new rmj

[wireme]

Quick update, not much to say other than its still green and growing.

Serious flower fest on all my male junipers this spring for some reason, this was this tree. A different juniper this spring.And this one today, back on track and growing. Truthfully I had hoped for stronger growth by now but seems reasonably healthy anyways. May or may not do the first repot next year.

 

[Wilson]

Nice work @wireme! You are surely blessed geographically! I love the interior of BC, so many climates in short travelling times!

 

[Arcto]

First time I've seen this thread. That is an excellent tree. BTW, my Rocky Mt Juni down here put out a high amount of pollen flowers this year too. I don't have an explanation why.

 

[Coach]

Hey DJ, I was just looking at the thread and saw your response, I don't plan to style too soon, next year maybe I will move a couple obvious branches a bit if it seems appropriate, guy wires to open the canopy and let light into the interior a bit probably, no pruning yet. I will probably repot the year after next and then we'll see about styling. As far as professional help, who knows what the future will bring, logistically it would almost have to mean bringing somebody here. We'll see, I'll be very careful in terms of removal to not endanger live veins or loss of options in the material during any initial work I may do in the meantime.
Anyways I was looking at the thread again because I just found an old pic taken when I first found the tree, is the old home in the hills. I thought it would be nice to include in the thread.
The tree looked very healthy all summer and fall, fully covered by snow today.

Wireme,

I saw this thread for the first time today...awesome tree! I'm interested in collecting a few ancient/stunted elms that are growing in a rocky creek bed and I am inspied by your successful pull

Basically the floor of creek is SOLID rock and looks a lot like the area you collected this Rocky Mountain Juniper from. I have been discouraged from collection because I'm not sure how deep the roots are underneath the rock and extraction seems daunting.

How much rock did you break out to lift this tree (circumference around)? How deep did you go? Any other tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

 

[Chopsie]

Thats incredible!

 

[wireme]

Wireme,

I saw this thread for the first time today...awesome tree! I'm interested in collecting a few ancient/stunted elms that are growing in a rocky creek bed and I am inspied by your successful pull

Basically the floor of creek is SOLID rock and looks a lot like the area you collected this Rocky Mountain Juniper from. I have been discouraged from collection because I'm not sure how deep the roots are underneath the rock and extraction seems daunting.

How much rock did you break out to lift this tree (circumference around)? How deep did you go? Any other tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

I'll repost this pic.

See the rectangular stone behind the tree?
That is mostly what made this tree collectible. It was loose with an accessible root pad underneath. Also smaller stones around the perimeter could be pried out revealing roots.

If it is truly solid rock then you will find only taproots going down cracks for who knows how far even if you can break them free, in that case the tree is uncollectible.

When I find seething like this I do not disturb the loose stones at all unless I'm fully prepared to dig and collect, I'll just remember it as possibly collectible to go back to someday.

I did do some rock breaking beyond what was loose for this one, gained some extra roots than I otherwise would not have.

You won't find roots in solid rock no matter what you do of course, you have to determine if there is an opening for them in there somewhere then figure if you can get to it. It's a good thing, collectible trees like this are few and far between. Leaving uncollectible trees alone ensures that there will be many cool trees left in place in nature.

 

[Les]

impressive - Nice work!!

 

[Coach]

View attachment 110566

I'll repost this pic.

See the rectangular stone behind the tree?
That is mostly what made this tree collectible. It was loose with an accessible root pad underneath. Also smaller stones around the perimeter could be pried out revealing roots.

If it is truly solid rock then you will find only taproots going down cracks for who knows how far even if you can break them free, in that case the tree is uncollectible.

When I find seething like this I do not disturb the loose stones at all unless I'm fully prepared to dig and collect, I'll just remember it as possibly collectible to go back to someday.

I did do some rock breaking beyond what was loose for this one, gained some extra roots than I otherwise would not have.

You won't find roots in solid rock no matter what you do of course, you have to determine if there is an opening for them in there somewhere then figure if you can get to it. It's a good thing, collectible trees like this are few and far between. Leaving uncollectible trees alone ensures that there will be many cool trees left in place in nature.

Great advice. Thank you for being so thorough. I have a much better idea of what to look for and I couldn't agree more about leaving alone what is meant to stay . Thank you again

 

[amkhalid]

Monte, you know I absolutely love this tree and am glad to see it is doing well. If it were mine I might shy away from repotting it next year unless it really takes off.

 

[wireme]

Yeah, I might shy from it as well. It's been a slow year for junipers here, we had June in April, they started to grow, then we had April in June they slowed right down. Seem to be perking up now.
It's always a tough call the first repot or two. On one hand I like to get them out of the old soil on the other hand want them to be strong. I'm in no rush, whatever is best for the tree.
I lost a really nice one last spring that appeared to recover very well for three seasons. Repotted it in spring and all the roots were already dead, lots of new root since collecting too. I think it was due to the old soil waterlogged. Hard to say for sure but I feel like if I had repotted a year earlier it would not have died.
This tree shouldn't have that problem,there never was that large a soil mass to begin with. If it did have a lot of mountain soil I'd probably pull one side of the box, clean it out and put the side back on kind of thing. As it is I'm not sure yet, I will probably at least pull a side off and inspect roots I guess.

Good to see you back here, thujas look awesome!
BTW, I broke another phone, lost contact #s... again, (yours). Mine is still the same though, stay in touch.

 

[sorce]

flower fest on all my male junipers this spring for some reason,

You reckon they can detect the smoke in the air?

Sorce

 

[Giga]

Thats great - all the great growth!

 

[wireme]

Amazing piece. Good luck with it.
When are you going to start styling? Maybe best to get some professional help.

Look, I finally found some help!

 

[LanceMac10]

The hard part is getting them to finish!! Little tykes like starting projects.........
Very cool tree and a cute lil' helper!! Looks like she wires about as well as I!!

 

[wireme]

The hard part is getting them to finish!! Little tykes like starting projects.........
Very cool tree and a cute lil' helper!! Looks like she wires about as well as I!!

That was her first try. Picked up the wire and said "wasthis?", told her I put it on the trees and off she went.

 

[wireme]

Nice and healthy, good strong runners throughout now. Will be repotted for the first time next spring.
I have removed one large branch that I just could not envision a way to use. Perhaps a pro would have seen a way but not me. It was the only thing on the tree that was akwardly difficult so off it went this spring. What remains should not be too hard to find a way to position and work with.. I hope. Better pics with a backdrop someday, not easy to cart this around. Just thought it would be nice to show that it's still alive, kicking and doing alright.

 

[LanceMac10]

Hang a lampshade on there and it'll still grab a ribbon!!!!

What a trunk!!!!!

 

[Vin]

That certainly looks happy. It sure has much thicker and robust needles compared to mine. I'm really starting to believe my climate will not allow RMJ to thrive. Survive yes, but not thrive.

 

[wireme]

That certainly looks happy. It sure has much thicker and robust needles compared to mine. I'm really starting to believe my climate will not allow RMJ to thrive. Survive yes, but not thrive.

It may just be the trait of the tree you have. Huge variety of foliage characteristics for me in my yard amongst RMJ collected locally. This one looks like pretty good foliage. I have a few others that are pretty terrible, I keep hoping they improve as they establish but going on 5-6 years now, no change for the better really, not yet. Sometimes they do tighten up well if they were collected from a shady location. If we can learn to style like @MACH5 then we can use that stringy foliage just fine right?

 

[Vin]

It may just be the trait of the tree you have. Huge variety of foliage characteristics for me in my yard amongst RMJ collected locally. This one looks like pretty good foliage. I have a few others that are pretty terrible, I keep hoping they improve as they establish but going on 5-6 years now, no change for the better really, not yet. Sometimes they do tighten up well if they were collected from a shady location. If we can learn to style like @MACH5

Well, that's encouraging to know but a bit frustrating at the same time. If we all could learn to style like @MACH5 we would really have some nice trees to post!