Parsons Juniper Progression - Zone 7b - Piedmont North Carolina USA

[sbarnhardt]

Bought this Parson’s Juniper on, or around, June 5th 2014 at Christie’s Nursery in Concord, NC. It cost $18.50 and was my Father’s Day present for 2014.

Brought it home, cleaned it up a bit, and watered it with some Shultz 10-15-10 Plus and kept that up over the rest of the summer. I’m thinking it needs to be repotted since the water ran pretty much straight through. But I decided against it opting instead to fill the gap between the rootball and the side of the pot with a good soil mix and keep it watered well. Approximately mid June, I “really” cleaned up half the foliage opening it up so I could see the movement of the limbs better. After reading in one of the many threads where someone had said to only do one “big thing” a year, I decided to let this be it for the summer of 2014. In the fall, I bedded it down with my other “children” in a bed of pine needles in a wooden box surrounded by burlap for the winter.

Fast forward to early spring 2015 and after looking in on this Parsons Juniper, it looks like it just may have weathered the, at least for us, really cold winter we had fairly well. I’ll wait for a bit longer to make sure the cold is over and get it out and see what’s next.

 

[sbarnhardt]

I have photos folks, but I'm having to "relearn" how to place them in a post. It's been a while since I've done so and it would appear the board software has changed since I did it last, so................... I can get them on, but they are too large. Have to read/search to see if there is a size requirement for posting. Haven't found an instruction file yet, but am looking. If anyone knows where it is on here, please clue me in?? Thanks!!

 

[sbarnhardt]

It seems that I "may" have figured this out. Bear with me!!

 

[sbarnhardt]

I do think I did!! Now, just hope I haven't run afoul of a rule I haven't read. If I did, hit me upside the head with it.

 

[sbarnhardt]

My plan, as things stand right now, is to repot this and try to maintain its health through the summer. That’s the cautious side of me talking OK?? Now my imprudent, impatient side of me thinks about all the various and sundry things that “could” be done as I eye my “tool carrier” that is setting over to my left on the floor awaiting warmer weather. Although I do have to say it’s gotten much better around here recently, I know the Piedmont section of North Carolina sometime has late season cold snaps and just as sure as my impatience overrides my common sense, that’s what will happen. So, I’ll take a deep breath, let prudence rule and wait. I’ll use this time to decide on a pot to repot it in a little later on. I guess it’s not unlike “raising a child” isn’t it folks? You want them/it to “grow up”, but at the same time, you have to baby them along as you try to nurture them and dream of what “could be” someday.

 

[jk_lewis]

Personally, I'd work on the top now. It badly needs a haircut, branch shortening, and some shaping. You can do the repot later, since you will just be moving it into a smaller, but still large, training pot.

It looks like a very nice tree. Please take your time with it.

 

[sbarnhardt]

Personally, I'd work on the top now. It badly needs a haircut, branch shortening, and some shaping. You can do the repot later, since you will just be moving it into a smaller, but still large, training pot.

It looks like a very nice tree. Please take your time with it.

I'll keep that in mind.

My issue right now is I don't trust my impulses about this, primarily due to my inexperience, and tend to possibly be a little too conservative in my approach to it.

I appreciate your taking the time to respond!

 

[DougB]

You have a very good bonsai club there in Charlotte. Join and you will learn and get some great advice.

 

[sbarnhardt]

You have a very good bonsai club there in Charlotte. Join and you will learn and get some great advice.

I'm aware of them, but most all of their meetings are on a Saturday which is one of the days I can't schedule anything. Plus they're about an hour's drive away from me. Maybe that's not considered that far to drive to a club meeting, but when you only have about 2-3 hours free on that day it's enough to not allow you to participate.

 

[Vance Wood]

Personally, I'd work on the top now. It badly needs a haircut, branch shortening, and some shaping. You can do the repot later, since you will just be moving it into a smaller, but still large, training pot.

It looks like a very nice tree. Please take your time with it.

I agree with this assessment. If you do not at some point and soon start encouraging this tree to start forming growth in closer to the trunk your going to have a heck of a time trying to force it to go inside latter on. JMHO

 

[M. Frary]

I vote with JKL and Vance. At the least cut the ends of the branches off to keep it in check and to encourage growth back towards the trunk.
I have a couple parsons and they respond well to some trimming. Also they are pretty tough so as long as you don't do nothing drastic to it the tree should be fine.

 

[sbarnhardt]

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here with faulty memory at times. I'm laying in the bed last night going over in my mind what you learned folks have had to say so far about this thing and I'm remembering/thinking I did trim more than the pictures I've posted shows. But I don't remember just how much and I didn't take pictures when I did. That's something I failed to do when I put it to bed for the winter. So, I'll get myself out there soon and get some current pics and post them.

 

[sbarnhardt]

Here are some pictures I took today. I took it out of it's winter "bed" and it looks good, at least to me.

In addition, I was searching this morning for posts on Parsons Juniper and found one I'd started about this thing last summer. So, I'm going to try to copy and paste the url for that one here so it'll all together.

http://bonsainut.com/index.php?thre...aining-progression-for-me-and-the-tree.15449/

 

[jk_lewis]

Oh, ouch. You seem to have removed all of the interior foliage, leaving long, thin branches with tassels of foliage out on the ends. With J. parsoni it is going to be next to impossible to get any backbudding into the interior of the tree.

I don't know what to suggest now. Sorry.

 

[Vance Wood]

That was kind of my point in my previous remark.

If you do not at some point and soon start encouraging this tree to start forming growth in closer to the trunk your going to have a heck of a time trying to force it to go inside latter on. JMHO

This kind of thing always amazes me.

 

[Giga]

Other then grafting or topiary you may want to plant in your front yard now and forget about it. At least you know now what not to do!

 

[sbarnhardt]

Well I guess I have fouled up. I set out to learn something and thought I had. I read and tried to understand. Thought I had, but I guess I hadn't. I seriously thought I was applying what I'd read in the way I thought it was supposed to be. In a former life, I was a drug abuse instructor in elementary and middle schools. In our training, they spoke about folks who could "read" something and learn well from it and those that did better "seeing" it done and learning from that. In other words a "visual" learner. I've pretty much always known I was more of a "visual" learner. Guess this just reinforces that.

OK!! Time to regroup and move forward.

 

[sbarnhardt]

That was kind of my point in my previous remark.

If you do not at some point and soon start encouraging this tree to start forming growth in closer to the trunk your going to have a heck of a time trying to force it to go inside latter on. JMHO

This kind of thing always amazes me.

Mr. Wood, I don't want you to think I unabashedly ignored your suggestion/s. All this "ruining" of a tree you see in the pictures was done last summer and not subsequent to your suggestions recently. I truly thought I'd done something good and was looking forward to moving forward with it this summer.

I would however like to ask what you mean by the comment "This kind of thing always amazes me." I don't mean this comment/question to be in a disrespectful way and hope it hasn't come across that way, but I would like to understand what it is you mean.

 

[Giga]

Just take it with a grain of salt, Vance is like a strangler fig, Very strangling but beautiful in a strange way.

We all goof, and bonsai is a thing that takes years to master. I'm still learning every year, but I've killed trees, made things ugly, set things back-BUT what'll set you apart is if you keep going and learn and don't make the same mistake over again.

 

[Vance Wood]

If you want to hear what really happened you should know just for your sake. Regroup and move forward, this I agree with. It was mentioned in a post previously that you had to get growth forming in closer to the trunk but for some reason you did not see this and did the exact oposite, you started cutting growth out of the interior of the tree. With Parsons Juniper this is an issue you can not afford to do, they do not back bud as well as The Chinese Junipers. I don't think this tree is beyond hope but you need to change your way of doing things and make sure you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. If you don't know for sure ask and please for all our sakes ask before you do it not after it is done.