Tornado Warning! Batten Down Your Bonsai!

Look what I woke up to.

November 25, 2014…..tornado watches and warnings all day in Orlando as well as hard rain intermittently.
The wind was bad, but I kept checking the trees and nothing was falling down.
Yet.
It had to have happened as I slept.
When I went outside in the morning I found the tree laying on the ground.

What saved the branch from breaking off totally was that one last last coil of wire (which wasn’t really doing anything) that should have been cut off. Good thing I was lazy that day.
This pic was the last time any one of you, out there in cyberspace, had seen the tree. A parsoni juniper.

It was the subject of this blog post here and was, literally, going to be the next tree I was going to work on.
Here it is now.
It’s kinda sad so, don’t look if you’re too sensitive.

The cambium is still intact; I’m going to try to save the tree.
I need to remove all the wire that’s in the way.

It’s as I was guessing, the only thing holding it was that wire.

Here’s my one hope, about a half inch of unbroken cambium.

I really need a third hand here.
Wait, I know…..

When in doubt, use a hammer.
I’m going to wire the tree with this:

Gently, oh so gently…..ok, got it.
Next, I’m going to line up the tear as best I can and then seal it with some putty………………..
Damn………………………………………………😞

The tree is most likely lost….
All those years….

Look!
I have a slim, minuscule, even astronomical chance that it might survive.
I see a few buds that just might pop.

Maybe.

Just for fun, I’ll seal the break.
It might help.

But probably not. A juniper doesn’t break back on branches without green tips. You can’t trunk chop a juniper.
Sigh.