Juniperus Virginiana #2 - Eastern Red Cedar

I collected this Eastern Red Cedar from my Lawn of all places in February of 2019. I did some basic root pruning and planted into a plastic container with Napa 8822 as a growing medium. The almost-purple foliage is common on this species in the winter. As the tree enters dormancy, the foliage "bronzes" to this color. Junipers of all species as well as pines go through this process.

I had no special plans for this tree other than to save it from being digested into my lawnmower. I was actually surprised to find the tree at all in the lawn. There are some nice examples of Eastern Red Cedar bonsai online. I am planning on styling this tree similarly to this one by Vance Hanna. His was collected older and already grown but shows the kind of quality that proper care of the species can produce.

 I fertilized throughout this past summer and was able to get a significant amount of growth on the tree. I was not expecting such a strong flush of growth. As color returned to the juvenile foliage the tips of new growth turned a light green and started to expand (left). By middle of summer, the growth had mostly subsided as the tree entered summer dormancy in August.

By September, the tree had roughly tripled in size and was growing very healthily. I even did some minor pruning on branches mid-way up the trunk to get the tree into a roughly conical shape. I remove downward growing branches as well, leaving new growth at the ends of the branches and the upwards growth. My intent for leaving upwards growth is that when wiring branches downward, the new upward growth would now be facing outward, providing a possible point to cut back to in the future.

In November, at our monthly bonsai club meeting, I spent time wiring the tree into a shape and putting some movement in the low branches. These low branches are the most important at the moment because they will likely be the branches left on the tree long term as the top gets repeatedly cut back and rebuilt. The tree at the beginning of the winter and end of the year left me with a real strong feeling about the progress of the tree. I recently pulled the tree from it's wintering quarters and removed the wire. The branches had all set. Plans for this year are a new pot, and strong growth.