Basically, we don’t pinch junipers. We cut new long extensions with scissors…and I know that in itself will raise some eyebrows.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about junipers. For starters, needle and scale junipers are maintained totally differently. It’s essential to know what you’ve got so you can train it properly. This really needs to be addressed. There are far too many weakened and dead junipers out there because of a misunderstanding of how we handle their growth—in fact, I doubt I’m far off from suggesting that ‘pinching’ is the number one killer of juniper bonsai.
Junipers build energy from their tips. If we don’t let them grow we’re going to weaken them—and the more finger pinching we do, the more they weaken. That goes for both scale and needle junipers. But please take a look at these photos and read the captions—
This Kishu shimpaku has no need of any kind of foliage restraint. It’s growth is so slow and contained that it barely changes in size in one year’s time. Eventually the tree will outgrow itself and then some longer branches will need to be removed, and shorter ones will replace them.

This juniper is also a scale juniper like the Kishu above, and it has two strong shoots that have started to grow beyond the foliage pad. Unless you want a longer branch, basic juniper maintenance is to take your scissors and cut off these two extensions. Nothing else needs removal. If we pinched the remaining slowly growing tips, the tree would panic and weaken. Always leave many growing tips on scale junipers—you can cut shoots off, but don’t touch the tips of those shoots that remain. Read that again. And the selective strong shoot removal is only done a couple times a year, no more. Now we’ll talk about needle junipers, which is totally different.
This is a needle juniper, Juniperus rigida. We treat Foemina the same way. Unlike the scale junipers, the needle junipers will create long shoots from every growing tip, not just a couple. We need to let all the tips grow out on these trees to at least this long. Longer is often better to develop the energy of the tree. Then we come in, usually in early summer, with scissors and cut almost the entire new shoot off. On refined trees you’re maybe leaving 1/16″ or a bit more—That’s it! I know it’s shocking, but a tree growing in good soil with lots of roots and strong shoot growth over the entire tree will burst out with many more shoots. Then you get great ramification. If you let the tree grow out like this as you should, there is literally no way you’d be able to do it with fingers, by pinching. The shoot is partially hardened off by then. Both trees need sharp scissors, but the growth habits of the two trees are totally different. Just identify which you have, and apply the appropriate technique and your junipers will flourish. One tip: the needle junipers love water and fertilizer. In the spring they can use as much water as a maple.
This article was originally published on Crataegus Bonsai.
Great info, Thanks.
Can you comment on how to maintain Procumbens nana?
It’s foliage is quite different to both scale and needle junipers.