I spent quite a bit of time staring at this Juniper procumbens while I was at Bill Valavanis' colloquium in June. As I watered it every day over the last month, I could almost hear it saying "style me, style me." Not wanting to take any medication for the voices, I brought it into the studio and gave it a first transformation.
The trunk was right up against one side of the grow pot and does a severe bend right above the soil. Turning it 90 degrees to a cascading orientation helped bring the foliage in tighter to the trunk. I covered the old opening to act as the side of the "pot." The new top (formerly the side of the container) was opened up to allow easy watering. I built a frame to hold the pot securely and allow the tree to grow from the start in its new orientation
I look forward to developing deadwood in the trunk to add interest and lighten some of the heavy areas. Growing and developing foliage pads will also help frame some great trunk and branch movement while hiding conflicting lines. I'll also start thinking long and hard about how to pot this tree. The trunk bend is very sharp and would force the base of the tree to be right next to the edge of a pot. I think this may require a custom-made solution...
There are more of these at the studio. One-on-one and group workshops are available; call us!
The tree before styling.
From above.
After selecting a cascading orientation.
Possible front 1. More dynamic left to right movement at the expense of less dynamic movement in the cascading trunk line. This might be lessened as sharis are added later in this tree's development.
A more interesting choice of front. The only downside is less coherence in the movement of the main three trunk lines. This can be improved by slightly rearranging the lower trunks in relation to each other. All of the foliage needs tweaking to compact the tree with this front. For now, I've stressed this tree enough. Now is the tIme to let it recover.