A Garden Juniper Transformed by John Walton See a large image of this tree Most of you that know me, know me as a collector of trees. That is, I prefer to go up to the proverbial "North" find a tree and dig it up rather than collect one from a nursery. Mid-spring about 7 years ago while I was working in Oshawa, I stepped outside to go for lunch only to find that the Dentist next door was re-landscaping and that the landscapers were in the process of removing all of the old foundation plants. These old foundation plants were 8-foot junipers with about a 6-inch caliper and were perhaps 40 years old. The nurserymen had removed all major branches, reduced the height to about three feet and had cut most major surface roots. A chain was wrapped around the now almost totally denuded trunk of a juniper and this chain was anchored to a 4x4 twin axel diesel truck. The truck was making slow progress and as I looked at the shaggy remains of a second juniper that had already been removed I lamented to myself that had I come out the door 10 minutes earlier I might have had a tree worth playing with. I turned and continued my journey only to hear the final snap as truck lurched forward and tree become airborne. I returned to the sight of arboreal slaughter and asked the workman if I might have the two trees that he had removed and explained to him my intent to try and make bonsai out of them. "Take them and good luck." And off I went with two trunks, a couple of tiny roots hanging from broken or cut off root ends and maybe enough foliage on the two trees combined to cover my hand. I wrapped the broken root ends with wet towels and that evening returned home with my two long shots. Once at home carefully trimmed all of the broken root ends in order to prevent root rot and tidied up what was left of the few remaining branches. The little foliage that remained was left in peace. I planted the two trees into large bonsai pots and watered them with Superthrive and transplant fertilizer. Because 99% of the foliage was removed I could give the trees more light then would customarily be given newly collected trees and, therefore, left the trees in a location that would provide them with morning and a little early afternoon sun. The trees were watered on the same schedule as all of my collection and they were offered no other special care. One died within a short period of time, as it had virtually no roots whatsoever and had been the first tree removed and subsequently had a longer time to dry out. The second tree with several tiny straggly broken fibrous roots lived and started to produce new green tips on the ends of its diminutive greenery. By the end of the summer there was a three-fold increase of foliage on what should have been a dead tree. The tree wintered well and it was rewarded with a dose of 30 -10 -10 fertilizer and the foliage was allowed to grow unattended for the next 4 years. I finally decided to style the tree at our annual spring show in 2001. As the tree presented many possibilities I asked a number of members for their opinions as to what direction to take and after listening to a good deal of great advice I finally saw a picture in my mind as to the final shape of the tree. It¼s a great feeling when you suddenly visualize your finished product in your head. The tree had developed a sizable mass of foliage in the four years that it was allowed to grow wild. Most of the growth had naturally occurred at the crown of the tree. When I picked up the tree there was a tiny tuft of foliage coming out of old wood on the trunk. Over the years this tuft had grown into a branch long enough to give me some greenery in the middle half of the tree. The problem was that the branch was growing in the wrong direction. Remembering Kimura and his techniques the branch was wrapped with cloth (it¼s all I had) and then wired with very heavy wire and moved 180 degrees. Unfortunately for the tree it once again lost most of its foliage. Fortunately for me the tree looked decidedly better. Now to be honest the tree was let go for another year and a half until I once again turned my clippers to the tree as it was in need of a severe haircut. Junipers should be constantly groomed by plucking in order to condense the foliage and create dense foliage masses. My next goal is to work on the trunk and refine the dead wood.