Summer clean-up on a Western juniper

Some of the least exciting bonsai work happens in summer. This is when lots of watering and fertilizing happens, but it is also a good time for jobs that can get put off during busier seasons like fall or early spring. A few months ago, the Western juniper below was wired and cut back. After putting on a lot of spring growth, it’s looking shaggy.

Western juniper

In looking closer at the tree, I saw that the wound sealant I applied after widening the deadwood along the trunk three years ago was due to come off (see “Refining a Western juniper“). Now is as good a time as any to remove it, so I scraped it off with the spatula found at the end of bent nose tweezers.

Wound sealant Joint Caulk-A

Removing the sealant with spatula at end of bent-nose tweezers

After removing wound sealant from a curvy section of the trunk.

Because a lot of new foliage had grown since the tree was wired, I checked to see if the wire was cutting in. When checking from above, everything looked fine, despite a suspicious bulge at the base of a branch.

Wire looks good from above

The same branch from below, however, revealed that some wired had begun cutting in. I removed the wire and several others that were cutting in.

The wire is cutting in

After removing the wire

Another wire cutting in

After removing the wire

I took note of a large shoot at the top of the tree that will help me fill in the apex when it’s time to wire the tree again, but didn’t wire it as I want it to grow as much as possible for now.

Spring growth

That was about it for the work this tree received. It still looks shaggy, but I’ll have less work to do when I revisit the tree later this year.

After summer cleanup