Do you have any place at all that's in between a warm house and 'outside' - like an attached, if unheated porch or garage (right up next to the inner wall, mulched into a larger container and 'acclimated' over a week during the days), or a cold place in the basement, etc? It is too small and probably too cold there now to just go 'out' alone. Once it goes dormant, light won't be much of a factor so don't let that matter much.

Thanks Lucy, I do have a covered front porch and an uncovered back deck or an unheated garage. Just so I'm clear on what to do, I should mulch it into a larger container and set it against the house for a week. Then after a week or so I can put it in the garage to protect it from colder temps and not worry about the amount of light that it's getting. Our forecast looks to be in the low 40's for the next week so I shouldn't have to worry about the little guy freezing.

Oh, I meant acclimate to being on the porch in the daytime for a week, then 24/7 outside (on the porch or in the garage). Water it the day before things go below freezing (watch the news :0) and then once the soil freezes stop watering. You could pile snow on top otherwise as it insulates and also allows watering whenever it might warm up enough to need it.

I myself JUST bought a bonsai'd Chinese Juniper in a 3 inch pot from a humid 55 degree F greenhouse nursery. The soil is nice dark and rich with some tiny pieces of decomposed bark.

I live on the windy 3rd floor of a south facing apartment in the cold "snowed-in" northeast (ZONE 5b)...so I had to adapt the growing conditions.....

1) I placed my juniper in a non-direct sun-lit northwest windowsill on a shallow plastic tray with wet gravel for humidity.

2) I keep the window JUST barely cracked open to keep it supplied with fresh outside air (less than 1/4" of an inch depending on the outside temp).

Because the juniper came from a humid 55 degree F greenhouse, it's not totally dormant....so I tried to replicate the conditions it came from so I won't shock it/kill it.

3) I "fine-mist" the foliage twice a day.

4) At night I place my small Juniper tree it in a zip lock freezer bag (barely open) either in my refrigerator or I just let it stay in the windowsill. Condensation is visible inside the bag the next morning.

5) Then when daylight comes, I take it out of the humid zip lock bag, I place it back onto the shallow tray of wet rocks in my windowsill, and I spray mist the foliage later in the day...... ****Note that the tree is NOT sitting in water, but on top of water.

6) The most important part is to NOT over-water it, as my little juniper is tightly root-bound.....and I water it about 1 to 2 times a week with NON-fertilized water......

I'm going to keep my small Chinese Juniper it in the plastic pot that it came in until spring, as I'm awaiting the springtime when the tree will be at it's strongest......and it will have the best chance to survive a root trimming transplant into a bonsai pot.....PLUS I'll be able to put it outside on my balcony where it belongs ((((fresh air does wonder))).

If you continue on as you are, you won't have that tree very long. That great soil you're talking about is all wrong for junipers - sounds great for growing veggies and flowers, but for the very fast drainage conifers (and esp. junipers) need, it should have large particles of soil (not what's likely now potting soil full of peat)but they should be no more than 20% of the mix, another 30% should be bark mulch (little pieces) and the rest grit of some kind, whether chicken grit from a farm feed store, small size gravel for an aquarium, crushed lava, pumice, or some kind of builder's 'sand' (much larger particle stuff than play or beach sand). Junipers absolutely don't need misting any time (esp. as you have a humidity tray too and it's unnecessary), and you'll end up with mold on the soil. The pot should be sunk in a larger container of mulch and left outside 24/7 in winter, out of the mulch box the rest of the year in full sun. That baggie-in-the-fridge along with what's probably sodden soil in most of the pot will kill it faster than anything too. Don't use the bag at all ever as it holds in water too. You're not growing a house plant and doing it a big disservice the way you are growing it. Junipers are from high, windy, dry, cold places and need to be treated that way, not like African violets or something.

Thanks a bunch for the valuable advice Lucy!

OK Lucy, I will tell you what I have done with my juniper since we last spoke. I put it outside during the day and in the unheated garage at night. I repotted it into a larger pot(6inch round and 8 inch deep) with bonsai soil that I bought from a local nursery. Had it out side during the day for over a week and now the last few days I have just been leaving it in the garage. What do ya think? Was repotting a bad thing? Guess time will tell. Thanks again Lucy.

It's not a good idea to be putting in and out every day like that. Better to either keep it in the garage full time or mulched well outside (but I think it may be too cold for that where you live). It doesn't really need light over the winter at all (or at least til March and hopefully it'll be just warm enough to keep it outside mulched in a larger container (and this time you would acclimatize it to nites outside over 10 days vs days outside full time - still mulched though til late April to avoid freeze-thaw cycles.