Shimpaku Juniper Bonsai #002

Native to China, Japan, Mongolia and the Himalayas. Shimpaku Juniper produce bright dark green soft foliage and an attractive red-brown shaggy bark. The fruit is small, hard, bluish berry. One of the best characteristics of Shimpaku is its hard resinous wood; ideal for advanced sculptural techniques such as jin, shari and sabamiki. The Shimpaku Juniper is often the subject of bonsai's most prized trees.

Shimpaku junipers growing in the wild in Japan face extinction due to over collecting between 1900 -1950. Several varieties are in danger of becoming extinct already. Conservationists in Japan are now going back into the mountains and planting young Shimpaku junipers to take the place of those that were removed by the collectors.

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. 

30cm from the bottom of the pot

Photo: 21 Mar 24