My first Shimpaku styling

mattspinniken

mattspinniken

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USDA Zone
5
image.jpg I have read and watched anything I can find on junipers but have almost no experience with them. I bought this one at our club auction for $10 a month or two ago. Unfortunately I dont have a before picture but the tree is about 50% smaller now.

Anyway, I tried to create some future foliage pads and set a basic structure. Does anyone have any tips on where to take this one?
 
Looks very nice. The only thing I'd do for now is to clean up the foliage hanging down under the clouds of foliage to clean up the profile a bit.

Aaron
 
Thanks Aaron I did that some but I will clean up some more. One thing I find really difficult is making it look right from multiple angles. My brain doesn't work very well with 3D art.
 

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You've got wire on the branches with my movement , put some movements into woody branches, fan the pads out and find a front and get a plan , then share ! And don't forget to let it grow so more !

Nice start ! But the wire had no purpose as it is.
 
That second picture is the ugliest angle I could find, it really helps to take a picture to find issues. I only put movement in the branches for my intended front which is the first picture. A lot of woody branches only had been wired down, I went back in and put side to side movement in, thanks for that tip.

I find junipers a lot harder to style but a fun challenge. Now I need more to play with.
 
mattspiniken said:
Thanks Aaron I did that some but I will clean up some more. One thing I find really difficult is making it look right from multiple angles. My brain doesn't work very well with 3D art.
Click to expand...

Upright styles should be designed to look good from as many view-points as likely but a tree with the kind of cascade/semi-cascade, like the tree started out with, has only two possible viewing angles. The angle of the second photo is not one of them and makes me scratch my head as to why you would submit it. I would really like to see another photo from the same angle that the first photo, then we can all have a discussion about what is going on or what happened. Right now we know neither one.
 
Last edited:
image.jpg image.jpg I just took another photo from the front. The first photo is mid way through the first styling I did, the tree was at least twice as long but I forgot to get a before photo :/. The second picture is another photo of the front that I just took (I up potted it, it was a little pot bound).
 
This is one of those trees where it is possible to start looking at it as a group of triangles. The top should be designed into a triangle and the lower growth into another broader triangle. You need to keep that in mind as a final image but in doing so you must start defining your primary and secondary branches and start developing internal foliage pads that become elements within larger foliage pads. It is in kind of like fractal geometry, where patterns repeat them selves within similar larger images.
 
It seems to be on the right track. I would flatten the apex a little (to compliment the flat trunk line), and work to create some separation of the 3 pads below. I like the overall movement/flow. I can see this going into an eggshell pot, and have a little Shari along the top of the trunk to help tell the story of how it got flattened.
 
I see you have re-potted, reduced the foliage by 50% and done some wiring. I would strongly suggest that you now leave it alone until at least next year. It needs to recover from the multiple traumas. Would be a shame to loss it now. And a few weeks recovery in partial shade with misting should also be considered. (Northern Michigan -- what a great time of year there - do miss it sometimes.)
 
Doug, I actually just took the entire root ball and surrounded it with additional well draining soil in a bigger pot, didnt cut any roots at all. I did cut alot of foliage off though, ill make sure to be careful with this one. I won't repot until next spring. It is actually looking happier since I up-potted it. It is a great time of year in Northern Michigan, if you can deal with the winters it is one of the best places in the world in my opinion :). Buuuuttt.... the winters.
 
mattspiniken said:
Doug, I actually just took the entire root ball and surrounded it with additional well draining soil in a bigger pot, didnt cut any roots at all. I did cut alot of foliage off though, ill make sure to be careful with this one. I won't repot until next spring. It is actually looking happier since I up-potted it. It is a great time of year in Northern Michigan, if you can deal with the winters it is one of the best places in the world in my opinion :). Buuuuttt.... the winters.
Click to expand...
Which is like 2/3s the year? Lmao at least you guys never have to deal with 100°+ temps.

Aaron
 
Nice...from everyone...I agree...

Kill.

Sorce
 
We get hundred degree weather around here at least once a year sometimes for as long as a week. We hit 95 yesterday. That's unusual for this early in the season.
 
Vance Wood said:
We get hundred degree weather around here at least once a year sometimes for as long as a week. We hit 95 yesterday. That's unusual for this early in the season.
Click to expand...

Just poking fun since the "weather discussion" about your part of the
country usually involves "how damn cold?!???" F that!
 
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