Juniper Targets identified and approved

[kcpoole]

I have been working for a while to arrange to be able to collect a few junipers for a while now and have been given approval today to go a head
The garden is slated to be removed and renovated, so I am Getting in early

There is about 15 or so that have been growing in a Raised Garden for about 20 years, and as it is a public place, there has been kids walking over and treading on them all this time. As a result lots have semi natural Jin and Shari from what I can see, and all are low growing with bends and movement in them.
I suspect that they are a Prostrate form but no ne really knows what they were originally labelled.

The foliage is softish like a seargents, ( not Prickly), but is quite a bit coarser.

Anyway i will be tackling the first 2 plants on Monday on a day off work, so hope to have some better ideas of the task ahead

Any thoughts and things I should be aware of before hand as i have had little success collecting junis?
They will be soaked in seasol, and potted in Diatomite with a bit of Rays organic mix thrown in. I will have to cut back fairly hard, but will leave a bit of foliage on each branch. note that they are growing in Clay? soil and will be quite well compacted.
once home I hope to pot up into poy boxes and place in Full sun for recovery.

Ken

[Bretts]

Dam missed by a week

[kcpoole]

why you coming down again?
same place as we visited before

[Andrew F]

Interesting foliage colour look forward to seeing what you can make of them.

[strawbs]

if u need a helper ken
strawbs

[alpineart]

Hi kc, mate good for you salvaging this material . There is so much un-necessary waste in local parks and gardens its criminal . In most cases they are grown on compacted cracker dust or blue metal so they have a shallow root mass . All the best with the collecting .

Cheers Alpine

[bodhidharma]

Not Sargentii Ken as Sargentii's are not colour changers, or not greatly anyway. This is when you need one of those mini bobcats Look forward to updates as it looks like there could be be some goodun's in that lot.

[Bretts]

why you coming down again?
same place as we visited before

Yes I see they have changed colour.
Next weekend is the tops weekend. Friday to Sunday was the plan, also need to pick up supplies such as pumice that would need to be Friday unless I stayed over till Monday so might have a choice of Friday or Monday if you are keen. Last time was fun! Can I drive the bobcat

[Josh]

Hi Ken, How do you find out these gardens are being redone. I always seem to be a day late. recently There were some trees broken off on the nature srtip. they started to reshoot so thought I'd ask the council if I could collect them. The next day after I thought that they were gone. 2 vacant lots near by had some nice trees on them, so thought I'd find the owners, only to drive past 3 days later and find them levelled by excavators . Do you have inside info or just quick of the mark Great find, well done.

Josh

[kcpoole]

Hey Josh you just have to be lucky mostly.
This one is the local Netball complex and I Know the comittee members so was given a Heads up as they know that I am interested in Trees and Shrubs

I will only be digging 2 this week as a investigative job as the netball season is not over and works cannot stat till they are finished. My plan is to work out what I need to do the rest of them in a months time

Yeah Bodhi, not Seargeants but the foliage is similar just these have a real winter colour to them. Normally green / Silver colour

Ken

[kcpoole]

Juniper Sabina maybe?

Ken

[kcpoole]

We i went out today and had a bit of a dig
I collected 3 different trees and on of them I split into 2 and potted up individually.
Have a look at what followed me home

I could not soak it in Seasol as it is too big, so just potted up and gave a good watering with Seasol. I will get a repeat every 2 days.
Now in full sun and will stay like this for about 2 years before doing anythig else to it.
Notince there is several large branches coming off opposite sides of the trunk. If it survives and recovers, I suspect one of these will go and not be part of the final design, but that decision will be a long way off.

Ken

[daiviet_nguyen]

I like this tree Ken. I think its chance of survival is very good, you have managed to retain of lot of feeder roots there.

Good luck and please keep us posted .

[kcpoole]

the other trees were much smaller, but in some ways nicer
All have natural Shari where they have been trodden on over the years.
The first of which is a slanting / semicascade.

Ken

[kcpoole]

the last one is now 2 trees
It had been trodden on above the root base and split almost in 2
I have cut them apart and both show lovely Shari on the upper edges.

Sorry tho as I did not get finished photos as it got dark while potting them up. Later on this week I will update.

Ken