Alligator juniper

[Tidal Bonsai]

Mark, love the small AJ!!! As you said, small and old yamadori are hard to come by, I am lucky enough to have a small RMJ that I am also having a lot of fun with!!! I haven't seen a lot about AJ in my online travels, the only time I was one was when Bjorn styled one in this youtube channel.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

This was the place where I learned about Alligator junipers and I started looking for them.

This is a big one:

View attachment 358394


View attachment 358395

Nice! Did you seperate the live vein yourself?

 

[arcina]

Nice! Did you seperate the live vein yourself?

yes. I have taken it slow with this tree as I wanted to get the foliage closer to the trunk and the live vein is quite big.

 

[Don Blackmond]

Mark, great job.

I sold a tree to Mark Ackerson in Alb and he has done an amazing job moving the tree forward. It shows the potential of this type of junipers. This one is all about bark

Original Tree

ChoBonsai Yamadori

Styled tree
View attachment 282226

if Dr. Seuss had a tree, it would be just like this one.

 

[arcina]

Another big one.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

if Dr. Seuss had a tree, it would be just like this one.

Guess we’re going to have to start canceling trees now.

 

[arcina]

This one I really like. It is huge and mostly deadwood. The foliage of very old ones is really green, they change colors when planted in a container

 

[PiñonJ]

Here’s mine, collected at a friend’s ranch in November. It has about a seven foot spread and a 7 inch base. The foliage is quite blue and, despite the tree’s size, it’s all sort of very-fine-needle-not-quite-scale.

 

[Schmikah]

Foliage looks almost exactly like ERC with a slightly blue tinge. I would assume much the same applies for getting it to push mature foliage. I've had no luck so far with the couple I have so no advice.

 

[AZbonsai]

Here is your AJ forest...sorry for lousy picture....late night jeeping. Got a bit muddy and sideways....just how I like it! Taller trees Ponderosa they clear the AJ out from underneath and the come back.

 

[doctorater]

Just ran across this thread and had to add to it.

Alligator juniper is very common around where I live in Arizona's Prescott National Forest. From what I've been able to observe the blue needle foliage is juvenile form. Mature foliage is scale and a sea-green color. As others have noted, these can be very impressive trees.

Here is my brother and my dog in front of a particularly beautiful specimen - if only it were three feet tall...



You can see a much younger AJ to the left with contrasting blueish needles.

Here's another big AJ that looks like something out of an HP Lovecraft novel...



Unlike the previous pics, this next one IS three feet tall...



All the decaying wood chunks around the juniper are from a ponderosa pine that fell on the juniper who knows how many decades ago and gave it that intense bend.

Here is from the other side, interesting deadwood...



Hope you don't mind me reviving this thread.

 

[markyscott]

Just ran across this thread and had to add to it.

Alligator juniper is very common around where I live in Arizona's Prescott National Forest. From what I've been able to observe the blue needle foliage is juvenile form. Mature foliage is scale and a sea-green color. As others have noted, these can be very impressive trees.

Here is my brother and my dog in front of a particularly beautiful specimen - if only it were three feet tall...

View attachment 420886

You can see a much younger AJ to the left with contrasting blueish needles.

Here's another big AJ that looks like something out of an HP Lovecraft novel...

View attachment 420887

Unlike the previous pics, this next one IS three feet tall...

View attachment 420889

All the decaying wood chunks around the juniper are from a ponderosa pine that fell on the juniper who knows how many decades ago and gave it that intense bend.

Here is from the other side, interesting deadwood...

View attachment 420890

Hope you don't mind me reviving this thread.

Alligator juniper are very cool trees. I love the deadwood and bark. The foliage, however, I don’t love. It’s been consistently juvenile since I got it 3 years ago). This year I decided to graft itoigawa.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

The foliage dont seem to be easy to manage specialy in smaller bonsai, probably the best option is grafting

 

[Hartinez]

Alligator juniper are very cool trees. I love the deadwood and bark. The foliage, however, I don’t love. It’s been consistently juvenile since I got it 3 years ago). This year I decided to graft itoigawa.View attachment 420919

Any luck on these grafts Scott?

 

[markyscott]

Any luck on these grafts Scott?

Grafts have all failed, unfortunately, but the tree is growing strong. It’s even started putting out scale foliage. Perhaps the threat of the graft was enough, lol. I’ll try again next spring.

- S

 

[dhunter]

If only I could find someone who is selling an alligator juniper. Totally love this tree. Deb in Snohomish, Washington.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

If only I could find someone who is selling an alligator juniper. Totally love this tree. Deb in Snohomish, Washington.

ChoBonsai Yamadori

Try Cho Bonsai, currently none in stock, but email him, he might get out collecting again in the next few years. Alligator junipers come up only once in a while. It took me a few years to get the one I bought a couple years ago. I ended up gifting it to a dear friend a few months later. So I am back to casually looking for one.

 

[markyscott]

ChoBonsai Yamadori

Try Cho Bonsai, currently none in stock, but email him, he might get out collecting again in the next few years. Alligator junipers come up only once in a while. It took me a few years to get the one I bought a couple years ago. I ended up gifting it to a dear friend a few months later. So I am back to casually looking for one.

I believe that is who this tree came from originally.

S

 

[markyscott]

Lots of healthy growth this season. Alligator juniper definitely prefers the Virginia climate to that of Houston. Two Ioigawa approach grafts are both healthy.

 

[markyscott]

Cut back the native foliage to encourage growth on the grafted branches.