The juniper is a genus of about 50 - 70 species within the cypress family. They are evergreen coniferous trees or shrubs, which are very popular for Bonsai purposes. Such trees sold at large stores are often Japanese Garden or Green Mound Juniper.
The foliage colors of these plants range from dark blue-greens to light greens and the foliage can either be scale-like or needle-like. Scale junipers usually have needle-like foliage when they are young (called juvenile foliage), the typical scale-like foliage appears later. After heavy pruning or bending, overwatering or other stress often juvenile foliage will grow again. It can last a few years until enough normal scale-like foliage has grown and all the needle-like foliage can be removed. Junipers are very suitable for creating deadwood (jin and shari). This is due to the fact that live veins below a broken or for other reasons dying branch will dry out and die. This results in natural deadwood which is peeled, polished and bleached by climatic conditions and is very durable in case of the juniper. The triad of green foliage, reddish-brown or yellowish-brown bark and silvery white deadwood is very appealing.
