Blue Rug Juniper Questions

Mamajen

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I've just started to become passionate about Bonsai and have taken just about every natural tree I have on my property and cut at least one example down to size! I happened to be at the store the other day and found a rather inexpensive and healthy blue rug juniper and decided to buy it to try my hand at a potted bonsai. My question is, since I don't have any potting material at the moment, but am eager to start shaping the tree, can I leave the tree in the pot it has come in from the store for a while? It is certainly a large enough pot and I will be transplanting it soon but I just spent all of my gardening budget on perennials for my garden and can't afford mix and a nice pot (which I would like to use) at the moment. Thanks for your reply. Appreciated.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Sounds like a good plan!
Just keep in mind that "bonsai watering" is different from "nursery watering".

Nurseries water their plants less often because the soil holds water way better than most bonsai soil.

But it's a good approach to style it in a nursery can and repot it later.

One tip I can give you is to work from the outside inwards and keep the tree compact. Bare branches with pompoms on the ends are hard to revert back to solid branches with pads. The idea that weak foliage has to be removed is what ruins most starter junipers.
Another tip is to not go for a cascade. I know that you'll think about it somewhere in the process, but try not to. It almost never works in the end.
 

sorce

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Welcome to Crazy!

Repotting is best done with "full foilage", full foliage generally described as how a healthy plant comes from a nursery.

So if you cut it all off, you have to wait until it is about that full again before repotting.

I recommend only thinking about the styling, repotting small the first year, then styling it the next fall.

Sorce
 
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