Monday, May 17, 2010

repotting of a famous Rocky Mountain Juniper

Six days ago I realized that I had to do something with my famous Rocky Mountain Juniper. It leaned more to the right a bit every time I took a photograph. Over the years this was just too much leaning. And it was a wiggling in the pot. While it was not absolutely necessary horticulturally (!!!) after sixteen years I repotted it. I fixed it in the pot with very strong wire and set it a bit more to the right and more upright of course. I did this carefully as it will stay in the pot for at least thirty years now. I took off the old debris that still was there from the mountains of Wyoming when it was collected about 1988. Sixteen years ago I did not yet know enough about substrate and had a bit too much fine particles in it. Well, it was a risk as I found a lot of very old and very dead roots and not as many healthy ones as I had hoped. This is normal for this kind of tree but it scares me every time. Coming home from a trip now six days later I notice a lot of very healthy new growth. This is very good news. The fine foliage tips show me that in parallel the roots develop lots of fine new tips. I fed the juniper right away with a hand full of chicken dirt. Just in case you think that your bonsai books tell you very different you should know that I have read them many more times than you in the past thirty years and I know what I am doing.
And I added a piece of deadwood from another juniper. Well, I can easily take it away again if I happen to not like it in the future.