Juniper foliage question...

[Chris Frechette]

So I haven't messed w/ many junipers, other than a couple $8 dollar ones from Home Depot. I bought this guy at the club auction in September. At the time it was extremely cascading... like straight down, even the foliage pads were vertical. It was strange and I don't know what the owner was going for. A few months ago, I pulled it out and worked the roots just enough to rotate up about 70 degrees to be a semi cascade in the same pot.

I let it sit til last night and finally rewired it and shaped it... and I'm pretty happy it. I has a severe inverse taper at base except for one angle (the new front)... now most of the tree flows away from you, but I bring it back around, so hopefully it looks good.

My question is about the foliage. So since I purchased it in Sept, the foliage has been slightly yellow (unlike the other lil ones that are bright green or even blueish) and there is a mix of spikey (assuming juvenile) foliage and more mature foliage... as well as some dried up weak pieces. No one pad is consistent all the way thru. So...

Does this mean its stressed?
Should I not have wired it?
Is time just what it needs?
Do you prune back juvenile foliage?

 

[leatherback]

Not an xpert but.. This yellowing is not healthy. I would normally say: Too wet. But I am not sure what sort of substrate you have there? I probably would have asked first, and then decided to do wiring. I prefer to get trees realy healthy before I wire them.

Do not trim the spikey foliage off. It will only create a new wave of the stuff. Let the plant come to balance & health.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

It is winter - the juniper should be dormant, or at least semi-dormant. Color change of the foliage is normal after a few frosts. You might not have much of a problem, except I read again what you wrote.

You repotted the tree in October or November. That is a major stress for the tree. I would have not done any pruning, shaping or even wiring. nothing, for at least half of 2018. After the heat of summer breaks, say September 2018 if you had good growth, and foliage greened up, then you could resume pruning, wiring and other activities. Right now it needs time to get roots re-established.

There is no such thing as a gentle repot. Any root disturbance is a major stress for any tree in a pot, bonsai or not. Think about it, ''repotting'' is something that never happens in nature. The tilting of the tree in the pot severely affected the most important roots, the fine root hairs that actually do the work of bringing in water and nutrients. The thick roots in the central root ball that you left alone don't do much of the water absorption, it is the fine root hairs in the outer layer of the root ball that do 90% of the work. Your tree is stressed. You should not have pruned and styled it for a minimum of one growing season.

But what is done is done. Good news, Junipers are pretty tough, there is a fair chance it will survive. But first - do no further harm - quit working on the tree until at least September 2018 or after the summer temperatures no longer threaten to top 100 F. This tree needs to create new fine roots, and enough of them that it can get through a Texas summer.

'''back away from the juniper''

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I like a juniper cascade, they are not easy to do well. It will be tricky, and a sign you understand balancing growth if you can get the foliage to be well matched and balanced all the way down the cascade. A good challenge to set before yourself.

 

[sorce]

Dead or dying or not....

I like the new angle!

It's the promise in the eye...
Not the tree that might die!

Next! (Not that I think this will die)

There is always a next! Amd another...and another....!

Sorce

 

[Chris Frechette]

Idle hands are hard to fight. Dec/Jan have been a challenge of self discipline to leave trees alone. I was staring the tree in its old position and had the feeling in my gut that I shouldn’t mess w it til spring, but I lost the battle and had to work with it. Thanks for the feedback. Crossing my fingers it has a solid 2018.