Student ‘gets his bonsai on’ by pruning junipers on campus

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What would motivate an accounting major to trim junipers in 90-degree weather?

Nicholas Maul’s love of botany and horticulture led him to prune the unloved junipers next to Brooks Hall’s greenhouse Friday.

Mount Pleasant senior Maul and Vassar senior Chris Oprea braved the sun and went to work manipulating the junipers. Maul cut the base of the stem and roots in order to achieve a pom-pom appearance for the junipers. He said it will take approximately a year and other minor maintenance for the junipers to grow the way Maul wants them to.

“I just felt like getting my bonsai on. It’s my final year and I thought maybe I’d make my mark. I love plants because they bring me closer to nature,” Maul said. “If I were a hoarder, plants would be my choice of interest.”

Opera met Maul on Friday and spontaneously decided to help. Opera works at the greenhouse and mainly does maintenance on the plants. He said he also shares a love for botany and plants.

“My grandfather was a man of the woods and we would often collect sap from maple trees together when I was younger. My boss knows I love working with plants,” Opera said. “She told me about Nick and luckily I was working today so I decided to come out and help.”

Horticulture is the art of cultivation and management of plants. Pruning is the practice of selectively cutting areas of a plant.

Although Maul’s horticulture project is not as dramatic as a bush in the shape of a sheep, the pictures he sent to Patti Travioli, manager of the greenhouse, show what he hopes to accomplish with the junipers next to the greenhouse.

Maul said finished the junipers in front of his home, and it took a year for them to fully take shape. Maul plans to model the junipers at CMU like the ones he shaped at home.

“The plants were really overgrown into each other. I’m really excited, it looks like he does some interesting work,” Travioli said. “The pruning Nick will do will be unique, it’s also good practice to keep plants groomed.”

On Sunday, Maul plans to finish shaping the junipers.