Styling a Collected Sierra Juniper

This is a fine, old collected Sierra Juniper belonging to one of our distinguished club members.  Two things became immediately obvious upon first inspection of this tree.  The first thing was that it had an incredibly strong trunk and dead wood that really are the heart of this plant.  The second thing that stood out was the gangly, unkempt and rather wild appearance of the foliage on the tree.

Appropriate styling entailed arranging the branches and foliage so as to draw attention to the trunk and deadwood.  This was attained by pulling the branches and foliage down and by compacting the entire look or silhouette.  As can be seen on the front views of the tree once it was wired and styled, one’s vision is naturally drawn to its heart.

The jins and the shari still need to be cleaned up and sculpted somewhat, but not a lot, because nature has done most of the work for us.  A repositioning of the tree is also in order when it is repotted.

With the owner’s permission we hope to feature this tree in our spring show April 14 and 15, 2007.  Hope to see you there!

Below the finished picture is a gallery of shots of the tree before and after.