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Intermediate
Join Date: Jun-2002
Location: Hudson, FL
Country: USA
Posts: 435
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one of my old san jose' junipers
One that I started from a cutting at least 25 years ago or longer.... always had a guy-wire root on it that bugged me. You know, one of those roots that come off the main trunk an inch or so above the soil line and if not removed, will eventually cause a reverse taper.....one of those. Through a few repots, including the original root trim/putting into a bonsai pot for the first time, I didn't cut it off. Probably because most of the roots of the tree came from that one root.
Early this spring, I was trimming, repotting some junipers. Not that one though. As I was working out there one day, it struck me that that root had to go.....total brain fart here..... it completely left me why I had ever let that eyesore remain on the trunk and since it was the right time of year, with one quick snip of my concave cutters, I removed it.....and stood there suddenly wondering if I had goofed. After a week or so, it became obvious that indeed I had goofed. The tree started to turn that really sick shade of green and I started to feel sick right along with it. It looked worse by the day after that.
Usually, when a juniper turns that shade of green I just toss it. But I couldn't bear to. I put it into some shade, hit it with super thrive (yeah, I know....) Parts of it became brown and dead looking. I figured, it was gone but when I scratched the bark, it was still green. Couple times a week, I scratched, still green. I decided as long as it was still green, no way could I toss it. I sprayed it for pests, super thrived it, kept it in the filtered shade/sun area. One day it seemed that the sickly shade of green wasn't quite so sickly looking. My imagination? More time went buy and the green areas did look a brighter, healthier shade of green....among the crispy brown.
New Growth!!!! Cautiously optimistic..........maybe it will live.
I think it might make it. It will probably never look the same again, probably need a major restyle after this. Not going to do anything to it for the rest of this season though. I am just grateful that it seems to be pulling through. Stay tuned......
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