Juniper sp.

Well known and one of the most popular - Juniper bonsai. It habituates in the northern hemisphere of the World. For growing a bonsai, it best suits species form South-Est of Europe and Asia.
Particular characteristic of the fruit is a common one for the whole Cypress group. The leaves happen to be of two type: pinnacle and very rigid or scale. Sometimes both of them appear to be present on the same bonsai. An interesting fact is that fruits of the Juniper are used to make the sort of alcohol called Jin. This tree likes a lot of sun rather than a watery environment.

Caring in vegetation period

Every king of Juniperus sp. is felling well under high-level sun radiation, but suffers being in a dark place(except heated seasons, when we talk about young plants).Juniper is very steady to most uncomfortable weather state and temperature, though when it is frosty weather you should guard its rhizome. Juniper does not attach to the group of plants which needs a lot of watering, so it is recommended not to water until the soil is fully dry. It is also not recommended to settle the plant in high humidity environment. Adding nutritive material best suits to a warm time of the year in a moderate way. You should not abuse using nutritions, when it is a favorabil season to browse.
In the end of winter it is the best time to trans-pot the Juniper and to prune (before the young runaway appears). Every 3 or 4 years, you should cut the rhizome to 1/3 of its true length, which makes a good plant invigoration of the existent rhizomes and appearance of new ones.

Styling the bonsai

The species which have pinnacle leaves, you should firstly completely remove the yellow ones, from the center of the crown, trying not to leave there a thing. The trees with green squamiform leaves should not have new runaways and the pruning is good to be spent in spring and autumn.

Because of the low growth it is not a must to cut branches for changing the direction of the trunk, but it would be much more useful to wire, that could be done in autumn and un-wire not earlier than 7-8 months.
You could apply other, much harder techniques, thanks to a high flexibility and durability of its wood material. It is often used the technique of forming the tree by attaching weights or cross-piece.

Illness and wreckers

The stables and leaves of these plants are rarely exposed to insect, tick or woodlouse invasion in the specific power of the bark and leaves. But it can't be neglected the possibility of being infected with the fungus Coryneum cardinale, that slowly destroys the infected tree. The illness begins with discoloration of the leaves and appearance of some black spots on the surface of the trunk and branches, which provokes branches to become dry.

With the help of fungicide, especially sistematical, you could get rid of it. In this case you should necessarly remove dry branches, to eliminate the possibility of uncontrolable spreading of the fungus. Read more!

Cedar bonsai

There are some types of cedar, that can become a bright bonsai indeed. The most precious ones come from the Cyprus Island and the Himalaya mountain ridge. On the one hand the are marked up by the size of the needles, by another hand by coloring and look. In the nature, tall (to sixty meters in height) trees with very thin extended needles are initially adapted for low winter temperatures and strong solar radiation in the summer. Needles grow directly from under barks of branches. In fructification of its cone in the thin, compactly located plates form fruits of the oval form with very easy winged seeds. Before I discuss what cedar is, perhaps I'd better clarify what cedar isn't. Eastern red cedar isn't a Cedrus at all, it's a juniper - Juniperus virginiana (which, BTW, is the "cedar" used as fragrant red cedar woodwork). Eastern white cedar and Western red cedar aren't Cedrus either, they're arborvitae - Thuja occidentalis and Thuja plicata, respectively. Incense cedar, Calocedrus decurrens, is close, but no cigar. Japanese cedar is Cryptomeria japonica.

Caring in vegetation period

The cedar perfectly adapts to any place, preferring solar, well aired corners with moderate humidity of environment. It is not necessary to fill in a substratum, completely to dry it before repeated watering, reducing a quantity of water and watering frequency in process of a cold snap. The soil should be well drained and sated sour clay. Fertilizers are brought as spring (for powerful growth of new runaways), as in the autumn (with a view of increase of frost resistance of a plant in the winter). The change is made strictly in time from three till five years. Roots are cut off on one third of length, but the earth which has stuck to a rhizome does not leave.

Styling the bonsai

Pruning works spend on new runaways as in the spring, and in the summer, deleting dry branches in a crone. Any care of cedar needles it is not required, except constant and all-the-year-round cleaning of needles falling down on soil.

The best time wiring a cedar is autumn. Fixing by a wire proceeds approximately one year. At a thickening of a trunk and branches not to suppose their damage.

Illness and wreckers

Caterpillars of a silkworm and bugs-grinders are the basic wreckers of a cedar. You need to destroy caterpillars operatively at detection or to sprinkle special insecticide if they have already generated a cocoon. When struggling with bugs-grinders is necessary to spray all tree in the end of winter. Identical work should be managed in the spring for destruction of adult individuals of a bug-grinder. From illnesses it is necessary to avoid some root white decay which is distinguished on the whitish stains appearing at the basis of a trunk, and at the started disease on slightly swelled up a little kidneys and loss of needles at a crone. Sometimes during the autumn period small fungi with a yellow scaly hat are observed.

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