Covid and crack down and delays of Canadian government paper work and inspections . They normally have 5 times the stock Cool place most of his stuff is as expected dwarf and rare cultivars grafted . Have to go back regret not getting a thuja accidental dwarf he had . With nice green compact foliage . My interest is possible grafting foliage to a wild collected tree