New Specimen...diamond in the rough?

[rev0s]

Was out yesterday getting more trees and succeeded in bringing in two smaller peices.
This one, upon being potted up and cleaned of all the dead foliage and branches, as well as some very low branches, proved to have (what I think) could be a very nice trunk; it was some taper, and more girth than I expected while looking at it in the field.
What does everyone think? Does this have some potential?

 

[Poink88]

Does this have some potential?

I believe so. Nice find and the trunk is really nice.

...it is acrobatic as well doing a back flip or something? LOL (joking)

 

[rev0s]

Thanks, poink...and I can't make heads nor tails of the logic behind my phone's orientation of certain photos...no matter which way some of the ones I've posted in the past were oriented on the photo viewer in my phone, they go wrong-side up upon being uploaded. I've retaken some, switching the direction my phone was pointing, and used the photo editor in my phone to rotate them, neither with any success
Anyways, thanks again for your thoughts about my latest addition!

 

[small trees]

Flipped the pictures for you.

 

[rev0s]

Thanks Georgia...sadly I don't have an internet accessible PC at my current lodgings, so I appreciate you doing that for me.

 

[october]

This is very nice material. The trunk has good taper and some nice subtle curves. I would pic out all the branches you are going to keep and remove the rest. Make sure you leave some back branches as well. You might want to leave a few extra branches just in case.

Rob

 

[John Ruger]

That's a very nice piece to work with, good luck with it.

 

[Vin]

If I understand your post correctly you collected this tree? If so, all I can say is I wish I could find trees like that around here. The ones I find that have promise are usually in someone's yard or in front of a business and they don't want to part with them. I have collected quite a bit of local material but most of it is for learning. Nice find either way.

 

[rev0s]

Minor Update

A little update on this tree...
I followed october's advice and removed branches that I couldn't see any use for, leaving some for sacrafice branches and to keep the tree healthy. I also put some wire on to start the new leader headed in the right direction and to lower and shape the first branch a little.
I now plan on leaving this alone for a year plus, but it's definitely my favorite tree out of the paltry few I've gathered so far.
Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

 

[Eric Group]

A little update on this tree...
I followed october's advice and removed branches that I couldn't see any use for, leaving some for sacrafice branches and to keep the tree healthy. I also put some wire on to start the new leader headed in the right direction and to lower and shape the first branch a little.
I now plan on leaving this alone for a year plus, but it's definitely my favorite tree out of the paltry few I've gathered so far.
Thoughts welcome and appreciated.

What kind of tree is it? Eastern Red Cedar, some other type of Juniper? Looks like there is some potential there.

 

[rev0s]

It's an Ashe Juniper, harvested from the "wild" about two weeks before the "styling" shown in the recent pictures.

 

[rev0s]

Also, to vin, about finding trees like this; this tree was collected from the approximate middle of a large field (about 220 acres). Here (Central Texas) these tree are treated like an epidemic. They grow quickly, spreading out and covering usually arable land where they're not wanted. This tree, along with almost all the others I've collected, have come from large empty lots frequented by large amounts of cattle. They stomp the younger seedlings to the ground, breaking them off and forcing them into thickening to raise their head, or otherwise them into interesting, tortured shapes.
So far these sorts of open meadows, surrounded by thickets of live oak, scrub brush and Ashe juniper, frequented often by cattle or occasionally by tractor and plow, have been my best harvesting ground. The local ranchers have been known to attach heavy gauge wire to logs and metal bars and pipe, making a long row with a pair of tractors, one at each end. They'll drive slowly back and forth across these meadows dragging the line, breaking off all small vegetation off close to the ground. If they don't use this method, either controlled burns or just plain old plowing with disc or blade plow are used to keep the areas these trees are collected from free from large brush growth.
Between the efforts of man and the clumsiness of cows, any trees more than 5-8 years old are sufficiently interesting (usually) to warrant their collection in my eyes. After finding such a place, the only work is the digging, and the finding of the best trees out of the whole pasture to collect.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Ashe junipers can make for good bonsai material. Bob and Sylvia Smith have written about them in their blog. http://bonsaismiths.net

Not to burst your bubble, but a couple things to be aware of:

1. It appears to be in field soil in that can. If so, the roots are going to struggle to do well. Earth doesn't do well in pots. For some reading on the matter click here.

2. If you just collected the tree, and also styled it in a close span of time, it will be very hard for the tree to recover from both activities.

It's best to collect, get the roots stabilized and growing, and allow the tree to recover for a year or more before any styling begins. Good luck with it, but I'd recommend reading up on collecting to improve odds. I've been at it 20 years and am still reading everything I can get my hands on to improve my odds! Last year when I collected out in SD, I tried a different approach. All 13 junipers we collected are thriving. Check out the method we lifted from Dan Robinson by way of grouper52 here.