When to prune juniper?

A total newbie question, but I am wondering during which season of the year is it best to style, prune, and repot junipers? I live near central Ohio, USA where the winter season is quite cold and the summer hot. I know the summer is no good for repotting, but am unsure as to when is a good time to begin working on the juniper.

hi,

junipers have 2 distinct growing periods where you can observe the strong shoots extending. late spring till early summer is period 1, then the trees stop through mid-late summer before entering a 2nd growth period going into autumn.

while the tree is actively growing the bark is looser on the heart wood and can easily separate from it if you attempt much branch and trunk bending, also the new softer green growth does not like contact with wire or being bent either. this means avoid styling junipers in the active growth seasons. early to late winter is the time to work the tree without stressing it.

repotting - junipers can be left until you've done your other trees - so get the other spring repotting done first, some trees have very specific timing but junipers have a wide window of tollerance.

pruning - use scissors to remove the strong extension shoots if you are trying to form pads, let them grow if you still need new branches. dont pinch or scissor cut across all the foliage tips - just remove the ones that are visibly growing strongly from places they are not needed.

cheers

excellent informative post Marcus, thanks. Apologies for hijacking this thread, but assuming we have a vigorous juniper(squamata) and we thin & wire now, should we leave repotting for one full season, or can we assume that if growth comes back early in the season that it's ready for a repot. most opinion seems to be that we should only give Junipers "one insult per season" so we'd be looking at repot following wiring in the year after (eg 2015)

thanks

I have better results with "one insult" per season on my junipers  

Appreciate the reply Todd