Juniper Bonsai

Juniper bonsai is probably the most recognizable bonsai tree species especially by beginners due to the successful movie released in 1984, “The Karate Kid”.

Junipers make a great bonsai thanks to the foliage and flexible branches for wire applications to create nice movements of the trunk – just like the ones we admire in nature. In nature, Junipers can tolerate dry, arid conditions. This doesn’t mean you can let your juniper get bone dry through the entirety of the container. Watering your juniper moderately is necessary. Once the first inch of the soil is dry, you’ll want to rehydrate the tree. Maintaining the correct balance of water to oxygen will really help to cultivate a fine root system. 

Sun Exposure

Junipers love full sun. This exposure to the sun allows junipers to maximize their capacity to produce tight, dense, compact growth and gives them the strength they need to thrive.

Fertilizing

Juniper will produce a lot of foliar growth and will elongate and thicken quickly when fertilized aggressively during development.

With moderate fertilization, juniper bonsai tree will produce a fair amount of growth. Once a month application is sufficient.

Pruning

The best time to structurally style or remove branches from a juniper bonsai is in the early Spring, prior to the onset of new growth, or the early Autumn. 

For refinement, juniper should be pruned right after its first flush hardens. This allows for a much more manageable and controllable push of growth.

Letting the Spring flush growth exist on your juniper will encourage more aggressive growth.