Take a deep breath and try again.

You applied your strategy for subtropical plants to your J.squamata (against
advice) with results that were so maddening you cut the top out.

Nobody advised me against treating the J. squamata as a subtropical. Many
growers in this country keep it indoors for part of the year.
The reason I cut the top off was not horticultural, but purely a styling
reason. The style was not developing the way I wanted it. The tree is quite
healthy.

Now you want to apply this to your 'Shimpaku' (also against advice),
although it is now doing what you want of it.

The Shimpaku is the way I want it as far as style is concerned. But junipers
are slow growing. If I could keep it dormant for six weeks or two months, and
then grow it under lights for the rest of the winter, its development would be
much faster. Although the basic shape is OK, it is still a baby.
If someone with 40 years experience tells me I can't give this treatment to a
Shimpaku, I will follow his advice. I just want to know why. And I would like
to know if there are other junipers which will also thrive on the shorter
dormant period and 3-4 months under lights.
Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Iris Cohen schreef
Take a deep breath and try again.

The Shimpaku is the way I want it as far as style is concerned. But
junipers are slow growing. If I could keep it dormant for six weeks or two
months, and then grow it under lights for the rest of the winter, its
development would be much faster. Although the basic shape is OK, it is
still a baby. If someone with 40 years experience tells me I can't give this
treatment to a Shimpaku, I will follow his advice. I just want to know why.
And I would like to know if there are other junipers which will also thrive
on the shorter dormant period and 3-4 months under lights.

+ + +
Ah well, two interesting items:
- you might ask your 40-year man if you can do with J.squamata what he
advises against doing with your 'Shimpaku'. If he gives the same advice for
both, you can use the same strategy for both. After all the natural ranges
for J. chinensis and J. squamata are more or less comparable.
- if the 'Shimpaku' is still a baby it should be less valuable and thus a
suitable project for experimentation?
PvR

PS: blasting your Junipers is unlikely to be the answer!

you might ask your 40-year man if you can do with J.squamata what he advises
against doing with your 'Shimpaku'.

He aleady knows exactly what I was doing with the squamata. This is my bonsai
teacher, & he knows both trees personally.

After all the natural ranges for J. chinensis and J. squamata are more or
less comparable.

That's why I'm curious.

if the 'Shimpaku' is still a baby it should be less valuable and thus a
suitable project for experimentation?

Not likely. I paid $25 for it, it has been styled, and critiqued at a workshop.
I am not going to experiment on it. I have already killed too many trees that
way. :-(

blasting your Junipers is unlikely to be the answer!

I was hesitant to ask for divine intervention to send them to Hell for
eternity.

Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

Iris Cohen schreef
After all the natural ranges for J. chinensis and J. squamata are more
or less comparable.

+ + +
In view of the large ranges of both species it would be relevant to know the
provenance of the two cultivars.
+ + +

Not likely. I paid $25 for it, it has been styled, and critiqued at a
workshop.

+ + +
Maybe buy a cheap, innocent, replacement and experiment on that?
+ + +

I am not going to experiment on it. I have already killed too many trees
that way. :-(

+ + +
This certainly explains why older (surviving) bonsai are so expensive.
PvR