Juniper toralusa.

[edprocoat]

I was in Lowes a few days ago and seen 3 Juniper Toralusa in 3 gallon pots. these things are pretty, deep green foliage and about three feet tall with over an inch thick trunk 2/3 rds the way up with lots of branching growing in a pyrimidical form and very flexible. Two were almost exactly the same, the last one was little more bushy up top and the bottom 6 inches had the branches crushed down with two of them broken completely off and four more broken but still attached. the lady working there gave me 10% off this one, big hearted of her, but I bought it. I bent the first one over like a cascade and it sprang right back up. The one I bought I figured I would try to make a large cascade similiar to my avatar I use at this site that i recently killed, making a large Bonsai, the only big one I would have. Getting it home I bent the trunk to the right only a few inches to look at which branches I might remove first and the trunk snapped right off revealing a dead brown center hollow area, looked as if something had eaten its way through the top half of the trunk.

I just thought I would share this as I do not know if this is a species specific trait/fault with this particular plant or just another reason why they call me lucky eddie!

ed

 

[Bill S]

I'll fill you in a bit later, I got one of these last fall as it looks like promising material. Probably start on it in March.

 

[Smoke]

Getting it home I bent the trunk to the right only a few inches to look at which branches I might remove first and the trunk snapped right off revealing a dead brown center hollow area, looked as if something had eaten its way through the top half of the trunk.

I just thought I would share this as I do not know if this is a species specific trait/fault with this particular plant or just another reason why they call me lucky eddie!

ed

Ever think about stamp collecting?

 

[edprocoat]

Ever think about stamp collecting?

Geez man, I own a boat and am an avid fisherman, I am into photography, I keep Bonsai, I own and run my own contracting business, I just put up a shower for my daughter in the Wyndham Resort Hotel on International drive in Orlando Fl for over 200 relatives and friends of hers and now we are planning her wedding, hell I don't have any time for a hobby!

ed

 

[Bill S]

Geez man, I own a boat and am an avid fisherman, I am into photography, I keep Bonsai, I own and run my own contracting business, I just put up a shower for my daughter in the Wyndham Resort Hotel on International drive in Orlando Fl for over 200 relatives and friends of hers and now we are planning her wedding, hell I don't have any time for a hobby!

ed

You could give up sleeping to gain some spare time.

 

[october]

How about posting some pictures.

Rob

 

[edprocoat]

How about posting some pictures.

Rob

Sure, of what? I have lots of pics of my plants here, we are still waiting for the photographers pics of the shower to get finished, I have some boat pics and tons of my work.
I was not allowed in the actual shower as its for the hens, but I was allowed to see the hall the night before during setup. My girl Annmarie designed the shower with a roman theme and designed all the decorations and flower arrangements. These are some pics I took that night.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edprocoat/6768488955/ http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6768428049_a8dd69e6f9.jpg My daughter is the one standing with me in the purple shirt, she has dyed her beautiful black hair a crappy blonde streak for the occasion, but its going back black for her wedding, as that is what my girl looks like.

I do not seem to have any pics of my whole boat, just the goings on in it, this was supposed to be my girl taking a pic of a nice grouper I caught in Tampa Bay. This is looking at my son joe's catch on the Intercoastal waterway between Melbourne Fl. and the Sebastian inlet. This is the my boats name, The Little Flower, named after St Therese of Lisieux This is called beauty and the beast taken in the ocean out of Miami. http://www.flickr.com/photos/edprocoat/4619867341/ its my girl and a weird blowfish she caught.

This is what I do for a living, I am the owner and operator of my own business. I refinished this house 17 years ago, the owners had me do it again this summer as it was the first time it held up longer than a few years for them, this pic was after power washing and scraping for 3 days , then 1 day of counter sinking all the nails and using filler on the holes and caulking the seams and some wood repair and then another day of priming the bare wood areas http://www.flickr.com/photos/edprocoat/6768453153/ .http://www.flickr.com/photos/edprocoat/6768459267/ Then I apllied a coat of Glidden's finest paint with my Speeflo 2.5 gpm 5000 psi commercial gasoline powered airless paint sprayer and back brushed it all in and trimmed it out the same way. This job took 8, 12 hour work days to complete. http://www.flickr.com/photos/edprocoat/6768465127/


I will have some pics of the shower by the pro we hired, showing the food provided by the caterer, the dj and the dancing, the four layer cake and the 211 people who showed up and ate the meals. Luckily we had paid for 200 with the option to up it to as much as 220 if needed. The hall, the caterer, the photographer and the cake and the dj and all the decorations were chosen by my daughter, all I had to do was pay for it.

ed

 

[rock]

Ed,
Its time to start a blog

 

[edprocoat]

Ed,
Its time to start a blog

A blog, if thats anything like trying to post a simple thread about an experience with a plant here is , forget it. It seems like I post something and am either challenged or directly insulted, I am not saying I am the only one treated this way, it seems to be common fare online, especially here at B-NUT. But the info and some of the people here are worth sifting through the chaff.

ed

 

[Tona]

Hi Ed,
Some of the pundits on these sites are brutal but most are just being sarcastic (humorous). I have two Torulosa (Hollywood) Junipers that I have been working on for a while. I don't know about the brown center, may just have been a damaged/diseased tree. They are brittle when the wood matures and may not lend themselves to a cascade for that reason. They may need a wire spline and raffia for any radical bending. They are fast growing and don't form foliage pads readily, it takes some work. There is a thread on another site (International Bonasi Club) I believe it is by Dorothy Schmidt. She has a very nice Torulosa that she offers some advice about. I have actually used a "cage" system around the loose foliage to encourage pad development. Both of my trees are upright styles. By the way, we have all killed trees trying to develop skills.
Good Luck with the torulosa.
Tona

 

[rockm]

Lighten up dude. The posts were humorous...after all they asked for photos of the junipers and got photos of a wedding...

 

[october]

Hi Ed.. Those were nice pics... How is the tree coming along?.. Any ideas for it yet?

 

[edprocoat]

Lighten up dude. The posts were humorous...after all they asked for photos of the junipers and got photos of a wedding...

Actually they never specified what pics to post, and it was just a shower anyway.

My response was not about anything in this thread either, it was referring to a person who called my 8 year old twin trunk Pro nana in another thread here a 1 gallon home depot juniper stuck in a pot adding that it does not look as if it has ever been worked on and did he did not even think it was a Pro Nana. I would not care but it started out as two whips that I fused together to make a two trunk out of it and its got a nice gnarly thick trunk like procumbens get with age, if he can buy these in 1 gallon containers in his local home depot I would love to know where he shops. I also had a thread with a nice juniper that I bought nearly dead in a three gallon container that I nursed back to health over a 3 year period and made a decent Mame sized, under 4 inches tall, cascade style plant I asked for advice whether or not I should cut off the upright part I left on it and was told to stick it in the ground and let it grow, which would defeat the whole object of the design. I know I am not a Bonsai artist but this little plant looks pretty sharp as it is, I decided to keep the upright part by the way.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Hi Ed.. Those were nice pics... How is the tree coming along?.. Any ideas for it yet?

October, this may sound radical to many here, but, I am going to stick it in the ground !!! My cousin has a place here in Fl. and as I am only here in my RV for the winter I asked him if I could stick it in his yard somehwhere to give it a chance. I cut it down past the brown area and there are two little branches left so i have it in the shade in a pot for now, in a month if it still lives I will plant it.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Hi Ed,
Some of the pundits on these sites are brutal but most are just being sarcastic (humorous). I have two Torulosa (Hollywood) Junipers that I have been working on for a while. I don't know about the brown center, may just have been a damaged/diseased tree. They are brittle when the wood matures and may not lend themselves to a cascade for that reason. They may need a wire spline and raffia for any radical bending. They are fast growing and don't form foliage pads readily, it takes some work. There is a thread on another site (International Bonasi Club) I believe it is by Dorothy Schmidt. She has a very nice Torulosa that she offers some advice about. I have actually used a "cage" system around the loose foliage to encourage pad development. Both of my trees are upright styles. By the way, we have all killed trees trying to develop skills.
Good Luck with the torulosa.
Tona

The two I did not pick bent like any juniper, the one I got the buy? on was just a bad one I guess. But hey, I did save almost a dollar, serves me right for being a cheap ass. I stopped by a nursery just today and the guy there told me it sounded like Juniper pocket rot, he said it attacks the inner core of a tree weakened by improper pruning or some other opening adding that it may have entered through the very broken stems I got the 10% discount from.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Thanks for all the responses, I decided to throw the Toralusa in the garbage. I have two other junipers and from what I read online the juniper pocket rot is a fungus that spreads by spores and may lay dormant until it gets an opening allowing it to attack the heartwood of a juniper. I will not take the chance it may spread to my other plants. It said one of the signs is a dark colored or pink to red center of the branch where normal light colored heartwood would be, so I made some cuts and this was evident all the way down to where the first broken branch was, I am cleaning my tools with bleach and am sorry I ever seen the thing.

ed

 

[october]

Ya, if you think that the tree was diseased..The last thing you would want to do is stick it in the ground among other trees.. Also, cleaning your tools is a good idea. If your want a less harsh soultion and something that is more tolerable than bleach. I would recommend plain rubbing alcohol. It works very well and does not have a long and ligering smell. I actually wipe down my tools whenever I go from one tree to the next. A little alcohol on a rag and wiping the blades just gives me some piece of mind.

Rob

 

[edprocoat]

Ya, if you think that the tree was diseased..The last thing you would want to do is stick it in the ground among other trees.. Also, cleaning your tools is a good idea. If your want a less harsh soultion and something that is more tolerable than bleach. I would recommend plain rubbing alcohol. It works very well and does not have a long and ligering smell. I actually wipe down my tools whenever I go from one tree to the next. A little alcohol on a rag and wiping the blades just gives me some piece of mind.

Rob

Yes this does make sense as alcohol is an astringent it should kill any germs. By the way bleach is a bad idea as it rusted both my cutter and my scissors within two days, the wire cutter, which I use for branches and wire will not open at all and the scissors is pitted now. I even rinsed them really well after bleaching them and dried them off, bleach and metal tools does not mix.

ed