Juniperus chinensis (Chinese juniper) belongs to the cypress family and originates from China, Japan and Korea. In addition to the wild forms, there are about 100 different cultivated varieties of Chinese juniper, almost all of which are popular for bonsai design. Depending on the variant, Juniperus chinensis grows as a tree with a total height of up to 25 meters or in shrub form. There are variants of Chinese juniper with hard, needle-like leaves and variants with delicate, scale-like leaves.
Among the most popular and also most expensive varieties of Chinese juniper in bonsai design are the following:
This variety is a dwarf form of Chinese juniper with light green, fine foliage. The plant grows to about 3 meter in height and originated in Japan, where it was first collected in the 19th century. Over the years, so many specimens have been collected from the wild that the species hardly occurs naturally today. Most specimens found in the trade are captive-breds.
This variety also originates from Japan and differs from shimpaku sargentii by its finer and denser foliage.
Also from Japan is the Kishu variety, whose foliage is darker in color to the regular Sargentii and Itoigawa varieties and it grows finer and much denser.
All three species grow extremely slowly and are therefore particularly suitable for bonsai design. Juniperus Chinensis Itoigawa, Kishu and Sargentii varieties are very rarely found in normal nurseries.
Other varieties of chinese juniper that are popular for use as bonsai raw material:
This variety is an upright growing tree with needle-like blue-greenish foliage.
Creeping variety that rarely grows taller than 30 centimeters and, like Stricta, has needle-like fine leaves of the same color.
Upright tree that usually grows columnar with several strong shoots (or trunks) and has fine, green, soft, scale-like foliage.
Similar to the Blaauw variety, but usually with only one strong main trunk.
Although the chinese juniper can also be propagated by seed, propagation by partially woody cuttings is far more commonly used. The reason for this is the lengthy stratification process of the seeds, which require 2 complete cold periods to mature. This would mean a waiting period of 2 years before the seeds can finally be sown.
Much easier and faster works the propagation by cuttings. For this purpose, about 10-15cm long, partially woody cuttings are cut in spring or autumn and treated with hormone powder. The cuttings treated in this way are then placed in a sand/soil mixture and kept slightly moist for a period of 3-6 months. The optimum temperature for propagation of cuttings and root formation is 20-22 degrees Celsius. If the cuttings were cut in the fall, they should be brought indoors for the winter and given a bright location without being exposed to direct sunlight. By spring, roots should have formed and the cuttings can be repotted. If you cut cuttings in the spring, you can also root them directly outdoors in a bright location without direct sunlight.
Young plants, shrubs and trees for your garden
Itoigawa cuttings , shimpaku cuttings, kishu cuttings and Bonsai raw starter material
Itoigawa, Kishu, Shimpaku Pre bonsais
Itoigawa, Kishu, Shimpaku Bonsais
