condition of Junipers after winter

emorrin

When I came home today, I found out that we had a good down pour of rain. Apparently the combination of wind and rain caused one of my gutters down wind to over flow onto one of my poor junipers. The result was a good portion of soil being washed away. I guess mother nature just told me to re pot, so re pot I did. I was going to in a couple if weeks anyway....

I am a little worried about the overall look of my 2 junipers. They bronzed a bit over the winter but now are more brown than green, see picture.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii208/emorrin/BonsaiRomeo151.jpg

Is this normal looking after winter or is this juniper dying or dead? I understand that they can look green several months after they are already dead. I scratched the bark on the trunk and it was green so it is still somewhat alive. I am just wondering of I am going to loose all the brown needles or will they become lush and green again? They aren't dry and brittle like needles I know for sure are dead but the tips can break off easier than usual. This is my first winter with "non-tropical" trees so I am a little worried that the cold may have gotten to them even though it shouldn't have. I left then outside in a wind break cubby hole in my deck so they can get fresh air and sun but only wrapped them in burlap for the majority of winter. We had several weeks of single digit Fahrenheit temperatures and a hand full off minus zero Fahrenheit weather. 6 of the 8 or so days below zero, I put them in an unheated garage. I checked up on them and made sure the soil didn't get overly dry. I only had to water them a couple f times because mother nature provided the rest.

I guess I am looking for a little reassurance that I haven't totally killed them yet.

Surrey John

Ed, I hate to be pessimistic, but it's generally true that a brown juniper is a dead juniper. All you can do is keep going with it and hope and pray that it recovers. You never know - it might. What's for certain is that if you give up, it simply won't have a chance.

On the other hand, perhaps those on forum who know more than I do about junipers can give you a more optimistic analysis.

Good luck with it - I feel for you. SJ.

mo's bonsai

Ed, I had one of my junipers that woke up in the spring brown with a little green and I just held on to it and kept an eye on it and just when I thought it was toast, it sprung back to life. most of the brown fell off but the leaves that were starting to look dull and brownish began to gain some green tones to them. It still has some recovery to do but I think it will make it. I hope this adds a little positive note to your dilemma.

Mo

Stymie

Junis always do go lack-lustre during the winter and usually revive quite happily from around this time of the year. I hope that is the position with yours Ed. and its not as dry as it looks.

emorrin

One thing I did notice this morning is that the common ground cover junipers, I think they are blue rug, look allot like my juniper does (i.e. browned with a little green). Maybe this is normal then. I guess I never paid attention in winters past to what the local junipers look like after winter. We did have a colder than usual winter this year. In any case, I will bring them out of their winter place so they can get full on sun. I will take care of them like usual and hope for the best.

I am wondering if I should go ahead and re pot my other juniper now or wait until later? I don't know if that may over stress the tree and cause further decline. I had no choice with the one in the picture since more than half the soil was washed away due to an unexpected downpour and a flooded/clogged gutter. My other juniper was in the same place, but due to it being much bigger and moss holding some of the soil in place, the soil didn't wash away on it. Both junipers look to be planted in a mainly organic mix of pine bark and peat, a little too organic for my taste. Maybe re potting in my 20% organic (i.e. pine bark & peat) and 80% inorganic (crushed lava, turface, baked akadama, kanuma) mix, may aid in rejuvenating it.

imholte

All of my junipers were quite green all winter. My blue rug was blue as can be with no brown spots.

You mention that you soil is quite organic, perhaps this is causing problems with the roots. Though it might stress the tree more I would repot them in proper soil, just dont mess with the roots too much. They still should be in dormancy, or coming right out of it so it might not be that big of a deal.

yamadorinige

I would be very surprised if your junis current condition is due to the colder than normal winter as it is one of the hardiest of all bonsai. It looks more like a case of serious die-back, maybe due to root problems. I would pull your other junis out there pots to have a look at the roots, white or light brown roots are healthy/ black roots are dead. Like Ed says the current soil has to high an organic content, there needs to be something nearer 40% inorganic for junis to be happy

emorrin

The roots of the juniper in the picture were dark brown to black. I ended up doing about a 30% root prune since I could tell about 30% of the ends were dead. I stopped pruning when I hit what I thought were the living roots. I didn't want to do a drastic root prune due to its condition. I lightly pulled on the roots to see if they would break easy and did not smell