Documenting one of my Rocky mountain junipers (#1 of two) that I acquired from a friend and local club member in October of 2020. Lots of challenges with this tree: live vein hardly visible (from current front) and inverse taper with somewhat insubstantial nebari. Nevertheless, my friend’s collection was being liquidated, and I was up for the design challenging and associated learning, and I like junipers (and the smell of cat pee, apparently).
My friend purchased this tree from Randy Knight on a trip to Oregon. The tree was collected in 2014 and estimated it at ~300 yrs old (according to Randy). Upon its arrival in Iowa, the tree remained in a grow box for 2 years and then my friend put it into a production rectangle in 2016. No pictures of this stage, unfortunately...
Tree just sat again for 3 years and then the initial branch structure was set by Todd Schlafer as part of a private workshop with my friend in 2019 (Wow! lots of raffia and heavy bends).
Before Todd laid hands on it in 2019, and when it was put into the container in 2016, it was potted with a major backwards lean and also tilted to the left, which I thought positioned the main branch and deadwood parallel with the ground. Not sure if that was by design, or a practical consideration based on root ball. But I didn’t particularly like the presentation.
As acquired in October 2020: chosen front, left, back and right sides
In April of 2021, as the new owner I repotted (66% pumice/33% akadama) into the same production rectangle, but I changed the angle (tilted to the right), rotation (spun leftwards) and inclination (set more upright) in an attempt to reduce horizontal lines of branches and a long deadwood branch and expose more of the widest bits of the nebari. This required pretty substantial root work, so I was holding my breath for all of 2021. It dropped a bit of foliage during May and June, but then grew and threw big runners later that summer. That robust summer and fall growth was somewhat unexpected to me, but a good data point. Wire that Todd applied 2 years earlier was badly biting, so I unwired in September of 2021.
Ultimately, the tree grew robustly into a shaggy/saggy mess and in the absence of wire lots of nice branches were getting shaded out, so I started the path to get it back into shape.
Here is where I started in April 2022, showing new potting angle, rotation (very slight) and inclination:
Took me about 10 hrs to get it wired. I’m not very efficient yet, but I spend a lot of time thinking through effective wiring (gauge/anchoring that actually holds), while avoiding opposite/crossing old wire bites (lost a few branches due to letting wires bite too long). In the end, I think my wire application looks OK, too. No big bends, as those were already set with Todd’s excellent work in 2019.
Ready for the rest of summer 2022 and fall growth here in eastern Iowa. It stand about 36 inches tall:
Hopefully it responds well this summer and fall to my recent work. I anticipate it throwing a bit of juvenile foliage, but that’s part of the challenge… balancing work that advances the design of a juniper and resultant stress.
I think it would present better in a nice round pot and I recently picked one up on the FB auction page from Sam Miller that might fit the bill… a 17” x 5” unglazed round he made this year. Really an amazing pot. Will see how the tree does this year and then maybe into the new pot in the spring of 2022, as I should be able to get it into the container without cutting roots. But, that represents another challenge… every tree take time to recover from every insult.
My friend purchased this tree from Randy Knight on a trip to Oregon. The tree was collected in 2014 and estimated it at ~300 yrs old (according to Randy). Upon its arrival in Iowa, the tree remained in a grow box for 2 years and then my friend put it into a production rectangle in 2016. No pictures of this stage, unfortunately...
Tree just sat again for 3 years and then the initial branch structure was set by Todd Schlafer as part of a private workshop with my friend in 2019 (Wow! lots of raffia and heavy bends).
Before Todd laid hands on it in 2019, and when it was put into the container in 2016, it was potted with a major backwards lean and also tilted to the left, which I thought positioned the main branch and deadwood parallel with the ground. Not sure if that was by design, or a practical consideration based on root ball. But I didn’t particularly like the presentation.
As acquired in October 2020: chosen front, left, back and right sides
In April of 2021, as the new owner I repotted (66% pumice/33% akadama) into the same production rectangle, but I changed the angle (tilted to the right), rotation (spun leftwards) and inclination (set more upright) in an attempt to reduce horizontal lines of branches and a long deadwood branch and expose more of the widest bits of the nebari. This required pretty substantial root work, so I was holding my breath for all of 2021. It dropped a bit of foliage during May and June, but then grew and threw big runners later that summer. That robust summer and fall growth was somewhat unexpected to me, but a good data point. Wire that Todd applied 2 years earlier was badly biting, so I unwired in September of 2021.
Ultimately, the tree grew robustly into a shaggy/saggy mess and in the absence of wire lots of nice branches were getting shaded out, so I started the path to get it back into shape.
Here is where I started in April 2022, showing new potting angle, rotation (very slight) and inclination:
Took me about 10 hrs to get it wired. I’m not very efficient yet, but I spend a lot of time thinking through effective wiring (gauge/anchoring that actually holds), while avoiding opposite/crossing old wire bites (lost a few branches due to letting wires bite too long). In the end, I think my wire application looks OK, too. No big bends, as those were already set with Todd’s excellent work in 2019.
Ready for the rest of summer 2022 and fall growth here in eastern Iowa. It stand about 36 inches tall:
Hopefully it responds well this summer and fall to my recent work. I anticipate it throwing a bit of juvenile foliage, but that’s part of the challenge… balancing work that advances the design of a juniper and resultant stress.
I think it would present better in a nice round pot and I recently picked one up on the FB auction page from Sam Miller that might fit the bill… a 17” x 5” unglazed round he made this year. Really an amazing pot. Will see how the tree does this year and then maybe into the new pot in the spring of 2022, as I should be able to get it into the container without cutting roots. But, that represents another challenge… every tree take time to recover from every insult.
