End of Summer 2019
3 Conifers =$5
I was right by the big box grocery store and I knew there would be some of theses small conifers I saw earlier in the spring. They were 70% off and it is the last weekend before school starts back up again, so I figured they would be a good chill project to take on. All are cold hardy to -40f. and were in 1/2 gallon containers and will be designed as small sized trees.
Here is an arborvitae that had a small section of dead wood and hints at a root spread. When I was poking around the nursery I saw it would make a nice clump style tree.
I cut it back and wired it out with guy wires into the plastic pot edge. The largest trunk I cut back and did a Shari on the top. I wired a few branches, including the leader, which I curved up above the Shari section. No root work was done.
Juniper (Blue Rug) Tanuki
This tree was naturally bent over in a semi-cascade growing style. I thinned out just a few small branches and cut straight into the root ball with scissors, kinda like butterflying a chicken breast. I tried to not mess with the roots too much, and kept most of the bark soil in place. I put 3 screws into the trunk to attach it to a cool piece of drift wood I found on the shore of Redfish Lake.
The image above and below shoes the underside of the tree.
Below is the proposed front from a birds eye view. It is potted in a 50/50 blend of my bonsai soil and the bark it was planted in. I sprinkled in beneficial mushroom spoors to aid in recover and growth. I wired the downward growing tip to the drift wood
Juniper (New Blue Tam)
My approach was to shorten the branches and wire them into place.
