I bought this Juniper as raw stock from Boon a couple of years ago. We struggled with how to deal with the big single branch that came off the side of the tree, we had sort of decided on one side over the other, carved it, and were preparing to style it. When Boon said a friend of his, Akio Konda,  was coming to visit and was doing a couple of workshops. I spent two days doing the workshop, and  we ended up with a solution for dealing with the sole single branch being bent over 120 degrees, and a soultion for placing foliage in front of the branch to hide it next year when a greater level of styling occurs.

The common joke among my friends in the bay area was that this was a good source of firewood, however I don't think they will now....

John
(the picture with Akio is for scale....)

I am not sure about kindling, but it sure is a monster.  What are you going to do with the foliage to compensate for the fact that it looks to be the size of my thigh with very little taper?  I realize you state you will use foliage to conceal the bent branch, but will you wrap the crown around the top of the trunk to maybe partially hide the lack of taper?  Or can the top deadwood be carved down a bit?  Interesting tree, thanks for sharing.

Alex

Alex,
it has about 3" taper, and yes wrapping the top around trunk is the plan. As Boon says. it is yamadori sometimes you have to accept the imperfections that come with the tree.

That is cool, I was just trying to be a bit of a rabble rouser. Trying o get folks to post trees, regardless of how far along in their  development they are. Excited about school getting ready to start?

Excellent. What program at NSF? I have benefitted from their good favors over my career.

I saw Googlebot looking at this thread, so I thought I would revive it.

I enjoyed seeing this in person in October, but don't think I got any pictures, as it was tucked away in a different part of the yard.  It looked like a completely different tree.  What/when are the next steps?  Are you going to bring this one home any time soon?

Thanks,
It is doing well and popped back after the work. It was repotted in early March, was ale to get 80% of the adjustment in planting angle completed, the rest will have to come in two years when it is repotted again. Didn't hve a deeper pot at Boon's that was big enough, this pot is 8" or so deep.

John

western=Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) the blue version of this species s called Sierra Juniper. Hybridizes with numerous species in its range, including California Juniper.

John