A Western Juniper Awaits

Front?

The last time I was in California was September of 2012 and during that time I got a chance to reunite not with just family and friends but with my trees! One of them being this collected Western Juniper pictured above. Since my time home wasn’t very long, I decide to hold off on the structural work and focused more on the roots. Since Fall is a good time to repot Junipers in California, I decided to do just that. This is by no means a post about repotting, but more of a way for me to share some of the up and coming projects I have when I return home in June. In this post, I’m simply going to share some before and after photos of the tree in its new home and some basic information about the characteristics of Western Junipers. I plan to work on this tree again at the end of 2013 so expect an updated post at that time. First, lets take a 360 look of the tree itself!

Side?

Back?

Side?

History of the Tree and Characteristics

This Western Juniper was collected about 4 years ago (legally!) and has grown in the same wood box since. The collecting process didn’t seem to faze the tree at all and it kept growing well. The scientific name of the tree is Juniperus Occidentalis var. Occidentalis and they naturally grow in the Northwest of the US such as California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Like many other Junipers, they can survive lots of stresses and have interesting dead and live areas.

Lets look at some close up shots to see what are the characteristics of this tree.

Here is a close up of the middle of the tree on one side. Lots of deadwood everywhere and the bark is a nice reddish color. Lots of things going on here! Note how white some parts of the natural deadwood are on this tree. Lime sulfur was never applied in the past.

Here is a close us shot of the opposite side of the previous picture.

Here’s a shot of one of the natural pieces of deadwood on the tree. Difficult to reproduce old wood like this with power tools or hand tools. Mother nature is pretty talented!

Here’s a close up of the green/grey scale foliage. This particular tree has pollen sacs so it’s a male, though it could be half female as well. Westerns are either all male, all female or both on the same tree. Many bonsai professionals and hobbyist frown upon male specimens because of the distracting pollen sacs. Many will say that the yellow distracts the eye and random pollen sac density throughout the tree could cause a visual imbalance. Having said all that, I can live with it and it sounds like a good challenge!

Tree Health and a New Home

In this photo we started breaking the box apart and working on the roots. On the right is Rusty Tchernis from Atlanta Georgia who was visiting at the time. Thanks for the help Rusty!

As I said before, this post isn’t a repotting post so here’s the tree in a nice roomy pot! At the moment, I decided to make this side the front because of the interesting deadwood and live areas. Also, with this front, the tree is the widest. I don’t foresee any crazy angle changes in the future but you never know. At this point, it’s all about getting the tree to grow strong roots in good bonsai soil. The particular mix we used for this tree is 30 percent akadama, 30 percent pumice, 30 percent lava and 10 percent love.

Here’s a closer shot of the tree. I’m really looking forward to working on this tree in the near future.

Here is the back of the tree

The tree’s left side

The tree’s right side

So what do you think? What do you suppose the tree will look like in the future? (Please share your comments below) There are lots of possibilities with this tree and ideas I have running in my head now may change in the future when I see it again. At the moment, all is up in the air but I am looking forward to figuring this one out. More on this tree at the end of 2013!

Thanks for reading.

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