Bend it like a pro who's name starts with B

[Damian Bee]

I was looking at Matty J's post for creating a tanuki for the current comp from a Shimpaku.
it got me wondering
How bendy are these junipers?
I have two relatively new ones and quite frankly, in a metaphorical sense I have driven the car half way down the road for a holiday and forgotten the map.

Would someone be a good citizen, pull over when waved down and give me some direction

I will be here, waiting by the metaphorical roadside

[Phoenix238]

I've got one that I've nearly bent around on itself in training atm, took 2 stages to get it this far though

[lackhand]

Pro whose name starts with a B . . . Boon?

I've got a small juniper that I've twisted a pretty good amount and it hasn't seemed to mind at all. I'm sure there is some variation in exact cultivar, plus age and size will obviously be important factors, but they seem quite flexible to me.

[kcpoole]

Done quite a few myself that are bent like a pretzel
One of my entries for the Shohin comp will be a lot shorter soon too

Ken

[shibui]

Come on Damian, Doesn't it depend how thick or old the trunk is

Junipers will certainly bend well while they are young and thin but the wood is very hard so bending an old one is very difficult without some technique. Having said that I have had occasional ones die back after severe bending but not enough to say whether due to time of year or just rough handling.
I have been using the split trunk method which has worked quite well with thicker wood - has the added advantage that the scars make the trunk a bit thicker when the cuts heal up again.

[Damian Bee]

Yep, ok that did dawn on me as I was reading through the posts.
They are easy to bend when the growth is young. The two that are in my yard have 25-30mm trunks at the base and branching starts at about 50-60mm from the roots. (At this stage a photo or two would probably help).
The point is I am used to Rhodies, Lilly pillies etc, etc.
The Shimpaku vexes me

[Ben10000]

Hey Damo

Just thought I would post a swamp cypress I notched and wanted to get movement in, IMO you can bend anything if there's a will there's a way, followed by a "Snap" lol!!!!!!!!! The only thing I have learned (which applies to most things in life) is to use the right tool for the right job!!!!

[shibui]

20 mm (assuming its thinner higher up where you want to bend) will bend slightly just with plwnty of wire. To get stronger bends I'd go with splitting the trunk into 4 or 6 then bind it up to hold the whole thing togther then bend it - simple.

[Damian Bee]

Will they take a severe cut back?

[shibui]

I am always wary of cutting evergreen conifers below the foliage. Shimpaku often produces new shoots at the base of branches and sometimes along bare trunks but i have always cut back to leave some existing foliage then waited until new shoots form and grow a bit before cutting again.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried cutting shimpaku or other junipers back to bare wood and got new shoots to grow on.

[lackhand]

I'm definitely no juniper expert, but from my understanding I would not cut back to bare wood for two reasons.

#1 - Juniper's survival strategy is dieback. That's why we see all the old collected ones with awesome natural jin/shari. I would worry that if you cut something back too hard, instead of continuing to grow and recover, the tree would just cut its losses and say goodbye to that branch/trunk. It may back bud somewhere, but probably not where you want. It also might just die, which is usually considered bad.
#2 - In my search for info on junipers, I noticed a Ryan Neil video where he talks about the strength of junipers being their foliage. He didn't explain it very much and I don't understand it well, but I'll trust him for now and leave some foliage on my junipers.

[Damian Bee]

Thank the maker that I have had no time to work on them.
I would not have taken all foliage off, learnt that via an apprentice many years back

Thank you for the advice and input guys, I am going to try and grow my Juni's with minimal wiring. This should be interesting