My first California Juniper....the begining of a long journey

[Dwight]

Dwight,

Excuse my ignorance, but how can you tell a tree its a female/male?... this is the first time I heard of that... I'll check those place in SoCal, they are pretty close by where I live.

Thanks

Atilla is right about the foilage. What is even worse is that the males develop flowers at the tips of the foilage that are reallu heavy and UGLY. Most junipers do this but callies are extravent with these damn uglly flowers. They make the foilage look and feel like small garpe clusters. If it turns oout to be male ( doubtfully as the flowers are very visable in the fall ) take it to Roy Nagatoshi and learn how to graft shimpacu on it. Both of mine are males and both are getting grafted.

 

[Smoke]

Wow...lot of info here...especially for a guy that just won a tree in a raffle. Yet the author wrote this;

"collected by (at least my personal opinion) the person with the most knowledge about CJ's anywhere around here "Mr California Juniper" Harry Hirao".

Why not just seek out Harry. He is founding member of Kofu Kai, they meet at Anaheim United Methodist Church 1000 South State College Blvd. Anaheim, just a hop from Norwalk, (where I spent the first ten years of my life). 3rd Saturday of the month
Harry can help out horticulturally, as far as styling, look up Tak Shimazu, David Nyguy or Peter Macaseib. Any of those three can do as well or better than those mentioned so far.

You are in California juniper nirvana, you need not look further than your own backyard.


I have a few also.

 

[alonsou]

Why not just seek out Harry. He is founding member of Kofu Kai, they meet at Anaheim United Methodist Church 1000 South State College Blvd. Anaheim, just a hop from Norwalk, (where I spent the first ten years of my life). 3rd Saturday of the month
Harry can help out horticulturally, as far as styling, look up Tak Shimazu, David Nyguy or Peter Macaseib. Any of those three can do as well or better than those mentioned so far.

You are in California juniper nirvana, you need not look further than your own backyard.


I have a few also.

You are right Smoke, that's actually my current club where I attend, I just joined a few months ago so I still don't know all the great persons in there besides Al Nelson, Paul Vasina, Manny Martinez,Bill Hutchinson; (just to name a few) but yeah I will take it next meeting (1-22-10) and will ask Harry for help.

All the other suggestions are great options and I will keep them in mind, but for now I think that working this tree with my club will be the best option, at least for now.

 

[Juniperus Californica]

The Best Kept Secret in Bonsai

alonsou,

Smoke is right, Kofu has some great Cal Juniper teachers. Harry can help you, but I would recommend studying with David Nguy. I study with David and he's not only great with Cal Junipers but he'll take your wiring & styling to a whole new level. He's been to Japan and studied with Kamura and he's the best kept secret in bonsai. He'll only take you if you're serious, so you're going to have to convince him you mean business. Call him at West America Import & Export at
(323)223-9102.

Good Luck

JC