Juniper-Best "Find" I've ever Found!

I was driving through the Dallas Farmer's Market yesterday and out of the corner of my eye, caught this juniper at a Palm Tree Nursery. Jumped out of the car, checked it out, negotiated a reasonable price, and voila! I've got a quality tree with (I think) a great future. As it is, it's 6" at the base, 35" high, lot's of dead wood, healthy foliage. The only downside is that it's going to take a little work to push the foliage back towards the inside of the tree.

Comments and design suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Nice find. Looks like you could have alot of nice options with it.

what type of juniper is it ?
i bet Ryan Neal would style this into masterpiece .

Great find! Like Mgallex said "man y options"!

Great trunk and branching!! Would you try grafting some Shimpaku Juniper foliage on it? (Approach grafts or scions)

I'm not an expert on juniper species. I'm guessing it's either j. blauuws or j. procumbens nana. The needles are all mature foliage, with a weeping habit.

Regarding future grafting, I've got a couple of itoigawa trees that are not thriving in our Texas heat, and I'm wondering if I might be able to use them for grafting to the tree's interior. I would appreciate some insight from any juniper experts out there.

Great trunk line and tons of potential. Good score, will be fun!

I agree with everyone in that tree has a great trunk and lots of potential. As far as advice goes, I wouldn't feel comfortable making any design recommendations with just pictures. This would make a great workshop tree, though, if you aren't comfortable finding the design within. One thing you could do now is to start cleaning the existing deadwood and the loose bark from the trunk. This will highlight the living areas as well as any hidden deadwood areas that would add even more interest to an already interesting trunk. Have fun!

ok ok.... i'll give you double of $$$.

send it to me

Regards,
Efi

Hi Tim,
Great trunk!! Based on the foliage I'm pretty sure it is a Tam (Juniperus sabina ‘Tamariscifolia’) Juniper. I have a few of them. They have a flatter foliage and can be tough to train into pads. I actually cut the foliage back at this time of year (leave green on all the branches) and it goes crazy in the spring. The trunks have a twisting habit. One nice thing is that if you don't like the foliage you can always graft Shimpaku foliage around December and have an awesome tree in just a few years.
Tona

Efi,

LOL. When I've saved up enough money to ship a 50 kg live plant to Israel, I'll get back to you!

Tim

my guess is that the foliage is juniperus chinensis "old gold". they will bud back in the branch crotches, like other junipers. I haven't seen one with foliage the size of shimpaku. I have seen it used as bonsai. it's quite respectable. if this were my tree, I would have to decide whether to graft shimpaku to interior areas, or wait for the juniper to push foliage on its own. If you're opting for the latter, then, cut the existing foliage hard (not completely off), during the growing season. As you are in Dallas, you have longer growing seasons than I have in New England. So, you'll get foliage close to the trunk sooner than I would.

For now, clean off the exfoliating bark and determine the line and planting angle. Use tweezers and a dull knife for this rather than a wire brush. The brush will remove any latent buds that exist. Expose any jins and shari that will influence your design.

Nice material!

Looks like Sabina to me. It will be very nice.

Nice Find. Have fun with it.

I went by there this morning and the owner told me they were Sea Greens. However, I just pulled a couple of them (sea greens) out of my own yard. While the foliage on mine is mature style like these, the bark on mine is quite different. Also, the 9 or 10 he has left have bark that is gray and shreddy like (dare I say it?) J. asheii. I'm going to get a sample of the foliage and look at it closely with a magnifying glass

I just went and looked at my sea green and Ashi and your tree seems to have characteristics of both and neither. The foilage is ashi like but much fuller than mine. The bark isalso more ashi than sea green. It's probably neither. It does look a bit like the tams I have but there is way too much movement in the trunk. I'd take it to a meeting of one of theDallas clubs if you really care what it is. It's good enough stock to work without knowing and hopefully someone some day will say " hay , I've got one of those and it's a J. whatever. With junipers , unless you know the source it's a pain to identify them.

It's definitely sure it's not j. blauuws or j. procumbens nana. It's hard to tell sometimes when it's nursery stock that is pot bound, and old in a container.

My guess it's a Juniper chinensis cultivar. Sea Greens have been pretty common for some years in the nursery business, here in the Midwest along with Old golds etc.

Texas, I have no idea what they sell down there. so it's anyone's guess.

Great find, how old do you reckon a juniper with a base like that is?