Juniper Bonsai Care Instructions

Are you planning to grow a juniper bonsai tree? If you have never grown or cared for a bonsai earlier, juniper bonsai would be the perfect choice for you. Bonsai or tray planting refers to the art of growing miniature trees in pots and maintaining them by pruning their leaves and roots. If you are a gardening enthusiast, you will surely love growing and taking care of these decorative plants.

Bonsai trees can be classified into formal upright, informal upright, slant, raft, group, literati, cascade and semi-cascade. Junipers bonsai come under the category of informal upright. Junipers are conifers and belong to the genus Juniperus and family Cupressaceae. Juniper's compact foliage and needle-like leaves look very attractive. There are several varieties of juniper that are ideal for the bonsai culture.

Chinese junipers, Japanese garden junipers, green mound, needle, shimpaku, juniperus rigida, juniperus squamata, juniperus sabina and juniperus sargentii are some of the popular varieties. If you love keeping decorative plants, then you should certainly get a juniper bonsai for your home. Juniper bonsai can be grown indoors as well as outdoors. If you wish to keep your juniper bonsai in an excellent condition, it's time to learn more about juniper bonsai care instructions.

How to Care for a Juniper Bonsai

Quality of Soil and Container
Select a juniper tree which is 3-7 years old. Once you have selected the variety, you need to pot your juniper bonsai in a container. You must select the container properly. There should be enough place for the root system. Make sure that the container has enough drainage holes. If you choose a container which doesn't have enough drainage holes, then the excess water will not be drained and this will harm the roots. The juniper will grow well in sandy loams. You should also replenish the soil with fertilizers.

Location
You could keep the juniper bonsai indoors as well as outdoors. If you want to keep your beautiful bonsai indoors and enhance your home decor, you must take care that the plant receives ample sunshine. Junipers need at least 4 hours of sunshine everyday. So, make sure that you place your plant at a place where it is exposed to sunlight. Bring it outdoors in the morning so that it gets the low intensity sunlight which is required for its growth. This is a very important aspect of indoor juniper bonsai care that you must never ignore. Another important tip for Japanese juniper bonsai tree care would be to keep it in a greenhouse.

Watering
Excess watering can damage the roots of the juniper, therefore, you must not go on a watering spree. Before watering you must touch the soil to check if it has dried or not. You must also make sure that the water does not contain any chlorine. Standing water can cause serious damage to the tree and lead to root rot. You could also mist your juniper bonsai at regular intervals.

Fertilizer
The soil which contains potassium, phosphorus and nitrates will certainly help the juniper to grow well. Use a fertilizer to replenish the soil. This will certainly help the juniper to grow well. During the growing season, it is advisable to fertilize every 15 days. Make sure that you mix the fertilizer properly, this is important because direct contact between the roots and fertilizer can cause damage to the roots. Fertilizing is an important aspect of dwarf juniper bonsai tree care and this will ensure full blossoms and healthy foliage on your bonsai.

Pruning
It is the process of pruning through which the tree's size is kept small. You must prune the branches and stems every summer and spring. You need to get rid of the crossed branches and dead limbs. You also need to prune the roots during the spring season and prune them every two years, at the time of re-potting. Once you have got the desired shape after pruning, you must move on to the juniper bonsai nipping technique. When new growth appears on your juniper, nip them with your fingers by twisting them, but never prune all new growth simultaneously. To give shape to your juniper, you should try juniper bonsai wiring method. You need to gently tie wires around the branches. You must begin from the base of the tree and then work your way up to the branches. The wires should not be very tight and you can also adjust and bend the branches so that they grow in the desired direction. You could leave the wires for a few months and remove them using a wire cutter.

These were simple instructions on caring for a juniper bonsai. Just follow the aforementioned juniper bonsai care instructions religiously to ensure that your miniature juniper grows well and gets adorned with beautiful foliage that you have always wanted.