I really though I won't have any tree to work on during the long w.e. until...

[Alain]

Until a freaking Labor day miracle!

I went to smoke outside the building at my job this afternoon and 2 guys from the facility management, landscaping section, were removing some junipers so now I have that to work on during the long week-end:



My two very best friends from now on had just dug them out (very clean digging btw, I couldn't have done better, in fact I would have done much worse) and they even help me to bag them.
And what else with that? A candy bar? A ticket for the Illinois lottery? A little bj?
No thanks, that will be all...

So first thing first I potted them as soon as I arrived from my job.
Then I cooked the diner.
And then I started to work on my first one. One of the smallest (the one at the right back, NE corner of the juniper's square on the picture).

Here it is before I started:



3" at the base, some sweet deadwood already and also something that worried me a little: a big hole of rotten wood:



For the hole of rotten wood I carved inside like a dentist for a cavity and put charcoal on it.



What do you guys think that could be? Termites? Something threatening? Do I have to do something?

Anyway.

1 done, 3 to go...

 

[Alain]

 

[Alain]

Btw: which kind of juniper are they, Chinensis?

(In fact for once it could actually be Foemina , just kidding)

 

[aml1014]

Might look into borers but I feel if the wood is already rotten,then the borers have left already and they happened to leave some nice dead wood in their path.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Congrats. If you want them around next Labor Day weekend, I suggest potting in the smallest pots the roots will fit into, packed with pumice, placing them in AM sun and PM shade, and misting the foliage and trunks a few times a day.

Manipulating the branches and reducing the foliage this year will reduce their chances of survival down to around 0.

When I collect junipers, I usually wait 2 years to be sure they're stable before starting any work.

 

[Alain]

Congrats. If you want them around next Labor Day weekend, I suggest potting in the smallest pots the roots will fit into, packed with pumice, placing them in AM sun and PM shade, and misting the foliage and trunks a few times a day.

Manipulating the branches and reducing the foliage this year will reduce their chances of survival down to around 0.

When I collect junipers, I usually wait 2 years to be sure they're stable before starting any work.

Ok. I already did the 1st part - except that I don't have pumice so they are in my regular perlite/pine bark mix - and for the second part, well, then I'll go back to the first labor day project I had: the building of a bench to put my trees.
But not these ones because they won't fit on the bench I have in mind

 

[Alain]

Now that the rush of potting them (and cooking the diner) is pasted here they are in more detail.

You already saw tree # 1 (the one which may very well die as I worked on it directly) here is tree # 2

 

[Alain]

Tree # 3



So, Chinensis or what?

 

[Alain]

Tree # 4

 

[Txhorticulture]

Btw: which kind of juniper are they, Chinensis?

(In fact for once it could actually be Foemina , just kidding)

Not foemina maybe one of Chinensis x media types, or savin juniper maybe

 

[M. Frary]

Chinensis. Maybe sea green?

 

[ColinFraser]

That's a great new connection for future material, regardless of the outcome with these! Take those guys lunch once in a while and tell them what you're looking for

I had an acquaintance who told me someone at work was getting rid of a couple of trees. I jumped at the opportunity to take them, even though they turned out to basically be potted Charlie Brown Xmas trees - I wanted that connection to feel that I appreciated her effort in locating me a tree, so that maybe she would do it again

 

[LanceMac10]

Interesting material, good luck with them!!

P.S.
Maybe offer to wash their car if the lottery tickets don't work, save the man-act as a last resort!!

 

[Smoke]

Barberry

 

[Alain]

That's a great new connection for future material, regardless of the outcome with these! Take those guys lunch once in a while and tell them what you're looking for

I had an acquaintance who told me someone at work was getting rid of a couple of trees. I jumped at the opportunity to take them, even though they turned out to basically be potted Charlie Brown Xmas trees - I wanted that connection to feel that I appreciated her effort in locating me a tree, so that maybe she would do it again

Yep I already though about that. I have always been in very good term with all the people from the 'technical' part at my job.

The campus I work on has an incredible park and they frequently remove trees: huge yews, junipers - obviously - this week they cut down and remove 10 ginkgos (but with trunks of at least 1' diam and root's balls of like 10 cubic feet, my poor little car would have been on its rear wheels all the way back home ) and so on...
I already spoke with a bunch of the FM guys and I'll keep doing so

 

[Alain]

Chinensis. Maybe sea green?

That what I though. But I'm happy to see that you confirm the Chinensis part

 

[Alain]

Manipulating the branches and reducing the foliage this year will reduce their chances of survival down to around 0

At least could I clean up all the dead foliage and branches?

 

[Alain]

Barberry

I let you know as soon as they turn red!

 

[Smoke]

That what I though. But I'm happy to see that you confirm the Chinensis part

I'm pretty sure all junipers are Chinensis, like all maples are Acer. The variety is after Chinensis.

Juniperus Chinensis "Foemina"

Juniperus Chinensis "Sea Green"

Juniperus Chinensis "Parsonii"

Juniperus Chinensis "Torulosa"

 

[Smoke]

I let you know as soon as they turn red!

You do know junipers turn red?