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As soon as i got home the tree was planted in a large plastic tub, with plenty large holes drilled in to the bottom and along the side just above the bottom.
Those last holes are there to prevent any chance for water to stay in this tub!
All off those large pots are going to a spot in my very small garden where i think they have the best change of survival, for most of the time that is on the ground, so if something were to block those bottom holes, there still would be these holes on the sides where excess water could still find a way out!
Knowing that Yamadori Juniperis communis are really hard to maintain, and that i have been collecting with friends in other places in Europe with beautiful small Communis trees, all twisted and very old, but my friends did not even bother collecting them, because they just hardly ever survive.

I have watched lots of my bonsai friends, losing them; even after the best care possible was given to them! But still, i know of some that did survive, and most of them i have seen survive, where collected in the Swiss or Italian Alps.
I collected this one in the Austrian Alps; witch is more or les the same neighbourhood, so there most be a change for it to survive!

Looking at where this tree was growing: on the sunny side of the mountain, where in summer it can get very hot, with a lot of wind, hardly any rain and roots built only to grasp firmly in to the ground! They seemed to survive mostly on the water they collect from the mist and morning clouds.
So the soil mix i used drained very well and still stays loose enough to promote root growth!

The tree was well secured in its new pot, and put on the ground in the corner of my garden behind a large pine bonsai in a open greenhouse.
There i could control the amount of water it received. It was misted several times a day, and two plastic containers were placed underneath the foliage to provide constant humidity for the tree!
There it stayed for two years doing great and growing just fine!

So when i was looking for still one more, of the two demo trees i needed for a two day demo at JOY OF BONSAI 2005 in Bath, England, my wife reminded me of this tree, safe in the corner. Because of the fear of losing this beauty, i had given it the best care i could provide, but was never thinking of styling it, up to now!
But the tree was doing just fine, it was very well secured into its pot, not much heavy work was planned for this demo, and it would be a demo showing what i like to create and love in bonsai.

So i decided to take the chance!

Photo #32827
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Photo #32828
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(photos 7 & 8 ).The tree photographed the day before i left for the U.K., as you can see it is still in the greenhouse in the back of my garden. (Sorry for the mess in the background, but there is not much room in my garden.)

Photo #32829
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This is the my demo place at "JOY" (photo 9), demonstrating here is very nice and relaxed; people can walk around you and can see or ask everything they want to this way. They can go for a walk to see the rest of the exhibition or demonstrators, or buy bonsai-related stuff or just a bit to eat or drink in the restaurant.

Photo #32830
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Here i am cleaning all the dead wood, and searching carfully for the lifeline of the tree.(photo 10).

Photo #32831
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As you can tell here, bonsai is very serious business to me.(photo 11)

Photo #32832
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This photo of the Mayor of Bath and his wife is taken just before i started to use heavy power tools, creating a local snowstorm of wood chips! (i told you i'm always serious).(photo 12)

Photo #32833
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In full fighting gear! (photo 13) Very carfully the tender foliage is brought in to place.

Photo #32834
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You can now clearly start to appreciate the beautiful movement in this great specimen.....and the tree is not too bad either!
Here you can stil see the large jin at the base of the trunk, that was later removed.(photo 14).

Photo #32835
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Nice close-up of the beautiful curves, you can see here that the lifeline goes right around the whole tree!(photo 15)

Photo #32836
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After removing the large jin that was sticking too much in-your-face, but was kept on until the last moment, so i could discuss it with the public, i made a much smaller jin out of the stump.
Through breaking it carefully i made it look more natural!(photo 16)
This is the end result, allthough the picture is a bit blury i hope you can appreciate it?

Photo #32838
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For me this tree turned out to be one of the my favorite creations. This is what i like to create and to show, in freestyle bonsai that is. Allowing the beauty of this piece of nature to do the work, keeping the design of the foliage to a minimum, only there as a resting point for the eye in between all that movement.(picture 17).

The audience was pleased with the end result, and so was i!
The tree suffered no ill effect at all from all of this, and reacted with a lot off new buds all through last season! It will be at least another two, maybe three, years before i can put it in a pot, one of my U.K. bonsaifriends promised me a stone from the west coast of England, it is built up of very thin layers, and shaped like a natural, upside-down soup plate, so there will be plenty room in there for the fragile roots!

But that's a different story!

Hans van Meer.