Although cleaning up deadwood can be painstaking work, the actual process is relatively simple. To prepare the procumbens juniper below for exhibit, I used toothbrush and water to scrub the deadwood and then rinsed away the debris. A few hours later, after the wood had a chance to dry, I painted lime-sulfur onto the deadwood. Within another hour or so, the sulfurous yellow wore off leaving behind the characteristic white color.

I chose a 100% solution as some of the deadwood was being treated for the first time while other branches had been lime-sulfured before. By going with a strong solution, the idea was to make the deadwood as even-colored as possible.

Procumbens juniper

After scrubbing the deadwood

Jin and shari

The base of the trunk

After treating with lime-sulfur