It's been a windy, blustery weekend with temperatures dropping precipitously. I keep thinking I'll get outside despite the pollen and trim some of last fall's freeze damage off of the big juniper and the cedar, but it hasn't happened.
The juniper gave me a bit of a scare last November. Recall that in late October we went from having low temps barely in the 40's. Then in one night it crashed to 16° and the next it snowed 8". The best I could do for my big juniper was to throw a tarp over it and anchor the edges down with bricks. All the 2-year old growth turned brown instead of the usual wintery grey. Several of the most exposed branches, where they touched the tarp, turned completely brown. I was sore afraid that most of the older scales and many upper branches would die.
As it turned out, most of the brown leaf-scales have recovered this spring. Some look to be permanently brown and a few upper branches are gonners. Even so, it could've been so much worse.
For the Deodar cedar, it was likewise just covered with a big tarpaulin. And like the juniper, the cedar had freeze damage to the upper branches where they physically touched the covering. Fortunately, those are the very branches that will be pruned back this year as I gradually reduce this monster to a reasonable bonsai scale.
Cedars have very tender bark, so the experts recommend that they be shaped by judicious pruning and pinching instead of wiring the branches. My fellow is tending towards a broom style, so I let him grow vigorously in the fall and cut back in the following spring.
Here's a photo right after last February's repotting workshop...
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