Pftitzer Juniper Progression (2017-Now)

This is my Pftitzer Juniper that I am trying to grow as bonsai and I will be going through its progression below. It looks a bit wild at the minute as it is still in the development stage, but trees like this take a long time to develop.  

If you want to watch it in video format, you can watch the YouTube playlist below. The videos show the progression every month throughout the year, sort of like a time lapse.

Just be aware some of my earlier videos are not the best quality, but just like my trees, the quality slowly improves over time, so stick with them and they both get a little better towards the end.

The pfititzer Juniper is a popular garden tree and can be found growing all across Europe. It is actually a cross between a Chinese and Sabina juniper, which are two very popular species for bonsai.   

2017

In early 2017 bought the tree from a local shop, for only £2, which is a great deal. (I bought this tree at the same time as my Squamata Juniper)

Since it was the start of spring I up-potted it. It had come in a tiny pot, which makes sense since it’s a tiny tree, so I just put it in a slightly bigger pot, which was actually a flower pot.

I didn’t really disturb the roots. I just shook off as much of the nursery soil as I could and planted in some good bonsai soil.

It was then just left alone and allowed to grow for the rest of the year..

2018

In 2018 I left the tree alone all year. It was just allowed to grow freely.

I do not have any pictures from this time.

2019

In 2019 I moved house in spring and I did not touch the tree until late spring, where I give it a very light prune.

I also wired it, but really this was just the main trunk so that was more upright. The growth was heavy and causing the tree to droop over and grow more sideways.

It grew well this season, but the upright growth was all very straight and wasn’t going to be very useful in a few years when I finally style the tree, so I wired the tree again in autumn. This time I used to the wire to add a lot of twists and bends to the branches.

This should add a lot of interesting movement, while also trying to keep it more upright. This will look messy and ugly for a number of years, but it will be worth it. I didn’t wire the whole tree out, just one or two big bends. My plan was to repot the tree next spring, so I didn’t want to go too crazy and stress the tree out too much with too many bends. Doing too much work, too close together can be very stressful for junipers. You should try and space your work out as much as possible when working with junipers.   

Honestly, I should have done this about a year before, maybe even 2 years before. The initial trunk form the soil to the first branch is pretty thick, but more annoying, very straight.

It’s at the point now where and I can’t bend it, so I’m stuck with that. However, in the future I can try and do some things to make that look less obvious, like plant it at an angle, or add deadwood.

2020

In the spring of 2020 I repotted the tree.

Although I did remove the all soil, it was more of an up potting. I removed the soil and untangled the roots. I then did a very light root prune then potted t into a larger, square shaped pot. I also used reused a lot of the soil again that I had removed, to make sure any beneficial bacteria remained.

After this it was pretty much left alone after this.

It looked a bit yellow at times and had a little die back in places, but overall it grew well and it was just left to recover for the rest of the year.

2021

I didn’t do any pruning in early 2021. Everything seemed balanced and there was no extreme growth that I was worried about or needed to cut back.

I also did not repot. I basically did nothing with this tree.

It was just left to grow and it did exactly that. It really started to get bushy and put some some great growth.

2022

I did some very, very light pruning in February. I just removed a few very strong tips to balance things out and that was it.

I also did some wiring in early spring; again I was mostly twisting a few long straight branches so they were now full of movement.

This doesn’t really improve things now, but in a few years I will be thankful I did this. All those new twists and turns will really add character in a few years.  

In early spring as the new buds started to swell I reported the tree, well, it was not really a full repot.

I removed the tree from the pot and raked out the sides and the bottom of the root ball and basically pruned back the outer roots.

Most of the root ball was not touched. So it was a very low stress repot. However, it was very important I did this, as it stopped the roots filling up the pot and it will just give it a bit more space to grow without having to disturbing the whole root ball.

The tree was left alone for the rest of the season to just grow freely

2023

It was a slow start to 2023 I did nothing before spring, and I also did not repot it.

At the end of spring, into early summer I pruned the tree, but only very lightly. Really it was just the tips. The aim was to prevent the outer growth from becoming too strong and trying to keep some of the energy in more inner growth.

I pruned it again in the middle of the summer, doing the exact same, only really removing a small amount of growth at the tips. This was again to stop these areas getting to strong. Eventually I want to cut this outer growth right back and drastically reduce the size of the tree.

You cant really do this as easily as a deciduous tree, which is why I am slowly reducing things and trying to encourage the inner growth, before cutting back to it.

After this second light pruning the tree was left alone for the rest of the year.

2024

And that is where we are at with this tree.

The plan will be more of the same. Just letting it grow and the pruning it back with the goal of pushing the length right back to the inner foliage.

At some point when I will give it proper styling, probably after most of the foliage has been removed.

If you also own one you and need some help can read my Pftitzer Juniper Bonsai Care

If you want to read more about its suitability you can read –  Is the Pftitzer Juniper A Good Tree For Bonsai?