每日吃瓜

Hi folks.
My gf got me a bonsai tree last year and according to the tag it's a "Japanese Juniper" and is 6 years old. I had it inside and was giving it a regular water schedule, but then it started to dry out really bad. It turned brown and the whole plant became brittle and was dropping needles. After some reading I found out that they aren't supposed to be inside at all, and I came to the conclusion that it was dead, so I put it out on the back porch and haven't touched it in months.
However, I went out and checked it yesterday and somehow the branches have gotten softer and more flimsy. The plant is still mostly brown but there are some dark green parts left on it.
I am puzzled now, because I read that once a bonsai tree becomes dry like that it is dead and there is no coming back. I also haven't watered it in a few months at least. But if it was dry and dead how could it become soft and flexible again? Is it possible that it wasn't quite dead and being outside where it was supposed to be has started to revive it?
I've attached a picture. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to save this guy if possible. Thanks team!

You discovered too late that Junipers are hardy and die if kept inside very quickly. It is obviously dead. Keep the pot throw the poor tree away. Next time read first and find out how to are for whatever you get. Buy a book and read it.

This plant died many months ago.

That's what I was afraid of. Can you provide any insight as to why it would go from bone dry, to soft again though?

Let me rephrase. Back when I first suspected it had died, it was so dry that if you even touched any of it the piece would just break off. Now, the needles are soft again and you can squeeze and bend the branches without it breaking. Just seems really odd to me.

Thanks for the replies.

outside it is more moist than inside. So the branches took up some water.

Anderwolf wrote: Back when I first suspected it had died, it was so dry that if you even touched any of it the piece would just break off. Now, the needles are soft again and you can squeeze and bend the branches without it breaking. Just seems really odd to me.

Leave a dead branch outside, eventually it'll get soft too. It's loosing integrity - rotting has started.

Besides that, your plant was not a bonsai.

Now you've really stumped me. I thought that technically any small tree pruned and kept small was a bonsai in the nature of the word. On top of that, this type is usually the kind i see at a bonsai farm or stand by the side of the road. But you're saying it's not a bonsai. Can you explain?

Anderwolf wrote: Now you've really stumped me. I thought that technically any small tree pruned and kept small was a bonsai in the nature of the word. On top of that, this type is usually the kind i see at a bonsai farm or stand by the side of the road. But you're saying it's not a bonsai. Can you explain?

Questions like this one are everywhere on this forum..use the search page to figure it out

Anderwolf wrote: Now you've really stumped me. I thought that technically any small tree pruned and kept small was a bonsai in the nature of the word.

That's an incorrect definition. A bonsai is a tree or shrub, trained using bonsai techniques, to resemble a real tree in nature. 每日吃瓜 is an art, every bonsai is unique.
Your plant is just a young, untrained plant. It isn't kept small, it's just young. It does not differ in any way from any other young juniper.