Classroom Corner – Roy’s Place

Sometimes I am allowed a day out (usually for good behaviour)…….instead of students coming to me, I go to them. In Roy’s case some of his trees were simply too big to fit in his car so the only way we could work together on them was for me to make a home visit.

My first visit was in January 2012, a new year,a good time to appraise trees and make

plans for the season ahead. The two trees we concentrated our efforts on were a Larch and a Juniper.

The Larch was tall with an impressive thick trunk that had an interesting curve. The problem was that the tree was really too tall. Most of the foliage was at the top and the straight upper section was somewhat out of character with the more impressive lower trunk.

So Roy, trusting as ever, allowed me to cut the whole top section away. Two small side branches were retained and totally wired. The whole tree would be formed from these two branches. The smaller tree looks much more plausible improving taper and bringing out the power in the trunk. A basic literati form on which we can build more foliage.

The Juniper appeared to be from the Pfitzeriana family. Once again a substantial impressive piece of material but there are really too many branches and most of the branches are too thin for this size trunk. Building a branch structure to match the trunk would take several years especially if the tree was to remain in this pot.

The lower branches were particularly thin whilst keeping only the top branches would leave too much bare trunk exposed. There was one branch about two thirds up the trunk that offered the best potential and a suitable compromise.

I persuaded Roy to cut every other branch off and to feed the tree well throughout the growing season. We would channel all the trees energy into this single branch.

At the end of the growing season in October I visited Roy again. The Larch had grown

really well and the sparse wired branches had been replaced by a bush. I thinned out the foliage and selected the branches I thought we could use. The branches can be rewired in December when all the foliage has dropped.

You can see almost immediately the improvement in the trunk

line and how the canopy is now in scale with the trunk. This tree has been dramatically improved in one growing season.

The growth on the Juniper was even more amazing. I was now in a position where I could make a selection of branches and rewire/style the tree.

The new canopy will give us a branch structure in scale with the trunk and will form a more compact triangle around the trunk. This is a good start for it’s first wiring.

Deadwood on the trunk has been extended to create a shari. As the tree settles to it’s new foliage area and the veins which supplied the cut off branches die back we will be able to extend the deadwood further. In the future we will have a very dramatic trunk with more deadwood and thinner live veins creating movement and taper into the remaining live branch.

I cannot over emphasize the importance of health and vigour in your trees. Roy has been able to achieve so much with these trees in one season because he fed them well and kept them growing strong all year. The colour of the Juniper, the long growth tips,…..it oozes good health. This really is the key to success.

Now it just so happens Roy has another Juniper……….watch this space as they say……..