Some Serious Shimp styling advice needed

[Ryan1979b]

Hey all I purchased this Shimpaku mid summer for $15, it stands about 350mm from soil with a trunk of about 30mm. As it was full of foliage & I thought that I would try & style it that way as well as I quiet like the roundness of the foliage. But as you can see its not looking to Crash Hot. I have been stuck on what to do with this fella for a while. I quiet like the subtle bend in the trunk, so my idea was leaning towards a informal upright with dense foliage. The branches are quite tricky as they are orientated upward, but I guess this can be changes. Lower main branches are quite stiff & set as you could imagine.

Does anyone have any ideas of where I could head with this stock, as I am exhausted of what to do, Virts are more than welcome if you have the time.

Shimp 4.jpg

Shimp 3.jpg

Shimp 2.jpg

Shimp 1.jpg

Cheers all Ryan

[Jamie]

gday ryan

this is some nice stock, the nebari looks great for a shimpaku aswell i think you are doing well with it, you want a fuller image for your tree so we can work with that, to me it looks a little flat but that could be the picture aswell, are there branches to the rear and to the front? i think you could bend the branches by compression to bring the foliage a bit closer to the trunk, alternatively instead of an informal upright you could wrap the whole trunk with raffia/bike tube and heavy wire it and bend the heck out of it, being that trunk size this will work fine, i recently done one with a trunk size very similar it went from being approx 60cm tall, down to 26-28cm tall.

if you decide to go with where your heading which will work well i reckon, i would consider wiring out all shoots to the tips and placing them to give you that full look you are after, there are many fine examples of shimpaku on the net, a quick google search will bring up masses for inspiration

[Dumper]

hey ryan.
nice nebari.
wanna try twisting it? like what jamie has done on one of his juni?


John

[Ryan1979b]

mmmmm... I might have to think about this one. I really like the Nebari on the rear view, nice thick roots & it complements the curve of the trunk. I might have another look at spreading out the foliage & bringing it closer to the trunk like Jamie said, and if this is a dead end maybe the twist approach.?

[kvan64]

Very nice stock Ryan. Either View 1 or View 2 picture is good to be the front. I would keep the lowest branch long and give ti some movement and wire it down. Other branches need to be wired down a bit to simulate age. I would also change the potting angle so that the lower trunk is leaning and the upper trunk is up-right.
You could train your tree somewhere between the below two styles:

Cheers,
DK

[Ryan1979b]

Cheers DK, I think the view is a hard one for sure. I definitly agree about wiring the branches down, but at the same time try & bring some of the intermediate branches back closer too the truck as well. When do you think it is wise to wrap a branch, or is this something only needed when extreme bending is implemented.

[Jamie]

hi ryan,

it depends on how thick the branch is and how much compression you want on it, if you are going severe compression bending on say a half inch to 3 quart. of an inch thick i would wrap it and the trunk where the branch exits, this will help with any fractures in the bark and make it heal a little quicker. it will also allow you to compress the bends more too. i would consider doing it to this trunk if you want more movement in the trunk to, even if it is only a little bit more, wrapping it will be safe instead of sorry.

jamie

[kvan64]

Jamie is right there Ryan. wrapping will lower the chance of breaking and bark damage in case of extreme bending. You could also use some homemade bender to assist bending. Now it's the best time to wire junipers in general. However, extreme bending should be left till late winter or early spring so that any damage can be quickly repaired. If your wiring is done in late winter, you could also repot it at the same time. You might want to consider something like in the pics I posted earlier.
Cheers, DK

[Jamie]

just looking at the pics again, i can see some good branch structure in there, wire it out completely to the tips, do all wiring first before moving into shape, wrap as needed, doing all the wrapping first would be a good idea you can always remove later but it is hard to put them back on. the image loooks rather flat like i said earlier, try and give it some depth in the branching, you shouldnt have to much doing that as there are plenty of sub branches.

jamie

[Ryan1979b]

Thanks Guys, think I will go with the approach of wrapping the lower thicker branches and begin wiring soon. I will give them a bend & see how they respond. I may be able to partially bend the thicker branches now and increase the bend in spring if required? I looks like a few nights of wiring ahead for me but thanks for all the advice, i will keep you posted.

Are there any other house hold mediums that ca be used to wrap for example, Hessian material or is bike tube the most ideal?

Cheers

Ryan

[Ryan1979b]

I was thinking of aiming for something along these lines. Think I will have to try & cut back a bit of the foliage & grow it back out. The approach is fairly minimalist in changes but I think it could be a nice tree. I may introduce a a bit more movement into the top when I have a closer look at it.

Any thoughts or opinions are more than welcome

Shimp Sketchmain.jpg

Cheers all

[Jamie]

hi mate

your plan looks good, i wouldnt remove the foliage from in near the trunk though, it will be very hard to get it back. as for the wrapping you can use a range of different materials, i have used grafting tape, hessian, i have even seen ribbon used, old bike inner tube is really good stuff to use, if you can get to a bike shop they should have old ones with punctures. anything that can be wrapped tight around the trunk will do though, it is there one to stop the bark from getting damaged and split, two it will help keep the bark close together if it does get minor stress fractures and help it heal, as long as the wrap is tight it will be good.

i will try get a virt done for you tonight on where i see this tree going, i have a fair idea of what you are after

[Ryan1979b]

That would be excellent Jamie, Yeh I'm thinking of trying to bring some of the foliage forward and in towards the trunk to try & break up the trunk line and branches a bit more. Looking forward to seeing a Virt if you get a chance

Cheers