Juniperus virginiana

[lewisjk]

I can't grow apples here on my farm. We have too many Juniperus virginina on the property, and cedar apple rust is inevitable.

Now that the big ones have all been cut for the pencil industry, J. virginiana is pretty much a useless tree. Wood goes into "cedar" chests, and it's still used for the odd fence post here and there, but even the goats won't eat it. So we have all these narrow, arrow straight trees popping up everywhere.

The medium to larger ones are all but useless for bonsai, even, since there seems to be a natural law that said the wood shall not twist or bend in its natural habitat, but to stand stiffly upright.

But there still are small ones.

Those I can twist and bend.

There's still some work to be done on the foliage here. (We seem to have a variety here in the Blue Ridge foothills with very light, feathery foliage -- and almost NO mature foliage.) But it is taking shape, and in another year (or two) I might have a showable tree.

This is about 2 years from having been yanked out of my pasture, wrapped in thick wire, and BENT and TWISTED to a more graceful shape. The tall jin (which may get shortened -- or not) was added this spring, LS was added a couple of weeks ago.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

[dbrock]

What a cool shohin! I wonder if you could give the trunk more twist by wrapping a wire on the trunk and let it bite in. that would change the flow of sap and give a twisting effect to the trunk. Over time you could widen that the bite into a twisted deadwood appearance. It would give more age while your waiting on the foilage to mature. Just a thought.

[lewisjk]

What a cool shohin! I wonder if you could give the trunk more twist by wrapping a wire on the trunk and let it bite in. that would change the flow of sap and give a twisting effect to the trunk. Over time you could widen that the bite into a twisted deadwood appearance. It would give more age while your waiting on the foilage to mature. Just a thought.

That IS a thought. I have another -- with less potential -- that's a bit behind this one. I may try the wire bit on it to see how it works.

Thanks.

[lewisjk]

While we'e on he subject . . . Here is an experiment with a typical straight-trunked J. virginiana that I don't think is going to work particularly well. The foliage on the trees around us is weeping naturally. I've exaggerated that.

[dbrock]

Actually this type of juniper sounds good as a formal upright or a slanted style. The weeping appearance could be interesting but I am not sure how you get the foilage to deal with the downward growth. I thought Juniper foilage gets weak if growing downward.

[lewisjk]

As near as I can tell, things that apply to other juniper don't apply to J. virginiana. It is such a weed. We'll see.

[lewisjk]

And one more from the farm. The tile this is planted on is 16 inches long and 8 inches (or so) wide.

The tree has been planted for about 3 years; was put on the tile this spring. I get worn out keeping this one pinched.

It is pouring outside, so the colors are a bit more vivid from being wet (soggy, really).

One day, I hope it looks like a lone juniper attop a rocky bald in the blue ridge. There are tiny Cotoneaster planted among the rocks o take up the role of the low, heath-like shrubs you find in those areas. They're too small to see yet in the photo.