Did the Bonsai Store hurt my baby?!

Shambhala

After having problems with my Juniper (foliage a little brown, wasn't doing to well due to the shock I put it through w/ weather and too much water) I took it to the place I bought it from and they were nice enough to take it off my hands for almost a month, including repotting, for free! *

Since I got it back, it does look much more healthy, although they had to cut back A LOT. *What worries me is the foliage is hard - even brittle. *Is this because they cut it back so much, or did they mess it up more?! *When it came in the foliage was obviously unhealthy, but was not as hard at all.

It slipped my mind to ask them when I picked it up, and seeing how they were very nice to me, I don't want to call them up and ask what they did

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TreeBay

I don't know exactly what kind of juniper you have, but many have two types of foliage: juvenile and mature growth. The juvenile foliage is spiky and needle shaped. It looks a little like those 10,000x photomicrographs you see of pollen. It's sharp to the touch. Very spiky, particularly when it dries out.

Some junipers, like J. rigida, TOSHO or needle juniper produce only this kind of foliage:

<<<<<<<

The mature foliage (and not all junipers produce it) is called a scale foliage, and it's softer, and much narrower. Shimpaku is known for the quality of its mature foliage.

) ) ) ))))

Pinching back the mature foliage, and especially cutting back hard can make it regenerate juvenile growth at the tips.

) ) )))<<

Sorry about the ascii art. One day those will be photos.

Regards,

Matt

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