How to encourage mature foliage on a Juniper

On a Juniper the juvenile foliage is very sharp and the mature foliage is soft. Are there any tips to getting more mature foliage and less juvenile? The specific is Juniperus procumbins nana.

I have a 20-years-in-a-bonsai-pot J. p. 'nana' that has never ever set "mature" foliage.

There seems to be a bit of taxonomic confusion about J.p. 'nana' anyway. There are those (Hortus III) who say it (J. procumbens) is yet another cultivar of J. chinensis. It, they say, has both kinds of foliage.

Others say it is a legitimate species. The folks in the latter camp cite the fact that it does not have the so-called "mature" scale foliage as the evidence for species status.

Dirr, in "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants" says it has spiny needles -- Period -- putting him in the latter camp.

(Dirr also lists another J. procumbens as a cultivar/variety of J. horizontalis. He also questions it.)

But on your question: For plants with both kinds of foliage, continuious pinching is the only/quickest way of getting all-mature foliage that I have found. Some plants seem always to have both.

Billy

Forgive the obvious which no doubt you are already familiar with. Soft pinching as opposed to hard pruning should keep juvenile type growth to a minimum.

Mike

I agree with Mike. Some Junipers it seems, you only have to look at wrongly and they throw out Juvenile foliage. Hard pruning, over zealous feeding and root pruning/repotting can all lead to the prickly stuff. Keeping the Juniper slightly pot bound, tends to slow down vigour. When repotting, go softly on the roots.

JimLewis wrote:I have a 20-years-in-a-bonsai-pot J. p. 'nana' that has never ever set "mature" foliage.

Concur with J lewis. Only a 60 YO specimin nana that had rock hard soil ( owner said it had been 10-15 years since repot) have I seen mature foliage. And with the first repot we got blessed with a unruly mix.

Was a one of a kind tree, about a 4 inch trunk, lots of movement--My Son won it in a raffle in 1995 from the Gsbf and he sold it for 600$ on ebay when he got married. thats a lot for a nana , I think.

Do you guys miss those that got away, like that one did, and you think jeez how that would look to day ...