Hi all!

I'm brand new to the forum but I've been lurking for a while. I recently purchased two junipers from a local nursery (one Japanese Juniper, one Juniper Sabina). They are going to be my first attempts at bonsai . Though I'm super eager to start pruning and repotting one - or both - of these plants, I'm aware this is not the best time of year to be doing so. To paint a fuller picture I live in Toronto, Canada (USDA zone 5 or 6 I believe).

Can I get away with pruning and/or repotting at this time of year? If not do I need to wait all the way through winter until early spring or can I just wait until the plants are dormant in early winter? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Tripleovertime wrote:

Though I'm super eager to start pruning and repotting one - or both - of these plants, I'm aware this is not the best time of year to be doing so. To paint a fuller picture I live in Toronto, Canada (USDA zone 5 or 6 I believe).

Can I get away with pruning and/or repotting at this time of year?

You clearly describe the problem with new bonsai enthusiasts: they want to prune and repot as soon as possible, without having any idea why to prune and repot, when to prune and repot and how to prune and repot. In practically all cases this leads to the death of the plants within a few months.

Just let 'm grow and start learning about bonsai.

I'm not letting my enthusiasm get the better of me - that's why I'm asking for advise before murdering more lovely junipers

From what I've read in various online species guides you can aggressively prune Juniper during the growing season. Growing season is pretty well done up here in Canada so I guess that means pruning is a no-no?

A species guide from bonsai4me.com says Junipers are best repotted in April or May but can also be repotted in August. Does that sound accurate? You can see I'm not running in blind here - I've done some reading. I just have no experience yet so I'm relying on you savvy forum members

Tripleovertime wrote:

I'm not letting my enthusiasm get the better of me - that's why I'm asking for advise before murdering more lovely junipers

Yet, you really, really want to prune and repot it so much that you don't trust the advise you found...

Ask yourself first: WHY do you want to repot it? Why do you want to prune it?
Do you have any idea what kind of style you are going for, how you must prune to achieve that style?
What kind of material do you have? I'm guessing it's a young juniper, not ready to be pruned or repotted at all.

Got a photo?

To answer your questions I want to repot to get them out of their ugly nursery buckets (I expect they are fairly root-bound) and I want to prune so that I can start to learn the shape of the trees. As you can see in these pics they're pretty dense and its hard to see too much.







As this is my first material I just wanted to start exploring!

Auk, I can see that you post a lot and seem to know very well what you're talking about. So if you tell me to wait that likely what I'll be doing. Of course then I'll just start a new post with my newbie questions about hardwood cuttings and guerrilla propagating from my neighbours' trees

Tripleovertime wrote:

Auk, I can see that you post a lot and seem to know very well what you're talking about. So if you tell me to wait that likely what I'll be doing. Of course then I'll just start a new post with my newbie questions about hardwood cuttings and guerrilla propagating from my neighbours' trees

Nice plants and good photos, but impossible to give real advice based on these photos as I cannot see the trunks.

The Chinese juniper I'd probably put in the ground and let it grow for a few years.
The Procumbens nana... could have a nice little cascade in it, but as said, I can't see that.

What you need to do first is explore the plant, the trunk, the branch structure, and decide what style and size you are going for. Then you could try and find the branch(es) you will need for that style, and remove what you don't need. Remember that you can only remove a branch once. Removing it is simple, but growing back a branch is not. Better to not prune now if you're not sure; you can always do it later.

Follow the advise (when to prune) you found on the other website, the instructions are correct. I wouldn't repot it yet.

OK so it seems like I will be holding off on any work until next year. Thanks for your help!

Regarding you comment to plant the Chinese juniper in the ground: that's not an option for me... I'm an apartment dweller. While I have a fairly large rooftop patio I don't have access to any ground for planting. Would you recommend just leaving it in the bucket or should I maybe move it to a large-ish planter?

A common mistake people make with Junipers is pruning and repotting at the same time. If you only Prune a bit then that's not a problem but with the massive changes you have to make the first time doing both at the same time most people kill the plants. 1-2 months are enough for the tree to recover from one of those. So repot first when the season starts then prune later.. as repotting them in summer is also a nice way to kill a tree

Graph wrote:

So repot first when the season starts then prune later..

I'd like to add to not prune before you see new growth.

Tripleovertime wrote:

Regarding you comment to plant the Chinese juniper in the ground: that's not an option for me... I'm an apartment dweller. While I have a fairly large rooftop patio I don't have access to any ground for planting. Would you recommend just leaving it in the bucket or should I maybe move it to a large-ish planter?

Larger but more shallow... but as said, I cannot see the structure of the plant and what its options are. Maybe there's a nice small bonsai in there:

www.bonsaiempire.com/blog/shimpaku-juniper