Welcome back to Appalachian Bonsai.
Today I've got an interesting one for you.
This is a Procumbens Nana Juniper, or sometimes called a Dwarf Garden Juniper, and this tree
has a very interesting history.
It was started 25 to 30 years ago by a lady named Kathy Walton.
She was part of the Hinoki Bonsai Club in Roanoke Virginia, of which I am a member.
She donated this tree and several others to the club as well as to the North Carolina
Arboretum.
In 2017, I was able to get the other trees to the Arboretum and this one rested on my
bench to prepare for winter.
But a very unfortunate thing happened.
In November of 2017, we had a massive windstorm.
It took this tree and threw it onto the ground and broke several parts of it.
All of that is gone.
Including the top.
Look at that.
All that broken.
This is broken holy [ __ ]
In 2019, after letting this rest for another two years, I decided to change the orientation
as you can see here. I built an interesting box.
I'll get you some details of that in case you have the need to build a box yourself.
We are going to do some work on this tree today.
I'm going to wire it into some basic positions I'm also going to repot this into a brand
new bonsai pot.
It won't be the final pot, but it's a good one that I have for the moment.
If you notice, I've got this on a slant because when I initially potted it
sitting flat like that you may be able to tell that that trunk line is straight.
There's very little I can do about that.
I do not want this sitting in the pot with that straight trunk, so I am tilting it to
give it a slight angle.
Even though it's still straight tilted this way, it's not perpendicular to the ground
or to the pot.
We have a lot of deadwood features on the back that will be visible even from the front
side, which if you want to call this a "front" this would be the best viewing angle in my
opinion.
There are other viewing angles that I've looked at.
This one, for me, is going to be the best.
Let's take a look at this box.
This box is made of pine boards and then screwed into each other.
You can see this back view.
Again, just plain pine boards, and then I've given it feet to allow for some drainage.
What you might find interesting is the screen here.
The screen is attached and wraps around the front.
That is because this trunk actually dips below the level of the top of the box.
So to prevent the soil from spilling out of the front, I've wrapped the screen around
it.
Very easy to do if you're changing the angle and the angle is kind of funky.
I'm able to water & fertilize this tree while changing the direction of this plant.
Again, this tree has had four years to reorient itself.
The foliage pads are all growing upward, big, and strong in this direction.
That's good.
All right.
Let's go ahead and get to pruning and wiring on this tree, which is a reminder that today's
video is sponsored by Wazakura Japan.
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Since this thing is so big and bushy on top, it's super bright and green.
But the bottom side has some weakness and some discoloration going on with some of these
branches, and I need to remove that.
Nice thing about these tools they get nice and deep in there.
Get you some!
One of the problems with these procumbens is the foliage can be quite coarse.
When it buds back, which it does well, it can be all up along the branch and that needs
to definitely be removed.
Now it's much cleaner.
Very often with these procumbens, you get little crotch buds meaning you've got branches
that fork off from each other, and you'll find little buds that grow in between them.
That's called the crotch of the tree.
You'll often find these in the middle and you can take your fine tip scissors and clean
them out or you can also sometimes pinch them with your thumb.
Either way is going to be just fine, but it helps clean up the tree, helps with aeration,
helps to get sunlight in there, very good.
Aeration?
I meant ventilation.
It's opened up a little bit more.
Very nice.
Good.
All right, we're done with initial pruning.
I may do a little bit more as we get in there.
Let's go ahead and wire this thing.
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All right.
So, we've got some basic shapes here.
There are still plenty of faults with this, particularly down here with some weaker branches.
I want to see if I can get them healthy again.
They weren't getting enough light because we had this big cloud of foliage.
These can be thinned out a little bit more.
These tips can be shortened a little bit more.
You can do that through pruning with scissors, and you can also do that with pinching.
When you're pinching it, you might crush it a little bit and you might get brown tips.
But if you're cutting foliage, it's also going to die at the tip, which means you're always
going to get little brown tips.
Over time, though those are all going to end up decreasing.
Let's go ahead and take this thing out of the homemade box.
That's going to be a treat for me.
We'll get this into a better pot.
Let's check out those roots.
Let's go ahead and get this tree out of this box.
We're going to put it into this pot.
This pot has already been screened and wired.
It's ready to accept a nice tree.
This was made by Preston Tolbert.
I met him down in Kannapolis.
Kannapolis, North Carolina has a Winter Silhouette Show every year and I met him there along
with Robert Wallace and a bunch of other people.
Go check it out sometime.
It has been four years since this thing's been in this box.
I am so curious to see what is inside.
We're going to do that now and start by pulling these staples holding that screen on.
Nice.
Because of the angle of the trunk, I needed to make sure it got deep down in the soil.
I had to cut that off and create this retaining wall.
Now we get to take it out completely!
The way this tree is currently oriented, tilted up like this, is near what the tree originally
was when I first got it.
So, you will see a root system that was developed for this orientation, and we'll also see how
it is adapted to being grown 90 degrees in a different direction.
I'll show you the bottom of this real quick.
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Oh yeah!
I'll set this off to the side.
Good coarse bonsai soil falls right out.
[on the phone] Gary!
I'm working on a juniper and trying to record a video!
All right, we are ready to repot this tree.
I've got my Tolbert pot.
I've got my standard soil mix.
I've got my tree.
Everything's wired and ready to go so let's go ahead and do this.
Add a little bit in the bottom of the pot.
I had this oriented straight on, and then I twisted it a little bit.
There's a gap right here.
I could lean it against the pot, but I'm not going to.
I'll lift it up, and then I'll make sure that there is soil underneath to support it.
I can go ahead and do a little bit of tying of the roots.
This just really prevents the tree from coming out of the pot if a wind comes through.
As I mentioned, this thing was damaged by the wind, but it never came out of the pot,
which was nice, but it did break this thing substantially.
Add some soil either side.
A regular little chopstick [Traffic Noise]
Just working it into the base of the roots.
Give a little shake every now and again.
That'll help get it down into spaces.
Add a little more soil.
Work from the center outward.
Try to leave as few air gaps as possible underneath the soil level.
Though air is beneficial for a tree's health, large air pockets can create a dead zone on
the inside and we don't want that.
I like these little exposed roots here.
Since this thing has been weathered and damaged for many many years it could make sense that
this tree has at some time been pushed over by wind, snow, or whatever story you'd like
to impose upon this tree.
It adds a layer of depth.
Pull.
Twist this down.
Pull.
Twist it down.
Pull.
Twist down.
We can tuck these inside.
I didn't quite get it in the pot exactly the way I want to, but I'm okay with this.
This will be all right.
Now all I need to do is just make sure that this thing is watered and we'll be good to go.
There we go!
Thank you very much for watching.
I really appreciate the time that you take to watch these videos.
A lot goes into them, which you may be aware of if you do any kind of video work yourself.
They do take a long time.
So!
Thanks for sticking around and watching them.
Like and subscribe, visit our sponsor, and I hope that you always know that there is
more to come.
Thanks for watching!
I can mmm try that again
and um this was donated
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donated it to the club along with several other trees that were going
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so this tree has a very interesting history to it um
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we'll get there eventually
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