Excesdive branch and cleaning on junipers

[maroun.c]

Made the mistake of removing too much foliage and branches on couple junipers. Any idea if that risks killing the trees ? Anyway to work around it by maybe protecting the tree in winter? We have mild winters here and rarely have temps below freezing if that makes any difference.
Thanks

 

[leatherback]

Rarely.
I know people say that removing a large part of the foliage will kill junipers, but I find that you really have to go to town and remove in excess of 90% leaving only very small bits of green to really shove it down the drain. Going from a full grown garden shrub to a bonsai often requires cutting 60% or more off.. It will need a disproportionate amount of time to recover from very intensive trimming sessions though.

Do you have a picture?

 

[Shibui]

Agreed. I have also removed more than half of the foliage from many junipers without ill effect. No photos of these to be able to give a more informed opinion but I don't think there is anything you need to do in your climate. Just feed and water over winter and see what happens.

 

[maroun.c]

Believe I went with way more than 60 percent branches removal on 2 trees. Any advice on how to help them recover? Fertilise more/ less
They are both in nursery pots. Any idea what to look out for specifically?

 

[Shibui]

Your dead wood work has improved a lot since those first olives. I like what you have done to both these in terms of dead wood.
The last tree has lost a lot of foliage. I still think the problems reputed to be associated with juniper foliage reduction are way overblown and I think this one will be OK

The other one is just great. I love the new trunk line - really dynamic changes of direction and proportion and there's plenty of foliage to keep it alive.

While these settle down and get going again you should investigate juniper apex ideas. A single, upright apical shoot just doesn't look good. You'll probably need to let it grow a bit more then prune the top back and use several smaller branches to make a new apex. Sometimes the longer apical shoot is wired down horizontal to get the same effect but don't rush to do that now. Give them both a rest for a few months at least.

I don't think there's anything you can do to help juniper survival after pruning. They will either live or die and individual branches will either live or die if the bending has disturbed the bark too much but nothing you can do to reverse any possible damage now.

 

[leatherback]

nothing you can do to reverse any possible damage now.

Important point. I think many people overlook this. (Considering how often I see a recommendation to remove ugly wiring for instance)