I recently had the opportunity to visit a few of the pines I started 15 years ago that are no longer in my collection. I was happy to see that they are doing very well. It’s exciting to give a tree its start and then see how others develop and refine it. The result is […]
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Utah juniper
Utah juniper, Juniperous osteosperma, is a desert tree or shrub found throughout the southwest. The Utah can survive extreme heat with very little water and live for hundreds of years. In particularly dry years they sacrifice branches to conserve moisture. When further stressed by wind or inhospitable soil, Utah junipers twist and bend as they […]
Singleleaf ash
While hiking around Moab looking for Utah junipers, Konnor and I came across a number of neat deciduous trees I was not familiar with. My favorite was the singleleaf ash, Fraxinus anomala. The species, a member of the olive family, is an anomoly among ash because it has a single rather than a compound leaf. […]
Pinyon pines
Last weekend Konnor Jenson and I visited Moab, Utah, to scout for junipers. As both of us have a deep appreciation for pines, we found – to no one’s surprise – pines! Pinyon pines have a number of characteristics that are great for bonsai. The needles are small, the branches are nimble, and when grown […]
Of candles and cones
Looking across my benches last week I was struck by the very different speeds at which my pines were opening up. The differences seemed larger than usual this year. And I can’t blame pot size, fertilizer or the weather – not for the most part anyway. The majority of my five-year-old pines had candles and […]