What would you do with it? Juniperus horizontalis "wiltonii"

James W.

Chumono
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Augusta, KS
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6b
I saw some of these overgrown J. horizontalis at a nursery. I am not really tempted to buy one but was intrigued. How in the world would would someone make something out of it? Each pot has 2 or 3 trunks all crawling over the edge of the pot, but I think I could find one with one trunk that is bigger than all the rest. If I wanted to tackle one. Looks like one would have to cut off 3/4 of everything and be left with a snake.
Has anyone here been successful with something like this?
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J. horizontalis is a naturally cascading species, so cascade imo. But feel free to experiment as you’d like. If I were you, I’d pull it out of the pot or at least check the main trunk to see what you can do with it.
 
It is possible to wire them vertical if they haven’t thickened up too much. However, I’ve messed around with a couple of ~1” trunk ones an abandoned them.

Here’s one that was a 1 gallon that looked much the same as the one in your image. It grew up about an inch and took a hard sideways turn. I found it at Lowe’s, wired the whole thing for fun, it’s held. If nothing else, good practice without terrible results.
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lol. I worked with one just like you are showing. I made a cascade. THen I got tires of rewiring all the time and I planted it in the garden. Maybe I should dig it and give it a second run.
 
The trunks on these are an inch +/- at the ground and branches feel very stiff.
I might get one just for fun.
 
You just gotta feel on in there, as if you were going to pick it up by the base of the trunk.

I'd say about 3 of 12 will have good single trunks, 1 of those 3 will be good to use. Or, not straight up for 5 inches then spidered.

I guess that's not to say some of the multi trunks are no good, they do seperate easily, it's just I only ever have $ for one, and the biggest trunk is usually a single plant.

In spring they all kinda look the same, in fall, they will have long runners, this can help identify very healthy/large trunks. Or provide the gusto for building new sections altogether.

Dude just posted a pic of a Nana that was wholly pruned except for what will remain as parts that have to be cut back to a tree. To me, that is a lot of uneccesary strength Removal.
If you do any cutting initially, separate out the future tree in your mind, and apply all your pruning to it, to get branches closer. While just guy wiring Future unused stuff out of the way of your tree.
That way, your strength engine remains closer to 100, and you've actually made good strides towards building your future tree.

If you cut everything off that won't be your tree, you are left with the need to remove more of your strength engine. Them how to develop the tree? Super slowly. Screw that.

Usually the trunks are such that you can simply trim it to the pot edge and let it regrow, this way you get close buds and some taper going. If the base is great but no other direction is present, I usually hit em like that.

Sorce
 
Trimmed enough off to see what is happening. That 'trunk' was rooted down several places along it's length. Some of the branches were woven in and out of each other!
I'm going to think about it for a bit now. This might be a candidate for some bending.
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I left this thing alone all year, now I think I want to make some plans.
Pictures show how I might want to change the angle so that it is more of a cascade:
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How am I going to trim that rootball? It is solid packed to the point of not being able to water it well. Can I just saw off the corners (top and bottom) that I don't want? Then hack off all around until it fits into a pot? I've done that before to j. nana and gotten away with it.
 
I left this thing alone all year, now I think I want to make some plans.
Pictures show how I might want to change the angle so that it is more of a cascade:
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How am I going to trim that rootball? It is solid packed to the point of not being able to water it well. Can I just saw off the corners (top and bottom) that I don't want? Then hack off all around until it fits into a pot? I've done that before to j. nana and gotten away with it.
I would use a saw and cut the root ball off at the point where you want the soil ball to be horizontal, I would not do that now till Spring. Don't take off more than half of the root ball for now.
 
I would use a saw and cut the root ball off at the point where you want the soil ball to be horizontal, I would not do that now till Spring. Don't take off more than half of the root ball for now.
Thank you
I will wait until spring
 
Just as a data point: I have one of these that I bare rooted, root pruned, top pruned, and wired all in early spring, and it didn't miss a beat. Your mileage may vary, but I think with the right timing (post thaw, pre root growth) and care, it can be safely done.
 
Just as a data point: I have one of these that I bare rooted, root pruned, top pruned, and wired all in early spring, and it didn't miss a beat. Your mileage may vary, but I think with the right timing (post thaw, pre root growth) and care, it can be safely done.
Nursery junipers are very tough. I have yet to kill one, and I have many.
 
there is a horizontalis over there in the weeds heap pile, been there all year, saw this forgotten completely neglected 3gal a couple of days ago, it’s fine
 
Repotted this at it's new angle a month or two back. I misplaced my in process photos, but this is what it looks like today.
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I will do some wiring the next month or two to pull branches out of the mess and open up the middle.
 
I did the first repot on mine in early Spring. It is showing some dieback because of it but I think it will be fine. I basically took Sorce's advice and wired all of the extraneous foliage out of the way to allow light in and left it on to aid in the repot and growth process. I think I will air layer the top off next year as I am happy with the trunk. 20220518_115553.jpg20220518_115608.jpg
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Repotted this at it's new angle a month or two back. I misplaced my in process photos, but this is what it looks like today.
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I will do some wiring the next month or two to pull branches out of the mess and open up the middle.
Much better angle. Being Cascade such shallow pot is not needed. Bushiness on cascading part could be mindfully thinned;).
 
Much better angle. Being Cascade such shallow pot is not needed. Bushiness on cascading part could be mindfully thinned;).
Some wiring will let lots of light and air into the interior. I will thin very little until I am confident that it is recovered and growing well again. I have seen this back bud nicely in response to summer pruning so I look forward to that next year.
 
Wired it last night. The only function of this wiring is to open up the trunk to air and light. I removed no foliage at this time. If the tree recovers well and is healthy by next summer I can do some major pruning and styling then.
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