Seventeen months in the life of a Twin trunk juniper

Feb 2008~1st pic
This is the one no one wanted,at the bsa show in 2008 i tried to get all of my fellow club members to buy this tree but to no avail.The potential was obviously there,and these will grow like mad given the right feeding,it just looked a little unloved.
I returned a week later to trade some tree's,and had a little left over which let me get this juniper too,by that time i knew my prize winning Kawabe juniper would be sold soon so needed a tree for our club show in the summer

Me and terry foster gave it a inital styling a week later,many branches were removed and we toyed with the idea of adding deadwood to the major trunk

I carried on tweaking and carving more for a few months,the growth rate was amazing then with marco we put a few guy wires on and rearranged some of the foliage

8 weeks later i rejiged it all,while the guy wires had transformed the major branches,i didnt like the position of any of the green.one week before the wirral bonsai society show i changed the whole thing around and came up with this which duly won the show,this is still just 6 months after the original styling

At this show it was also selected for the best of british,i was starting to get quite proud of this previously scruffy juniper,i took it to sheffield where it won again,it's old owner seen it didnt recognise it and i had to convince her it was her old tree!and commissioned Andy stonemonkey to make a pot for it,he came up with this a worm eaten effect which was exactly what i wanted

Re wired a bit more carving and at the best of british

And now today nearly ready for our show again,the minor trunk will get a little rework just before the show,17 months in the life of a juniper!

Very nice transformation.

MY personal preference would be to NOT have such triangular canopies on both trunks.

But well done!

Very impressive makeover. I think if I was the previous owner of this tree I wouldn't have recognized it either.

But how about this? Try to expend the right crown a bit.

I bet she's kicking herself now, well done.

How jealous am I?

But remember, Lee. Nobody likes a smartarse.

As the saying goes up here - pure, dead brilliant!


Wonder how many people were trying to zoom in on that price tag in pic 1!

Guilty as charged!

Very nice transformation. You got me inspired to make a new creation.

Looking good my friend especially in that Japanese Pot

All the best Lee and see you in November, good luck with the Gordale Show and pass my regards to the rest. Oh and Mr Storey was in the Monkey's den this weekend

Take care

Andy

Nice job with the twin trunk

Lee Kennedy wrote:Feb 2008~1st pic
..... my prize winning Kawabe juniper would be sold soon ....

Was this the tree I saw at Gingko?

Great transformation in such a short time
Greetings Ed

Excellent work Lee. I love Niks virtual tho.

Wonderful illustration of your tree's progression. Thank you for posting it..

Stone Monkey wrote:Looking good my friend especially in that Japanese Pot

All the best Lee and see you in November, good luck with the Gordale Show and pass my regards to the rest. Oh and Mr Storey was in the Monkey's den this weekend

Take care

Andy

Cheers Andy,it is true that someone very well known stopped me and asked who the pot was by,i asked them to guess and there opinion was either japanese or klikka,dizzy heights for the monkey!

Rob Kempinski wrote:Nice job with the twin trunk

Lee Kennedy wrote:Feb 2008~1st pic
..... my prize winning Kawabe juniper would be sold soon ....

Was this the tree I saw at Gingko?

Yes the gingko tree has gone,i got a offer i couldnt refuse,2 bob and half a curly wurly!
no seriously i got another kawabe juniper,a iwasaki juniper and a amazing alps scots pine for it,funnily enough it then won the certre tree of the month award from a pic of when i owned it,but did i get any credit or half the money? like the hell i did

fionnghal wrote:As the saying goes up here - pure, dead brilliant!


Wonder how many people were trying to zoom in on that price tag in pic 1!

You should know fiona,you were there,were you one of the ones i was tryinng to persuade to buy it at a extremely good price?

Lee Kennedy wrote: You should know fiona,you were there,were you one of the ones i was tryinng to persuade to buy it at a extremely good price?

yeah. But I'd already eaten my Curly Wurly!

Truly superb job Lee. Saw it at BoBB and was so impressed, such a great tree in such little time.

You have a good eye sir, shame Dave didn't take you up on the swap you offered for buying that Trident Maple at Willowbog this year

Like the others, I find the transformation stunning and also helpful in visual design techniques.

However, I have an observation in regards to the two opposing details of this tree (IMHO).
This tree shows a history of struggle over many decades or even 100 of years with its deadwood however, the lush (triangular) top growth is generally associated with a much younger tree (still in its prime). Although I have seen old trees respond to an increase in light with less competition with its neighbors and therefore increased nutrient supply I still am wondering…..
Would the presentation not be more realistic if the top growth was “thinned” to align itself with the total image of a very old tree?
Cheers Gman

That's a truly incredible transformation for such a short time! I was wondering what kind of soil mix you use for your junipers. Does it include an organic component?

very nice tree and good evolution. also your pot is wonderfull, good job to you Lee and Andy

The development of the foliage over such a short period of time is almost unbelievable. How did you fertilize the tree during that time?

I think Nik's point is well taken, and I liked it better in the rectangular pot.

Nik Rozman wrote:Very impressive makeover. I think if I was the previous owner of this tree I wouldn't have recognized it either.

But how about this? Try to expend the right crown a bit.

It's a good suggestion Nik,but needs two live veins splitting from the deadwood to acheive,so maybe when it has a few years off in a bigger pot in a year or two,that may be a good time for surgery,it equally looks very good with the left side of the 2nd trunk lower.

William Feldman wrote:That's a truly incredible transformation for such a short time! I was wondering what kind of soil mix you use for your junipers. Does it include an organic component?

I never use any organic component,this is akadama and grit,normally i'd use pumice instead of grit but i never had any,no worries though it's growing well.

Reiner Goebel wrote:The development of the foliage over such a short period of time is almost unbelievable. How did you fertilize the tree during that time?

I think Nik's point is well taken, and I liked it better in the rectangular pot.

The feeding was the real secret behind it Reiner,last year it had 20:20:20 miracle grow once a week and seaweed once a week,this year i've slowed that down to 2-3 weeks so it doesnt become too course.
The old pot was a horrible choclate brown chinese affair,it just came out ok on a few of the pictures for some strange digital reason