Alpineart's Blog

This  Juniper Procumbens has progressed very well , i have removed the aluminium wire and trimmed the foliage back ready for another re-wire and style .Using coated electrical cable i have wired them maintaining the spiral bends  , there will be quite a few that need to thicken hence the coated wire has been applied loosely so that it doesn’t cut into the bark and restrict the growth . With the jin branches set in position , i wired the rest of the branches which will be the foliage pads, i have also altered the apex and increased the height of the canopy slightly .This will soon be slip potted into a large tray to allow root run for maximum growth over this coming season .With a good season the longer branches should almost be ready for  creating the jins as per the original plan for this trainer .The current height of the tree is 500mm ,width is 600mm and depth is 400mm , when finished it will be 500mm high 450mm wide and 350mm in depth Hope you enjoy .Seven of the longest branches will be jinned back to the approximate width of the rock base .

Cheers Alpineart

This has been in the process of layering and training over the last 18 months .It was originally planted by the owner of my house many years ago . With a base of around 90mm it was removed by an excavator when i had the block cleaned up 15 years ago .It re-struck about 5 years ago and i simple cut it back not wanting to have it overgrow the veranda again .Now growing behind the cladding i installed 6 years ago it was time to destroy it or remove the cladding and save the creeper .I decided to layer the runner as close as possible to the house and then consider removing the cladding to save the trunk which has nice characteristics about it .Today i severed the runner and this is now my new trainer .It has been wound around a lime sulphured knarled piece of dead wood .Over the next few years i hope the runner will fuse together and create a solid trunk  . With a base of around 80-100mm when fused it will be a sumo type wisteria , a little different from the normal , having twin trunks and leaders. Well i was bored with the normal wisteria’s available at nurseries so this is a unique Alpineart special .

Cheers Alpineart

Well i collected this a couple of years ago

and while it was originally a triple trunk i removed 1 of the odd trunks  however now the  twin trunks they were too close for my liking ,

It has been in the pot since collection and today i decided to split the trunks apart and insert another smaller olive and try to fuse them together .I have never done this before so its an experiment in all area’s .They say you cant kill an olive , well i can and have killed more than i own .This didn’t go according to plan but in the finish it turned out very nice indeed.Using my 100mm angle grinder with a tungsten tipped blade attached i sliced down

both side as straight as possible

.The using a cordless drill i drilled a series of holes deeper

than the blade penetrated in order to split the base where required . Using a sash clamp in reverse in place some packing against the trunks to prevent too much unnecessary damage and wound the clamp outwards so as to spread the trunks ,

low and behold that big snap happened and the base split . .I opened the trunks to around 45 mm , then hunted around for a suitable candidate for the wedge insert .A poor quality specimen was washed and sized up for the job

. Measuring the trunk to be cut to fit into a wedge shape

i simply sliced it with the grinder/cutter until it was a nice snug fit .While its not perfect the majority of the cambium has and will line up so i cant see any reason why it won’t fuse together .The front of the tree took precedence over the rear so it was aligned fist ,

then a long stainless screw was used to hold it in place.To the rear of the trunks a couple of root graft were inserted to fill the voids

.With the job complete a 120mm Stainless steel Bugle screw was screwed through all 3 trunks completely securing the bases together .

I then wrapped some gutter guard around the pot and duct tape it together , alluminium wires were uses ti hold and stiffen the mesh .It was back filled  and watered .Now in a year or two this will hopefully be fused as one then the center trunk will be removed to return it to a twin trunk with a more open spread between the trunks .Finished height is 500mm width is 600mm and the base is around 250mm plus If it fails then its a good lesson learned ‘

Cheers and happy hacking . Alpineart