Juniperus trees

Christmas has been a pretty busy period for us and we are excited to unveil some of the projects we had done meantime. We were doing a gaggle of miniature gardens and coniferous pre-bonsai and bonsai  for winter season.  Sorry for the long period without a blog post but we'll correct this once we get out of this holiday season.

Hope you like the Juniper trees. Juniperus trees are coniferous plants in the cypress family Cupressaceae. The name is derived from the Latin word Juniperus which means "youth producing" or "evergreen".  During the Renaissance era, Junipers were used symbolically in art to represent chastity. There are more than fifty species of juniper, which vary in shape and size to columnar or low spreading shrubs.

Dwarf Juniperus Chinensis and its variety Juniperus Procumbens - are my favorites. These are a hardy evergreen long-lived trees which tolerates a wide range of temperatures, including freezing.  Traditional they are grown and trained for bonsai  because usually grow between 20-30 cm tall and their little shape makes a fine bonsai or small tree for saikei  if it is properly trained and cared for. (you should be very carefully for spider mites - the natural enemy of all junipers)
I want to show you some pictures of two of our juniper bonsai.

Juniperus Procumbens Nana bonsai (15 cm tall)

This dwarf specimen (known also as Juniperus Procumbens Nana) that we styled as Kabudachi (clump style) bonsai has 5 years old and only 15 cm tall.

Juniperus Procumbens Nana bonsai - Kabudachi style

This Juniperus Chinensis 'Daub's Frosted'  (3 years old) was wired and trained as Sankan bonsai (triple trunk style)  for one year.

Juniperus Chinensis 'Daub's Frosted'  bonsai

Juniperus Chinensis 'Daub's Frosted' bonsai in training

I like its blue-green foliage, with a thick yellow-green new growth. It is a dense, spreading and compact Juniper cultivar very suitable to be trained as multi-trunk bonsai.







I like also the delightful juniper's scent - its foliage has a relaxing fresh scent very popular in diffuser oil, aromatic essential oil  (can add Juniper to Bourbon Oil), scented candles, scented frankincense, bath sachets  and fresh scented soap / cosmetics.

       

Juniper berries (Juniperis communis) are used as a distinct flavoring for a wide variety of dishes and beverages, very known being the alcoholic spirit gin flavor (the name Gin is derived from either the French genièvre or the Dutch jenever, which both mean "juniper"). 

Juniperus as low-growing conifers are a good selections not only for bonsai, they are very popular mass planting shrubs and ground-covers. Most of the various junipers I've planted seem to do great in Vancouver's climate.   The "Common Juniper" is usually a low-spreading shrub found everywhere: from people's lawns to Rocky Mountains.



I like their tenacity to adapt in any circumstances...
Hope you like them, too.