California and it's junipers

Bonsai Barry

So, Al, do you dig the entire juniper up or can you just claim a section of it? Most of 'em are monster sized.

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Bonsai Barry

"Our talent lies in our choices."

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ggblai

Barry,

I can tell you what happened to me about 8 years ago when I was in Palmdale with Hirao-san on a day of digging. As we were walking along a utility road on a hill Harry and I passed by this large juniper "clump" with a central trunk and Harry hit me and uttered the magic words, "masterpiece", pointing to the central trunk of this 6 foot high juniper clump. Of course I immediately dropped my tools and burlap bag and started to remove the central trunk. I had to pull out and break off several large side branches to get to the trunk. After half and hour and a lot of work one of our senior advisers on the trip (Joe James) came walking by and said it was too tall and I'd be wasting my time so I thought about it and came to the same conclusion so I filled in the partial hole I made and gathered up my tools when I noticed one of the side branches I broke off had some roots at the base. Needless to say I wrapped it up in wet burlap and brought it home. The medium is plain 100% pumice in a deep plastic pot. After all these years I finally started styling it last year. Here is a picture from last year prior to styling.

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yenling

Wow, thanks for this great thread, someday I hope to get out there and collect these amazing trees!

PatArizona

G'day Al...

To the best of my recolection, that Juniper is the best "rescued from the trash heap" junipers I have ever seen.

That "8 years ago" trip must have before the relatively new IMPERIAL size class made it's way to Southern California...? Many in bonsai still believe that anything over 48" IS NOT BONSAI.

I discovered that late in the 20th century, a new size classification emerged...the IMPERIAL Size...up to 120"...yes, 10 feet tall! The IMPERIAL classification evolved out of the fact that a number of bonsai living in the Imperial Collection in Tokyo, outgrew the existing size classification.

Sounds to me as though the subject under discussion was about 60% of the max bonsai height...?

That could have been a first...

Pat

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