Leave it in full sun (unless it hasn't been acclimated to full sun), avoid over-watering, and wait to see what Mother Nature decides. Unfortunately, foliage of most junipers remains green for extended periods after all hope of salvaging the plant's viability is lost, so don't got your hopes up too high.

Al

Thanks, and that's depressing. I've had this tree for such a long time. But I should cut off the candles, yes? Or is it better to leave them?

Pines grow candles, but junipers don't.

After looking at the image more closely, it appears there is some potential that, if the plant was moved from a low light site to full sun after buds opened, the new growth might have suffered from sunburn (photo-oxidation). If this is true, it offers good reason to be hopeful. Can you confirm or disaffirm whether the plant was moved from low light to full sun after buds opened?

No need to be doing any pruning yet. I'd let the tree sort things out. Your main job is to avoid over-watering - no sense in trading sunburn for root rot. When the volume of foliage is reduced, plants will use less water. It might be helpful to monitor moisture levels by using a 'tell'.

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.

Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al

Thanks Al. So, yes, being a bonsai it is fairly root bound but I had given it a root pruning (and corresponding branch pruning) earlier in the spring/summer. Which, in hindsight, may have left it less resilient to being underwatered.

To your other question, no it hasn't been moved, but it's worth noting that I live in the Pacific Northwest, north of Seattle. If you're not familiar with this area, we are quite far north, which means a very big swing between winter daylight and summer daylight. On top of that, it's cloudy pretty much every single day in winter, and sunny every single day from early July to the end of September. So although it is in the same outdoor spot all the time, even sitting still it went from relatively low light to very full sun, particularly on our deck which is mostly white and therefore reflects additional light.

I actually have some collected rainwater that I use for my indoor house plants. Perhaps I should use that on the juniper as well while seeing if it recovers. I may have watered it excessively in my eagerness to make up for it having been underwatered but it's in well-draining bonsai soil and it gets rained on all winter without any issues so I'm not sure how concerned I should be about root rot? Anyhow, I'll throttle back on the watering.

Thanks for your help. Fingers crossed. I carefully brought that plant across the country with us when we moved, I'll really be quite sad if it dies.

Minda

So although it is in the same outdoor spot all the time, even sitting still it went from relatively low light to very full sun, particularly on our deck which is mostly white and therefore reflects additional light. Unfortunately, with the tree being stationary the earth's gradually changing spatial position, relative to the sun, wouldn't be enough of a change in intensity or duration on a day to day basis to cause sunburn. This would be true even if the plant was growing within the Arctic Circle. Let's hope it was frost then, that nipped the new growth before it hardened off? Is that possible?

Just an observation: At first I thought that you might have been badly misled by someone about the tree's age. But the appearance of the bark tells me the tree is quite old, even while the mass of the tree, or it's o/a size if you will, suggests a younger tree. Small in stature (for it's age), and old-looking bark suggests to me the tree might have been collected from an area in the landscape where resources like nutrients/water were scarce. Do you know anything of the tree's history prior to you acquiring it?

If you don't mind my asking, are you a bonsai practitioner, or do you have more of a sentimental connection to the tree, other than the normal connection bonsai practitioners develop with their trees?

A couple of tips: You already know about using a "tell" to help you determine appropriate watering intervals; but you can help your plants by tipping the pot at an angle A) during prolonged periods of rain or B) whenever you suspect the soil will remain wet for a period long enough to have negative effects on root function/health. Often, tipping pots filled with overly water-retentive media or pots with a large fraction of the medium not yet colonized by roots, can mitigate or negate root issues related to inundation. Compare image B to A to see how much effect tipping a pot during rain or after watering can make. I use all the time here in MI.

Also, using a wick as an aid to drainage is a very good way to remove excess water from a pot. I use a medium that drains extremely fast and is highly aerated, yet I include a wick as a standard part of almost every planting I establish, including the approximately 200 bonsai and bonsai in progress I tend to.

In hope you'll fare well ~ Al

I have a sentimental connection to the tree--my husband and I bought it together in 1997 before we were married. So it's really quite sad to see it die, which I think must be the case as frost certainly isn't the problem. Obviously, I've had it since 97 so I know it's at least that old. I'm not sure how old it was when I bought it, it had already been formed into its current shape, though.

We bought it in Florida. It lived happily with us for many years in the Catskills, spending the coldest part of the winter buried in a compost pile in my fenced vegetable garden. One year we had an early snowstorm that froze solid before I had a chance to get it in there so I buried it right next to our front door instead but even so, some deer nibbled on it which is why it has that one bare branch on top.

When we moved to the Seattle area, we drove across the country staying in campgrounds and the juniper came with us and overnighted on the picnic tables of our various campsites. It's been happy here until my friend dried it out.

I had a feeling there was a greater bond than the one that forms for little reason beyond that you've cared for the plant for a long while. My original thought was to offer to replace it for you as I have a fair number of Juniperus procumbens bonsai (and other species in the Juniperus genus) I'd be willing to pass on to you for no charge other than shipping, but I don't want you to think I think the plant can be replaced.

If the plant does lose viability, please feel free to talk it over with your husband and see if the unusual nature of this chance meeting would make it seem more like a continuation of the journey you both started long ago, rather than your recent loss being the ending. My collection needs thinning, and if you have reservations re the offer, I'm sure there are those here that would vouch for my sincerity and credibility.

See this thread, starting on Nov 25, 2009 for a story not unlike yours that ended well.

Al