How To Bonsai A Juniper

About

You Will Need (5 things)

Steps (5 steps, 30 minutes)

1. 1

   Warning:
   Plants that experience sudden change may go into shock.
   This plant is about to change homes and get a huge hair cut.
   (That's enough to put anyone in shock)
   It may be best to spread this process out over a few days.
   But Junipers are very forgiving and hardy. I did mine both in one day and they are doing fine.

2. 2

   Replant your tree.
   Most of you probably now how to do this. In case you don't..
   Make sure the soil you are using is moist, you can add water to it.
   To remove the plant, slip your hand over the pot and hold the plant's stem, then turn the pot upside down. Remove about one-third of the soil. Put a few inches of potting soil in the bottom of the new pot. Put the plant into the pot. Fill in around the roots with soil.

3. 3

   Locate the trunk of your tree. There should be a solitary stem. Using your trimmers clean up that stump area. Remove any branches or leaves from it. You will start to see the structure of the juniper bush, from the trunk you will see bigger branches, begin to clean those up too.

4. 4

   Choose which side you would like to be the front. The front should have one main branch. Choose a few other branches to be in your tree. Junipers tend to grow with beautiful curves and slants, those make the best bonsai trees. From the front of your tree you should be able to see a lot of the trunk but still have branches at the back to give depth. You can remove branches to achieve this.

5. 5

   Snip off the little branches and foliage. You want this to look like a tree and not a shrub. Gaps between foliage is desirable. Use pictures of trees or real trees as a reference for how leaves grow.
   Keep snipping until you are satisfied with your tree.

   Regrowth will start to appear every few days, just trim your tree down to size.