Photos/History: Blue Star Juniper (Juniperus squamata)

Native to Afganistan, China & Taiwan, the Blue Star is a ground-hugging shrub or small tree, evergreen conifer; not particular about soil, thrives in sandy soil, with good drainage, but doesn't like hot, humid conditions or "wet feet" (wet soil). Foliage is a silver-blue.

Acquired: Oct. 2025 - Home Depot - $11.00

This photo is how the Juniper looked when I brought him home; the foliage so thick that one could not really tell what he really looked like; I didn't even know if it was a single-trunk or multiple trunk specimen. 

It was going to be necessary to prune this plant, in order to find out exactly what we had to work with, i.e. structure, posture, major/minor branching..in other words, "show his bones".

The first pruning did little more than produce a pile of cuttings; the second prune did little more.. 

1st Prune

2nd Prune

Finally, we're starting to see what's been hiding under the foliage..a twin-trunk, rising from the base into a dense canopy. Slowly, a shape starts to suggest itself..the technique employed here was to remove any branches or whorls that were/are growing DOWN, away from the natural growth & upsweep of the plant. By slowly rotating the plant, a front, back & sides are starting to suggest themselves, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Whenever I bring plants home, I usually water & sometimes feed them, and I thoroughly watered this little guy..noticed that the water seemed to almost run-through almost instantly, & checking with my magic water-wand (it's a hygrometer) discovered that the plant was moist at the top 3 - 4 inches, & moist at the bottom, but the middle was bone-dry..right where you would expect the main root ball to be. 

Before we do any more pruning or anything else, I decided we have to get this plant hydrated, so I left him to sit overnight in a tray with 3-4 inches of water, hoping the water would rise via osmosis & water the middle..this helped, but it did not completely solve the problem..I won't proceed with any more styling until I have de-potted & looked at the dry area..I hope that the rootball has not grown into a solid mass, but won't really know what's going on until I take him out of his pot & get a better look.

Once I got him out of the pot & took a close look, the middle 3-4 inches of the soil was bone-dry..I think that this middle layer became impacted when  he was re-potted at some point, still root-bound, without loosening-up the existing roots or soil..looks like they just added soil. This changed my plan to re-pot sometime in the future, after he had a chance to adjust & recover from pruning, I had already done.

So, I began test-fitting into training pots to see where he could go with the least amount of root pruning possible. It is considered a "no-no" to prune both foliage & roots at the same time, but in this case, it was necessary..hope I don't kill him.

Next, I had to comb-out his very tightly coiled roots, removing old soil at the same time & getting a good look at the root system. (There is a special tool called a root fork, but I just use a chopstick) Slowly reduced the rootball into a manageable size & removed as much of the old soil as I could & re-potted into a training pot.

Now there's nothing left to do but wait & watch, water & feed & try to keep this little tree alive long enough to survive the process.  Ideally, next spring  he should be ready for more root pruning & a re-pot into a another Bonsai-style training pot.

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