Juniper bonsai just recieved from amazon. help please!

[Speaktothetrees]

3yearsold. Juniper bonsai. The leaves were a little brown on one side when i received it. It has a mark in between the two branches which was already there when i recieved it as well. I have seen 3 tiny bugs in the few weeks ive had it... don't know what they are but they havebt been in the leaves just on the soil. There is also a sprout coming up.. And i don't know what it is. I have pictures of all of this. And ive heard they need to.go dormant, how do i do that.. Its october in Tennessee and starting to get cold ive heard they need to be outside, and ive heard cold is bad... Then ive heard cold is good.. So many contradictions that im so lost now.

[kikcer2]

junipers do need cold and they are hardy and should be outside. there are means to protect them from gettin to cold

I recommend looking around the section, and most question can be answered.

[tomc]

Be welcome here Speak,
Tennesseeian winter is pretty mild. Now if your arbor was in say Minnesota, you might want a cold house to shelter it from snow pack and -40F nights. And even there I'm not talking indoors.

It sounds like you talk to your tree with nose-to-tree; good! keep doin' just that.

Possible and pretty safe to use spray for small bugs: Insecticidal soap. You could buy it from Safers or make it out of 1 teaspoon of liquid soap to one pint of tap water in a spray bottle. Let me repeat, liquid soap only, not detergent.

The best thing about evergreens like juniper, is also their weak point. They are unchanging. Oh sometimes you'll see a little reddening in the fall which is seasonal and routine. But mostly when you will notice that a juniper is being overwhelmed and looks to be dieing, it is usually already long dead.

You must find a place outdoors where you can enjoy your tree. About Thankgiving you will want to nest it in a box of wood shavings with the top peeking out.

All four seasons you will want to use a chop-stick to check for water-needs, You cannot use a schedule, you must manually check.

Keep picking up this tree. Its your first line of defence against pests, and first line of enlightenment to welcome buggy visitors. An' your going to have both.