In this episode of The Bonsai Jungle I'm revisiting one of my japanese procumbens junipers to do some pruning and shaping of the foliage and branches into more refined foliage pads. The first thing I do is cut each green shoot in half, which shortens the length of the foliage and brings it closer to the branch. This simple method will create more compact "pads" on the branches as well as naturally creating spaces between each branch. Later, I will have to come in an thin out the pads to refine them even more, but this is the first step for getting this bonsai tree into a much more refined and finished looking shape.

Later in the video I will be applying lime sulfur to the deadwood to bleach it and preserve it against fungal growth and decay. I'm going to fertilize this tree as normal with Espoma Organic Evergreen Tone fertilizer pellets in a basket, as well as some osmocote-style Conifer fertilizer I got for free in one of my recent Conifer Kingdom plant orders. I expect that by Mid to Late Summer I'll have enough growth on this tree to refine and pads further, and I'll start selectively pruning the pads to thin them out - removing small branchlets completely instead of just shearing the pads for shape.

0:00 - Intro
1:23 - Sterilizing tools
1:52 - Demo of how I cut the foliage
3:19 - Results After pruning
3:38 - Choosing branches to wire back into shape
5:01 - Removing unnecessary branches
6:28 - Applying LIme Sulfur to Bleach the Deadwood
7:12 - Final Results & Outro