Deadwood Rocky Mountain Juniper

I've owned this tree for six years, and have been training it for the last five. It is a very old collected tree. The trunk is mostly deadwood, and there are three distinct live veins that support the foliage. Here are several close ups of the deadwood.





Here is the tree after it's first styling during the summer of 2007.

Love the striations you can see in that second shot!

The tree was left to grow and build up strength for several years. In retrospect, I probably removed more foliage then I should have in that first styling attempt which subsequently weakened the tree and slowed it's development. This is how the tree looked last fall.

Here is the tree this past January after it had been completely wired out. It's beginning to look like a bonsai now.

I spent a day with Ryan Neil this past May, and he suggested tweaking the planting angle and canopy by tipping the tree to the left by just a few degrees, and lightening the canopy on the right to emphasize the movement in the trunk highlighted by the change in planting angle. The tree had it's extending foliage pruned back last week, and has grown well this summer. This is a picture from this morning.

JudyB wrote:Love the striations you can see in that second shot!

Yeah, the natural deadwood on this tree is amazing.

Great work. As a matter of personal preference, I like the tree at the original planting angle. The tree looks stronger and more natural standing straight. Of course I'm basing this all off photos, but the slight angle doesn't feel natural given the characteristics of the live vein and deadwood.

wow this is an amazing specimen! I believe that at a local bonsai meeting Ryan Neil said with junipers their strength is in their foilage, and my first collected juniper I chopped a lot of the foilage off during collection. The things I've learned after the fact

mbolos wrote:Great work. As a matter of personal preference, I like the tree at the original planting angle. The tree looks stronger and more natural standing straight. Of course I'm basing this all off photos, but the slight angle doesn't feel natural given the characteristics of the live vein and deadwood.

Honestly, my initial reaction was similar to yours. However, that small change in planting angle adds movement to the powerful trunk which really wasn't there before, making the tree much more dynamic. Thanks for the post.

ufgoodies wrote: The things I've learned after the fact

The story of my life! Thanks for the post.

Love it Dave! And the new planting angle. Looks similar to mine with tons of deadwood and smaller life veins, mine especially. How much foliage did you remove while keeping it healthy and without juv foliage?

You might be able to tell from the pictures at the initial styling that there was not alot of foliage left...I probably removed more then 50%, but I honestly don't remember exactly how much. I don't think removing that much foliage risks the tree's health (assuming it is already healthy), but it definitely slows it down developmentally for a year or two. As far as avoiding juvenile foliage, I'm not that concerned as it seems that RMJ tend to have semi juvenile foliage as a rule at lower elevations. All three of mine have at least 50% adult scale foliage, so I'm pretty happy.

Good info to know Dave. I didn't know about juvenile foliage. Interesting.

Just wanted to say I'm new at this and I'm doing something difficult with a Juniper.

But just seeing this piece of work is so awe-inspiring it makes me so excited.

Thanks for sharing! It's gorgeous.

JustLikeAmmy wrote:Just wanted to say I'm new at this and I'm doing something difficult with a Juniper.

But just seeing this piece of work is so awe-inspiring it makes me so excited.

Thanks for sharing! It's gorgeous.

Thank you...I'm glad you like it!

By the way, I'm currently on the lookout for a nice pot for this tree. I'm thinking a rectangular to square pot with rounded corners, with taller sides would work. Thoughts?

Dave

I re-potted this one into a custom made Sara Rayner square yesterday. I was fortunate in that the root system, which was healthy and growing nicely, didn't require any reducing to fit into the new pot. I think the pot is a bit heavy for the tree right now, but a heavier, more ramified canopy will balance things nicely.