I recently lost a friend to illness. While he was in hospice, a well-meaning friend brought one of his beloved bonsais to his bedside. After he died the bonsai was offered to me and I have taken it home. I think it's a juniper. I am not a bonsai grower, but I do have a (light) green thumb, and this lovely little plant is clearly unhappy--green, but very dry, and little pieces falling off if they are bumped. Based on what I've read, the 2 or 3 weeks it spent indoors were not good for it. But junipers are hardy and I'm trying to do what I can to see this little guy through the winter, hoping that it will survive. It is in a traditional bonsai pot, about 7" in diameter. I live in Colorado where temperatures swing radically in the winter. Am not sure the best way to wrap the roots to protect them (do I wrap the whole pot? And what do I use?). I have also been told to put it in my garage for 3 months. This does not feel right to me. Help. Would love to have this plant survive in memory of my friend who loved it very much.

AmyHahn wrote:

I recently lost a friend to illness. While he was in hospice, a well-meaning friend brought one of his beloved bonsais to his bedside. After he died the bonsai was offered to me and I have taken it home. I think it's a juniper. I am not a bonsai grower, but I do have a (light) green thumb, and this lovely little plant is clearly unhappy--green, but very dry, and little pieces falling off if they are bumped.

If pieces are dry and falling of, that probably means that (that part of) the tree has died some time ago already.
Do you have a photo ?

My assumption is that parts of the bonsai have indeed died, probably due to lack of moisture. What I'm hoping is that there is still residual life deeper in the plant. I have watered it about once a week (CO is a very dry climate and plants need a little bit more water here) since I brought it home.

I'm trying to post photos but they aren't uploading.

just a quick but-in then i will but-out again, make sure the pictures arent to small, make sure they are a jpg file, as those kind of files are more than likely to upload i think. or make sure you are locating the picture in the right path.

Thanks, check on all of the above, no luck. Doesn't seem to be very complicated but apparently i am missing something. Photos are JPG, 1.5 MB.

hhhhmmmmm, yeah, tech these days , they say it's simple....

make sure the path of the file matches the one on the file, and that it is not renamed, but apart from that, i dunno.

good luck.

Pictures should be fairly small. Think 1000 pixels on a side. I typically reduce them to 200kb.

If the plant has dried out so much that parts are falling off, I have little hope of survival. As soon as the green bit is gone, no new green will sprout.

Watering once a week might not be enough if it is in bonsai substrate.