TMax wrote: We are in Auburn, California. We have a storm cell moving in if you look a the weather but its dry here 99% of the time.

ok so your zone 9a/9b. im in southern California, riverside to be exact zone 9b. i keep all my trees outside 100% of the time and my junipers are included in that. we do reach dry hot temps up to 110*F (43*C) all i do is make sure my soils dont dry out and stay moist. in the winters i water up to once a week or twice sometimes and summers i water everyday or sometimes up to 2-3 times a day depending on temps. i dont have many problems with conifers they seem to love it. some of my broadleaf trees sometimes get leaf scorch but thats if i dont keep up on watering and soil drys out. so bottom line is once you get the hang of your watering routine the trees will handle it with no problems. note i do not follow a watering schedule i water when soil is dry to the touch, my watering routine changes weekly according to weather and even tree species and i almost never mist the foliage.

Thank you so much!! I’m going to take my tree outside now. Sad thing is, we are moving to Washington and I don’t believe the tree would like Washington much. Lol. I will have to give it to my very old neighbor who has a green thumb when we move. I am probably going to get a Hawaiian umbrella tree when we move because they can grow indoors with lower light. Thanks a lot! If there is anyway to get a juniper to grow in Washington please let me know.

Trees don't grow the way people do. A three year old has arms a foot and a half off the ground. Ten years later they are four feet off the ground (in the US. In Europe and everywhere else they are a half meter and then 1 1/3 meter). A tree with a branch 8 inches off the ground (20 cm) will have that branch the same distance twenty years later (unless the branch dies). You can't look at the tree, imagine it three times as large, and wait for it to expand. You have to wait until it is as tall as you want and then shape it. Usually that means start with a ten year old tree, or maybe a lot older. You can get take a two year old tree and shape it up, but it won't be much thicker for a long, long time.

A good source of material is friends who are digging up landscaping plants or clearing land. You can do some work for the for free and get some pretty old stuff. I dug up a boxwood last spring (in my yard) which is about 50 years old. It is my big project this winter.

That’s really interesting! Thanks for the reply. Your perspective on how trees grow like people is quite interesting. Very helpful too.