I have a juniper semi-cascade (I think) bonsai that I've had for about 25 years. Needless to say, I'm quite attached to this tree! When I lived in the Northeastern US, where winters can be quite cold, I would bury it up to the trunk in the compost pile right before the temperature sank into the 20s every year. Snow would cover it also and it would be fine when I pulled it out in spring.

A few years ago, we moved to Snohomish, near Seattle. Winter temperatures here are often above freezing and only rarely do they go down to the mid-20s that would be bad for the tree. So for the years we've been living here (except for once, when I went traveling through February) I've simply left it outdoors and on the rare night when sub-25 temperatures were expected, just brought it in and set it by the window for that one night.

But now we're having a cold snap that's going to last a week. I brought the tree in last night as per usual, not realizing how long the cold was going to last. Now I have a dilemma.

1) If I leave it indoors by the window at night for the whole week, will that mess with its dormancy? I'm afraid it could. I could put it outside during the day only some days--it's going to be quite cold--but then I'd have to bring it in at night so it would be experiencing temperature changes daily.

2) I can still bury it in the compost pile as the ground has not yet frozen. I'm thinking maybe that's what I should do. But now it will have spent 48 hours indoors, so I'm concerned about shocking it. Maybe do it during the warmest part of the day tomorrow?

And then, once it's in the compost, should I leave it there till spring? (Which comes very early here anyhow.)

I would be heartbroken if anything bad happened to this tree. Any quick advice will be appreciated.