A Communis Story

hansvanmeer

Hi everybody,
I was trying to get some pictures from a DV tape of me collecting a yamadori Communis in the mountains in Austria, When i thought it would maybe be a good idea to make a thread about the collecting of this tree, right up to its first styling with those same pictures! So here we go!

Photo #32758 Click to Enlarge

In May 2003 i went for the second time to beautiful Austria for a short 7-day holiday, which is naturally almost consumed by climbing and looking for nice yamadori.

The mountain where i discovered the Communis from this story, i had not searched on last year when i was here also in May, because of the snow that year! (photo 1)

Photo #32759 Click to Enlarge

This mountainside is one of the most popular ski spots around, and this small tree is most off the year covered with more than 2 meters of snow. I found it there right on the edge of the tree line (2800 meters), where only a few very old Pines can survive. (photo 2)

Photo #32760 Click to Enlarge

Everywhere you look, this mountainside is covered with Communis.(photo 3)

I found the small, but very old tree growing against and over a big rock, those big rocks where scattered around the whole mountainside.
Those rocks give the trees some sort of shelter and something to cling on to underneath all that pressure of the thick snow, and during the hardest storms.
When i had a closer look at the stunning movement off this Juniper, i discovered that the tree's roots had grown underneath the big rock and that i had to lift this monster up to be able to get to the roots!

Photo #32764 Click to Enlarge

Luckily, i brought along a small crowbar so i could lift the rock bit by bit, every time putting a bigger piece of rock underneath it to support it, until there was enough space for my arm to get under there to free and cut the roots.(photo 4)

Photo #32765 Click to Enlarge

It was hard work to get it out of under there, because i had hardly any room to move my hand, and the idea of that rock falling on to my arms was not helping much either.(photo 5)

Photo #32768 Click to Enlarge

There where less roots than i had hoped for, but i was still very glad i got it out of there!(photo 6)
The roots were protected in wet spagnum moss, and then in a plastic garbage bag that was tightly wrapped with tape.

Down the mountain and off to Holland!

Attached Images

	oostenrijk 20040005.jpg (67.4 KB, 76 views)
	aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa9.JPG (39.2 KB, 81 views)
	demo 3.jpg (70.4 KB, 93 views)

Advertisement

hansvanmeer

Photo 4,5,6

More to come in a few!

Attached Images

	demo 2.jpg (70.3 KB, 106 views)
	demo oost777_0001.jpg (68.3 KB, 103 views)
	cap0018.jpg (70.9 KB, 146 views)

hansvanmeer

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 Click to Enlarge

Photo #32828 Click to Enlarge

(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 Click to Enlarge

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 Click to Enlarge

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

Photo #32831 Click to Enlarge

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

Photo #32832 Click to Enlarge

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 Click to Enlarge

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

Photo #32834 Click to Enlarge

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 Click to Enlarge

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

Photo #32836 Click to Enlarge

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 Click to Enlarge

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.

Attached Images

	demo 7.jpg (70.7 KB, 95 views)
	demo 8.jpg (69.4 KB, 71 views)
	demo 9.jpg (69.8 KB, 66 views)

hansvanmeer

Attached Images

	demo 10.jpg (67.8 KB, 69 views)
	demo 11.jpg (68.2 KB, 66 views)
	demo 12.jpg (68.1 KB, 54 views)

hansvanmeer

And even more!

Attached Images

	demo 13.jpg (68.3 KB, 46 views)
	demo 14.jpg (67.5 KB, 49 views)
	demo 15.jpg (69.7 KB, 41 views)

hansvanmeer

Attached Images

	demo 16.jpg (68.6 KB, 48 views)
	demo 17.jpg (67.1 KB, 110 views)

JavaScottC

Hans,
Great story, and great tree!! Thanks for going through all the time to post, well worth it. Austria sure has some nice mountain regions. Congratulations.

Scott

__________________
Great, just what we need....another blogger



http://scottsbonsai.blogspot.com

sauce

Ditto that Thanks Hans!

soonami

Wow, you really know how to pick them Hans.

This is the first time I've seen your face, somehow I imagined you looking less like a pirate