Lucky nursery find and 'hello'

[berobinson82]

Greetings!

I've been lurking and learning and until now didn't think I had much to offer. I wanted to share with you good folks what I thought was an exceptional find at a local nursery in Central VA. There were hundreds of junipers unhappily living in pots that are too small and having been destined for the compost bins, a little forgotten. I found this one to be particularly suitable to making an interesting design in the future.




For now this guy and his brothers are going to have to regain health and vigor and the foliage will have to be brought closer to the trunk. Once that happens, I have no idea what I'm going to do next since I'm admittedly in over my head here!

Advice is always welcome but I mainly just wanted to share with you this $15 nursery find.

Regards,

Bernard

The junipers I brought home are here: http://imgur.com/a/1EEFy


I look forward to interacting with this community further.

 

[JudyB]

nice find for $15!

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Reminds me a little of one I got last year: http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?4665-Juniperus-Sabina

Great find, and welcome!

 

[berobinson82]

Thx Judy. Hey Alex. I remember that thread. How is that juni doing these days?

 

[rockm]

OK, so WHERE did you find it? I have $15 and a free Saturday coming up...

(P.S. I don't really expect an answer... )

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

It's doing pretty well, but keep in mind I got it when I was still very new to bonsai. lol -- Well, I still am quite new, but comparatively speaking. . . .

Long story short, I was a bit careless. I trimmed the roots back a little too far and made some major cuts at the same time, so it was in a somewhat poor state this last season. However it looks healthy green now and I'm hopeful. I was foolish and put it in a small pot, so I'm going to be potting it back up into a gallon Smart Pot come the spring. The branch I'd planned on using as my main branch died off because I tried to make too harsh a bend at the base and broke a bit of it...so all in all it was a much needed kick in the teeth. lol -- Anywho, I'll post some updates come spring.

Is this a sabina juniper as well? It almost looks like it to me, but I haven't taken much time to research junipers. My only suggestion -- which, given your self-appointed Lurker status, I would imagine you already plan on -- is to repot into a better medium. I noticed with a couple nursery junipers I got that there's so much browning because the soil is soggy.

Best of luck!

 

[berobinson82]

rockm - You're not too far. You sure you don't want an answer?

Alex - We live and we learn. Thank you for making that mistake and talking about it. I feel like now, you've made the mistake for me and I can avoid that one. (learning from our own mistakes is great but painful!)

Yes, indeed. I've prepared a batch of soil and plan to get them into grow pots in 3-4 weeks. Tis the season. Thanks for the replies. Posting to this forum is made easier seeing so many friendly types and lack of "snobtitude" towards us seedlings.

 

[rockm]

OK if you're willing to cough it up, where?

 

[berobinson82]

PM'd. Best to remain a secret shared in VA. Ask for Andy btw.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

No problemo. I suppose everyone talks about patience right from the start when you become interested in bonsai, but you (well, I) never know until you learn first hand why it's important. lol -- Luckily it was only a $6 tree and it still has branches that can be used. Glad I could help!

 

[berobinson82]

I think patience has changed in scale since my first learning about bonsai. "A long time" to me was months and now I'm talking to folks that consider themselves beginners after 5-10 years. The good news is, time passes no matter what we are doing. And like children, our trees can grow and thrive if we nurture them properly over the years. I'm starting to wonder if bonsai is more about the journey than the destination.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

I like to think of it that way. In fact, that seems to be an applicable theory in the whole of life. We must also remember that we should watch our children in their young age to make sure our trees don't get destroyed.