When I grow up I wanna join the ranks of Alpine's Bad Boyz

[NAHamilton]

Just wondering if there is an update on these ones Inspired?

[Rory]

Somehow I don't think you need a crystal ball to tell you the outcome of these. Most probably RIP

[Inspired]

Wow you guys have such good memories and I was hoping no one would notice and that I'd slip through.. quite heart breaking really

.. and so the story goes.

On one of my leisurely wanders late last spring, i happened to notice several stumps that seemed to have recently been chopped.

On closer inspection and to my delight, I saw new new juniper foliage growing! A lover of yamadori (boy have i seen some great potentials) I couldn't believe my eyes and was over joyed and over the moon. I thought these bad boys had defied the odds of being chopped completely down to bare wood and have pushed on with signs of life.

The owner was going to get rid of them and despite the risk, I just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to buy them thinking my aftercare might make all the difference.

I really thought how could an old juniper be stumped with no foliage come back to life after such adversity? Simply amazing.. could it really do that? Could it really pull through?

I took my time and lifted the junis with much of the root ball well in tact and looking good. I was hopeful and attended to it day and night. For months is showed health and even new growth and when I thought it was healthy enough to remove the plastic humidity bags, i moved it to full sun (this was autumn) and did feed it with liquid fertilizer.

This is where the junipers started to weaken and browned (90% now ) and I am stumped.

Did i ad to its demise? or

Was it as Shibui and Alpine had said all along.. it may continue to push new growth but will eventually die.

If I was able to convince the previous owner to leave it in the ground for another year or two, would that have made a difference?

Any thoughts?

[Rory]

The owner was going to get rid of them and despite the risk, I just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to buy them

Say.... huh? Someone was selling the stumps?

So you are saying you didn't cut them back. You actually paid money for these?

[Inspired]

Yup they were hacked back and I had to take a shot seeing new growth.. offered to buy them which I did.

Im still wondering whether these junis ever had a real chance or did I blew it

[bodhidharma]

No you were just uninformed. But the person selling them should have known better. Hope you did not pay to much.

[NAHamilton]

I got the impression they didn't have a chance, which is where my curiosity came from in bumping the thread. I wouldn't feel responsible as Bodhidharma has pointed out.

Cheers for replying to my question.
Nigel

[shibui]

I think a year or 2 in the ground to recover could have made some difference. In many cases trees need foliage to provide the energy to create new roots. A bit more time may also have allowed some in ground root work - cut at least some of the surface roots so that they form new feeder roots while other roots are intact.
Junipers are notorious for not surviving major root reduction, especially when coupled with major foliage loss.

[Inspired]

Yes I wished to have come across these again with the option to leave them in the ground for recovery and until they fully leaf out.

Unfortunately on that occasion, it wasn't an option.. it had wonderful veins and a huge potential lost