Pick the front of this western juniper!

[coh]

Nice material. I prefer view A or B (A over B if I had to base just on these photos) or perhaps something in between, where you can see both the deadwood and living veins. View C, where you've got a hunk of deadwood with living branches emanating from behind, I feel like I've seen that a thousand times before. It's not bad, just not as interesting (to me) as the other view might be.

Can the tree possibly be rotated slightly from the "C" position to allow some live vein to be seen?

Chris

 

[PiñonJ]

I was initially drawn to C, but that's just because of how it looks at the moment. A is the hardest to see, because it is the messiest, but it has beautiful movement, with interesting jin and nebari. I would choose A.

 

[Smoke]

Lot of people liking A.

My first thought on that position is why would anyone choose a view leaning away from the viewer?


I am more partial to whats behind A

 

[markyscott]

Lot of people liking A.

My first thought on that position is why would anyone choose a view leaning away from the viewer?


I am more partial to whats behind A

Thanks Smoke -

The closest orientation to "the back of A" is D. You can see the chopstick marking D directly behind that marking A in the A picture. You'd have to rotate the perspective in D a bit more so that the corner on the left in the picture was facing the viewer, projecting the lower most left branch in D toward the viewer. I can't recall why we didn't select that orientation as a possibility, but its an interesting thought and one I'll look at on my next trip. Choosing that front may mean removing that branch though. And the movement of the live vein is less interesting on this side of the tree.

But you have hit on one of the problems we talked about with the A option. I may have an additional picture or two from A - I'll see if I can dig them up.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

Here is another picture from A. It was taken a bit earlier on in the cleanup process, before I'd exposed more of the live bark and nebari.

It's also taken from a bit higher angle (had to stand up for a bit and I'm a tall guy).



Scott

 

[coh]

Lot of people liking A.

My first thought on that position is why would anyone choose a view leaning away from the viewer?


I am more partial to whats behind A

Just bring the apex/foliage back toward the viewer.

 

[markyscott]

Just bring the apex/foliage back toward the viewer.

Thanks all, for the discussion. And for what it's worth, this is where we ended up in the class. "A" as the front and tilted about 15 degrees toward the viewer.

Scott

 

[fore]

Just bring the apex/foliage back toward the viewer.

Great tree! And my thought was like Chris', A with bringing foliage branches forward.

Look forward to it's progress

 

[markyscott]

Time for an update. Here's the tree again after a season of growth. It grew strongly all summer as evidenced by the long shoots. That suggests that it is healthy enough for some winter work.

Scott

 

[bonsaibp]

Nice juniper. It looks like it's ready for some work to me.

 

[markyscott]

I pounded the boards off and worked the roots. Bottom first, then sides. I then bare-rooted 1/2 the rootball, removing all the old field soil. It's a 2 person job. Note the strong healthy roots in the good soil and their absence in the old field soil due to the poor aeration and drainage. These healthy roots are left undisturbed - they will sustain the tree while it recovers from the repotting. After combing out the roots and most of the clay, I washed the remaining field soil away with a gentle stream from a garden hose.

Scott

 

[markyscott]

The big roots were cut back as much as possible. Smaller than a pencil, they are safe to cut. Larger and they must be reduced gradually - cut back slowly to living root (as evidenced by a white center) or a strong lateral root. Stop there and wait until the next repotting to reduce further.

Scott

 

[PaulH]

Great picture of the difference soil makes for roots!

 

[markyscott]

And then into its new home with fresh soil. Doesn't it look completely different out of the box and into a pot? Picture 1 is close to the front. Some large roots remained that could not be reduced further, preventing me from orienting it exactly the way I wished, but it's quite close. Do you still like the choice? That's all for now - I'll let it grow all spring. If it grows well, I'll start to move some branches in the summer.

Scott

 

[Poink88]

Scott,

I believe that is exactly what I described on my first post as my choice...and I believe it offers the best front still.

Really awesome tree you got there.

 

[Poink88]

Great picture of the difference soil makes for roots!

I agree. Good to see that...esp for newbies like me. Thanks!

 

[markyscott]

Scott,

I believe that is exactly what I described on my first post as my choice...and I believe it offers the best front still.

Really awesome tree you got there.

Thanks Dario - the tree is still leaning toward the back. It needs to be tilted forward about 15 or 20 degrees but is prevented by some large roots that could not be safely reduced further. Next repotting maybe - it's an old tree and it's important to help it develop a healthy root system and to not be too aggressive with the big roots. Junipers have a strongly linear vascular system - chop a big root too hard and you can kill an important branch.

Scott

 

[JudyB]

Could you show a pic halfway between pic 1 and 2 of the first potted pics? I like the side view of pic 2 as well, (showing off the deadwood "wings") but also still like side 1.
You should be happy with this, patience pays off!

 

[markyscott]

Could you show a pic halfway between pic 1 and 2 of the first potted pics? I like the side view of pic 2 as well, (showing off the deadwood "wings") but also still like side 1.
You should be happy with this, patience pays off!

Hi Judy - we'll have to wait for next time. Tree in California, Scott in Houston. I'll try and remember to do that next time I head that way.

- Scott

 

[markyscott]

Couple of updates

Repotted this tree in spring. The tree was healthy and growing well. 1/2 was in field soil and the other 1/2 in boon mix. I cleaned out the rest of the field soil and found a new pot.

Scott