Itoigawa Juniper 2025

 

Soon we learn the fate of this juniper.....

This Itoigawa was bought at Ed Clarks nursery in Lindsey. As you see the photos you can see the price for this tree on the can. This was spring 2023.

Some views of the material looking around the tree.

Holding up the foliage so the taper can be seen.

I always begin by pruning back some of the longer whips that won't be part of the composition just to get them out of my way. While I look at each branch, I make a decision if it's going to be cut back or left long for jin on the ends.

As I work around the tree, I make all the jins on the branches that are left on the tree but are not used with green on them.

So now with more thinning, and jinning we can start to see a tree emerge.

This whole trunk, the end of the main trunk will not be used in the construction of the tree, but it is too good to just remove it, so I jinned it.

This next view shows very well the whole end of the main trunk being jinned. One can only do something like this if the tree has other branches that will complete the tree.

A large whip has been wired and is being bent around and over the jinned trunk to help make a new apex on the tree.

Here we have the finished tree in 2023. It is planted in second generation Yamaaki. When I posted this on Facebook a mention was made about the jin on the left hanging straight down, but somehow it seems to carry the eye around and helps complete the loop.

Near the end of summer of 2023, the tree started to decline as the bad fertilizer was working this tree also. I did an emergency repot into this larger Yixing container. It proved beneficial for the tree as it began with new buds in the early Fall. Look how much it grew.

This is the photo after the repot.

This is after a cutback in 2024.

Now we are in 2025, and this is the tree just before the work. Basically, just a repot into a smaller, but more formal Yamaaki signature pot with eggplant stamp.

This is the tree today. I have work to do with it as I am changing the apex a little and enlarging the jin on the front base of the trunk. There is another small jin on the trunk that I am connecting to the current jin. I have to be careful; Ed built these junipers by leaving the wire on the trunk and allowing the tree to engulf the wire. Doing spiral jins on this type of tree with wire embedded in it can be deadly if you screw it up. So, I am happy with my puzzle piece on a part of the trunk that I know has no connection issues with pipes that supply what the tree needs. New picture soon.