JD_Wolfe

So...It's spring, I want to try something new. To this point I've grown nothing but deciduous trees and I thought that it might be fun try my hand at juniper. I went to my local nursery and found a what I thought was a fairly healthy, robust, Mint Julep Juniper (juniperus chinensis 'monlep').

From the exterior it looks pretty much like a bush. After digging into the undergrowth and noticed that one of the trunks is sort of interesting, but really doesn' t have much for branches. The remaing trunks (looks like about 5 altogether -- really hard to tell with all the growth) are not very interesting, but they are still relatively thin and could perhaps be wired into something interesting.

What I would really like to do is cut away some of the growth to get a better look at what I have to work with, but I'm concerned about A) eliminating potentially useful material and B) adversely affecting the health of the tree. Does anyone have any ideas on how to approach a bushy subject like this (particularly for a novice like myself)?

Right now it's in a plastic nursery pot awaiting transplant. I read somewhere, that it's not a bad idea to leave your first attempt with a new species in it's container for a season and just work on establishing a basic shape; if the tree survives the season then move it into a grow-box the following spring...What are your thoughts on this?

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