Twisty spiral

For reasons that are not appropriate to go into here, I find myself in the position of being asked to rescue, among other plants, a conifer that is struggling to survive.   Generally with conifers, if they are showing signs of distress, especially from water shortage, it is (nearly) too late to save them.   This one is in a bad way.

This is not a good time of year to be moving trees.  During the hot dry Summer, the tree is relying on the integrity of its root system to supply the water that evaporates off during the day.  Since moving a tree inevitably means disturbing the roots, the plant is immediately more vulnerable.

The first thing I did was dunk it into a dustbin and fill it up with water, to let the tree soak for a couple of days.  This brought some colour back to the leaves.   It's now in its final position (unless it ends up on the compost heap) and I'm hoping that with constant watering it will make it through the Summer and establish itself during the Autumn and Spring, for next year.

You can just about see that the previous owner has trimmed a spiral shape into it.  Assuming that it leafs out with more foliage, I intend to keep to this pattern - I have never done topiary before, so fingers crossed - and I hope that it will be a conspicuous marker at the entrance to the back part of the garden.