With deciduous trees we can do so that first we wait until we grow an elegant nebari, then we cut the whole top and wait for new offshoots. When we do the same to a juniper tree – it dies.

I was wondering if it is at all possible to somehow force new regrowth on a juniper? Can it grow only “one way”, i.e. we let the branch grow where there is some vegetation.

And another question about other conifers - does it work the same way with them (e.g. pine)?

Both junipers and pines dies back to the place closest to the trunk with foliage when cut. So allways leave some foliage on the end of each branch when prunning. Some pines backbuds easily and you can get new branches comming after heavy prunning. Junipers not so easily, I have had budding on 5 years old wood, but that might be an odd occurance. Older than that will never backbud.

Tropfrog wrote: Junipers not so easily, I have had budding on 5 years old wood, but that might be an odd occurance. Older than that will never backbud.

Had a young juniper in the garden, when there was undergrowth from otherplants that caused the lowerpart of foilage to die. When i removed the undergrowth, within 2months there where new buds at the trunk. That juniper is also about 5years old now. Never did anything with the roots, also did never prune it. As it is just for the garden. But i was surprised to see the backbuds, as i did not expect it to do that.

Rorror wrote:

Tropfrog wrote: Junipers not so easily, I have had budding on 5 years old wood, but that might be an odd occurance. Older than that will never backbud.

Had a young juniper in the garden, when there was undergrowth from otherplants that caused the lowerpart of foilage to die. When i removed the undergrowth, within 2months there where new buds at the trunk. That juniper is also about 5years old now. Never did anything with the roots, also did never prune it. As it is just for the garden. But i was surprised to see the backbuds, as i did not expect it to do that.

Junipers do backbud, albeit not reliably nor predictably. I have 45 year old junipers that have popped buds on the trunk. There is no maximum age at which bud can appear.

If you grow a juniper, typically one leaves lower branches kept short OR you let one or two branches run long so the trunk fattens up, and later you cut off the sacrifica branches (remember the option to airlayer) and create a short yong from the leftover stumps.

Thanks LB. I have only had my 20 year old for 3 seasons. I would really like it to grow a few new branches on the trunk. So hope is not gone then, great info.

Tropfrog wrote: Thanks LB. I have only had my 20 year old for 3 seasons. I would really like it to grow a few new branches on the trunk. So hope is not gone then, great info.

Well, even if you had buds, considering how slowly even a strong bud would grow on a juniper it would still take a decade to get an actual branch.
Do consider approach grafting.