Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] To baby trees.
[00:00:03] Bonsai bandai bansai time is the one thing you can't really make in bonsai. Right? Bonsai, the black pondo podcast. So Bonsai's about is people having a good time and enjoying themselves. If it's not fun, it's not bonsai, bonsai. Or bonsai bonsai, bonsai, bonsai, bonsai.
[00:00:30] That's my favorite subject.
[00:00:33] Hey, what's up? How's it going? This is Jeremiah Lee. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it.
[00:00:41] So, currently I am in North Carolina traveling for work, but I usually have some downtime after hours. And I just got back, I hit some korean barbecue, which was phenomenal. And before that, I hit a little weight session. And I don't know what it is, but I highly recommend the combo of there's something magical about doing a lifting weights, getting a hard workout in, and then going straight into korean barbecue, crushing out a big plate of beef bulgogi with some rice and kimchi.
[00:01:18] Something absolutely magical about that. So I hope that you try it and experience it as I rate it ten out of ten. I highly recommend.
[00:01:30] So the journal session that I want to go into today is on Sierra juniper.
[00:01:38] Sierra juniper is probably my favorite tree, my favorite species for bonsai.
[00:01:45] And I first got introduced to Sierra juniper through backpacking in Boy Scouts back in the day. I remember seeing Sierra Juniper and just being quite awestruck by them and thinking of how awesome and beautiful they were even back then.
[00:02:03] Since 2010, I started collecting Sierra juniper, and I've been collecting probably like three trips a year or so. I'd say I would go up to the mountains, up to the Sierra and collect for two or three nights. Usually I'd go camp there, collect trees.
[00:02:23] Lately, it's been less. But I haven't missed a year since 2010 where I haven't. Where I have not collected a tree. Like, I've collected a tree every year since 2010. I've gotten to spend some time up in the Sierra and absolutely have a deep respect and passion for Sierra juniper. So figured it'd be a good topic to hit on and let's jump into it.
[00:02:53] So, first off, I guess we call it Sierra juniper. I feel like that's kind of like the common name that the bonsai folk have adopted.
[00:03:03] And it's kind of interesting because western juniper in bonsai circles, western juniper is another thing. And then Sierra juniper is. So Sierra juniper is one thing, western juniper is another thing.
[00:03:22] So scientific names that I'm talking about are Juniperus grandus, which is Sierra juniper, and then Juniperus occidentalis, which is western juniper.
[00:03:35] And for a long time, I was calling Juniperus grandus, Sierra juniper, Juniperus occidentalis australis. And I think for many years, scientists were doing the same. I more recently learned that it's called Juniperus grandus and it's its own species.
[00:03:54] But for a long time, Sierra juniper was just considered a subspecies of western juniper.
[00:04:06] So western juniper and Sierra Juniper, first off, they do look very, very similar, and they have similar characteristics, but a few differences.
[00:04:18] They both, from what I've seen, they tend to range from like, a greenish to a bluish type foliage. Uh, some differentiating factors of western juniper. One is that they're way, they have way more SAP on the, on the foliage. They smell differently, in my opinion. They don't smell as good people. Some people say that they smell bad. I don't know if I think they smell bad. I just think they smell a little bit different.
[00:04:48] Often western juniper are collected in different environments. The main western junipers that I've seen for bonsai have actually come from the Idaho area. I know for a while Boone was bringing, or he had a collector who was collecting them in the Idaho area, and then he would bring a big load full down to boone, and then often boone students would purchase those trees.
[00:05:16] So that would be my main experience with western juniper, which is Juniperus occidentalis.
[00:05:22] For a long time, we thought Sierra juniper was just a subsp. Sub species, but through SAP analysis, at a certain point, and this is kind of way over my head, but essentially, scientists determined that through SAP analysis, Sierra juniper or Juniperus grandus was different enough to be considered its own species compared to western juniper or juniperus occidentalis.
[00:06:15] Yes. And so one thing to note is often the common names are mixed around. So in the forest industry, I hear western juniper probably more frequently used for Sierra juniper, but like I said previously, in bonsai Circles, most people call it Sierra juniper, even though technically western juniper is another name that is utilized for Sierra juniper or juniperus grandis. So common names, it's just an example of them getting kind of confusing.
[00:06:48] I'm going to refer to it as Sierra juniper. And when I say Sierra juniper, I mean juniper is grandis.
[00:06:55] So Sierra junipers grow a pretty wide range in terms of elevation, like three to ten k in terms of feet of elevation. So they're found primarily in California. They do range into Nevada slightly.
[00:07:15] One question I don't know the answer to is, is it the sierra or the Sierras? I'm really not sure. I know it's definitely the Rocky mountains because there are several.
[00:07:29] There are several mountains right in the Rocky mountains, but with the Sierra, ultimately it's really like one big mass. So I've heard some people say the Sierra and then I've heard some people say the Sierras. So it's not like multiple mountains. There's definitely multiple peaks, but it's really big. One big range. So I usually say the Sierra. I'm not sure what you guys think about that. You hear both terms, the Sierras, the Sierra. I don't know what's correct. Does it really matter? Not. Probably not. I don't know.
[00:08:04] So Sierra juniper is debatably the fourth longest lived species of tree in the world. And that's single, single specimen trees, meaning there are some forms of trees which clone themselves that can live quite a bit longer. However, in terms of, like an individual tree, they're the fourth longest lived, or at least the fourth longest lived tree that has actually been verified.
[00:08:39] So there are a couple. The top four oldest trees.
[00:08:45] So it generally, most people consider it to go bristlecone pines number one oldest, the Patagonia cypress number two, giant sequoias number three, and then Sierra Juniper's number four. However, there's definitely some debate and olives there. There are a few really ancient olives that people aren't exactly sure on the. The ages and use that are definitely in the mix for possibly being in the top four, although it's kind of like unverified.
[00:09:18] So there was a Sierra juniper, it's called the Schofield Juniper and it was verified to be approximately 2675 years old. So they definitely get quite ancient. I don't know the name. The ages, the true ages of Rocky Mountain junipers. I wonder how those compare. And all of our other native junipers, like, where the age is. I need to look into that. But I can tell you, Sierra junipers, very ancient when it comes to junipers and just trees in general.
[00:09:54] The tallest juniper is the Bennett juniper. It's like 78ft tall. You can look it up and go visit it potentially.
[00:10:03] Sierra Junipers, basically, if you're, if you haven't seen one before, they have a reddish brown bark which can get super thick at the. At times. Like old trees can have like several inches of bark.
[00:10:21] Not a lot of them, I would say maybe several inches, but. But quite a bit of bark, quite thick. And it's just designed to shield them from the elements, really.
[00:10:33] It's a dead protective layer that, that shields these trees from all the elements that they face and encounter up in the mountains.
[00:10:46] The foliage color is interesting. So they're either a green, blue, or sometimes like, a gray type foliage color up in the mountains.
[00:10:57] I would say you see more green up in the mountains, as opposed to, once we get them back and domesticated in their bonsai containers and grow them for bonsai, they tend to shift more to that blue color. So green is more common in the native environment.
[00:11:18] I kind of think that, like, a lot of people have speculations in terms of, like, why they turn blue.
[00:11:26] I just think that the domesticated foliage, which grows at a faster clip, a faster rate, compared to foliage that's growing in the native environment.
[00:11:36] I think that that domesticated foliage is just a bluer color.
[00:11:41] Like, younger growth tends to have a different color than older growth often, or faster growing domesticated growth can have a different color. I don't know. Maybe there's some other reason for the foliage qual, the foliage color changing. Maybe it is like, an elevation change that changes the color. I'm not sure. There haven't done any scientific studies. I don't know if there are any out there. One thing that I do find very interesting, and this is just one tree, so it's not much of it, not many data points, but I have a very green Sierra juniper. So I collected it. It was green up in the mountains, brought it home. I've had it since 2010 now. So it was collected in the first year that I started collecting, and it's always been quite green. A lot of people ask me what type of tree it is, and it's definitely a juniperus grandis. So I grafted a variety called fudo onto this tree. And fudo is typically quite blue. It looks like kissu, but more of a blue color. It's a little different than kishu, but closest thing I would say is it looks kind of like kishu, but more blue. It's very blue, and I've seen several of them, and they're all blue. But I grafted my greenhouse, Sierra juniper with fudou shimpaku, which is blue.
[00:13:11] And after about a year, I don't know if I'm tripping or what, but this fudou shimpaku, which is supposed to be blue, looks a lot more green to me. And I hold up, like, if I take another fudou shimpaku and hold it close to that foliage, it is definitely more green. So I have no idea what that's all about. And it's only one tree, so maybe I don't know, could be several different things, but it's very interesting to me. So I will just say that.
[00:13:49] Yes. So I got into Sierra junipers through Boy scouts, like, back in the day. That was probably the first junipers that I really paid attention to were Sierra junipers. So I'm super biased, but I do. I rate Sierra junipers as second best, the second best species for bonsai. And really, my rating has no weight or it's probably not important. But when I think about trunk quality, foliage quality, deadwood movement size for bonsai, I think that they're second behind Rocky Mountain juniper. Like, I think Rocky Mountain junipers are number one, Sierra junipers are number two. And I'm sure some people would argue with that. And I mean that so many different. It's a silly ranking, really, for me to say that I think that they're second and Rocky Mountain junipers are first.
[00:14:48] I think if we didn't have Randy Knight and we didn't have the backcountry bonsai guys, I don't know if I would consider Rocky Mountain juniper as number one. They have just brought so many incredible, phenomenal specimens out of the wild and into the general public's collections that I think that's the main. I mean, basically, like, we just have so many nice, incredible Rocky mountain junipers.
[00:15:22] I think one seeds. One seed junipers are really, really nice as well. I'm liking what I'm seeing in terms of foliage quality.
[00:15:33] The Deadwood looks really awesome. I think we're going to see more of one seeds collected. I think my ranking of one seed is lower than Sierra juniper, though, mainly just due to the size of the trees that we get.
[00:15:48] So, personally, I really like large trees, but I feel like there's a point where it just hits to where it's a garden tree as opposed to really being bonsai.
[00:15:59] And I don't know what that size is. You know, you have. If you have to move it with, like, more than two people. I feel like it's kind of a garden tree and not necessarily bonsai. Again, that that classification holds no weight. It's just, like, my opinion. And so I totally respect if other people have different opinions, and that's totally cool with me. And I get it. It's. For me, I just think, like, at a certain point becomes a garden sized tree and one seed junipers, like, a lot of the best ones that I've seen have been more like garden sized trees. However, maybe we will see a lot more smaller one seeds in the future. I also think California junipers are great. It's too bad that we've lost so many California junipers over the, over the years. I feel like a lot have. Have unfortunately passed away.
[00:16:56] Yes. So let's jump into trunk character a bit.
[00:17:04] So trunk character on Sierra Junipers, I feel like, generally speaking, we don't see as much twist and curve when it comes to Sierra Juniper.
[00:17:14] They're generally more of a powerful, chunky, nice, deadwood kind of tree. But there definitely are exceptions.
[00:17:26] Personally, I feel like twist Curve Spiral are some of the most highly desirable features of any juniper. I just think that twist curve, spiral, those, those three words are a very, very positive thing when it comes to any type of juniper. And I think that it's harder to find on Sierra Junipers. There's less twist curve going on with Sierra junipers, although there are definitely, definitely exceptions. And when you can find those characteristics within a Sierra juniper, I think that that should make that tree very, very valuable, because it's just so rare and so hard to find and such a desirable feature.
[00:18:16] Walking through the mountains, hiking through the mountains, I've seen Sierra junipers grow in just about any style. So I'm talking, like, informal, upright. Just in the native environment, trees out in nature, they grow informal, upright, cascade style. Definitely like hanging over cliffs in the cascade style. I've seen rafts before where it will look like maybe something fell over and the side limbs just all took off and became trunks on the tree. I've seen root over rock. So with Sierra juniper, it's root over granite. And I think that's a really cool style. Maybe it was growing over or kind of like, covered with duff, and over time, things eroded away and there's just a tree over the granite. I think that's a really cool style. Often trees Sierra junipers, they'll have a chunk of granite embedded into their trunks. I think that's a cool feature, something you should keep.
[00:19:18] I see formal uprights. Pretty much any bonsai style you can find within Sierra juniper is just growing out in the native environment. So I don't think any style is necessarily wrong for when you're working with material.
[00:19:36] One cool feature about Sierra junipers is that older specimens growing in the native environment, mature trees, a lot of times they'll look like bonsai. And by that, what I mean is they often have a triangular shape shaped silhouette out in the, in the native environment, and they'll be pretty padded. Meaning, like, they. They have pads like you would see with bonsai. Right?
[00:20:03] So, like, I'm talking the fan shape kind of pad where the angle of the pad goes up as you go in towards the tree.
[00:20:14] And, uh, they could look really beautiful out in the. In the native environment as kind of like just giant bonsai almost looking things.
[00:20:25] The deadwood on Sierra juniper is not as resinous as Rocky Mountain juniper. So the core of Rocky Mountain junipers that I have seen has had this, like, really dark, crazy colored heartwood that is extremely hard. And that is not the case with Sierra juniper. So often, deadwood on Sierra juniper will rot. So, for example, if a tree or a common occurrence is there will be a tree, and a portion of it is covered in duff and dirt when you're collecting it, and granite and decomposing granite.
[00:21:07] And often those areas will rot, or they'll show some rot within the deadwood.
[00:21:14] The deadwood is. I wouldn't say it's soft by any means. I think that, at least in the area that I live, if I have a piece of deadwood that's been exposed to the sun for many years and was created in the natural environment due to all the harsh elements, that piece of deadwood will last a lifetime, 100% or the lifetime of the tree.
[00:21:39] It will probably change. It definitely changes slowly over time. But in terms of deadwood rotting on a Sierra juniper, if it's certain areas will get soft and start to deteriorate over. Over time. But generally speaking, most deadwood on Sierras will last a long time.
[00:22:01] Usually. I haven't had to wood harden areas of deadwood, although there are some trees where I've seen where it absolutely need some type of wood hardener or something if you wanted to keep that area the way it's currently looking.
[00:22:18] So I think that ultimately, Sierra junipers don't have as much resin in their deadwood. Therefore, it's not as hard compared to Rocky Mountain juniper, these trees can thicken very, very fast. So basically, Sierra junipers have very thick, a very thick vascular tissue. Their xylem and phloem is thicker and moves much more water compared to a rocky mountain juniper.
[00:22:51] Therefore, sometimes a branch. This is like a. One thing about Sierra junipers is like one branch will take over and it will just thicken like crazy, like almost like nothing you've ever seen and can be hard to control. Sometimes they thicken so fast, that also makes them easy to scion graft. So it's fairly easy to scion graft Sierra junipers, I think, because so much resources are moving through the plant that it's just like a, you know, a big highway, big open highway where cars can drive very quickly, and a scion graph that you put on there is going to get all that, all those resources transported to the scion, and the scion will grow very quickly and. And take off. At least that has been my experience. So, scion grafting, very easy. Surprisingly, I've tried to take Sierra juniper cuttings before, and I have not been successful. I don't know if they air layer very well either.
[00:23:56] I don't see them layering themselves in the native environment as much as, say, like a California juniper, which absolutely does. And often with California juniper, you can collect a piece of a California juniper, which layered itself. That is not as common with Sierra junipers. In fact, I don't know if I see that for sure up in the native environment.
[00:24:22] I bet you could layer. I mean, you can layer anything. You could layer black pine. Technically, it's just harder. So certain species take air layers or any type of ground layers a lot easier than others. I think Sierra Juniper is not that easy to layer. I really haven't seen many people do it, but I don't know. I haven't seen because I just haven't seen it. I'm not sure. But personally, I would much prefer to try and approach graft if I was going to try and remove a section of a Sierra juniper.
[00:24:58] All right, let's talk deadwood.
[00:25:02] So, yeah, cedar junipers are very thick, powerful, chunky trees. That's kind of how I often think about them. I mean, anything that is powerful can also have elegance to it and interesting line.
[00:25:21] And I think that if you have a combination of, like, elegance with power, it can create some of the most amazing trees ever. But generally speaking, I feel like it's. It's common to see powerful, chunky trees when it comes to sierras and less elegant, thinner trunks with great deadwood and great movement. More so you see, like, powerful, chunky trees. You definitely see good movement with Sierra junipers. But the movement isn't as crazy as rocky Mountain junipers. And I think a lot of that may have to do with the environment that they grow in and then just their genetics, probably a lot of it has to do with being exposed to crazy wind forces. I think that in the rocky Mountain junipers, I know when I drove to Wyoming, the wind was just insane there. And that is not going on as much in the Sierra.
[00:26:16] So I think that does play a factor when it comes to the trees.
[00:26:21] There are some twisty, twisty Sierra junipers. I have one that is very twisty.
[00:26:28] And there's. There's one tree in particular, I have a canvas print of it.
[00:26:37] I forget it's. It's near the Tahoe area. It's in a met a meadow.
[00:26:45] It's Meiss meadow. There's a lot of pictures of this tree. I think Boone, Jonas, Peter T. They've all taken trips up to see this particular tree. And there's several different Sierra junipers around this particular tree, but there's just this powerful, ancient, twisty, crazy tree up in this meadow. And just absolutely beautiful. Definitely something that I hope no one ever, ever collects.
[00:27:16] It's just there for everyone to see.
[00:27:19] Gorgeous, incredible, inspiring tree. I have this up, a big canvas print in my workshop because I just love to look at it so much. It's definitely on the bonsai tonight. Incredible bonsai tonight blog.
[00:27:32] If you google that, you can probably find pictures of it. But that is probably the best example of twist and curve within a Sierra juniper. And just like the ultimate goal of what you're looking for, that tree is just so, so awesome. So I do think if you can find twist curve spiral with Sierra juniper, those are extremely desirable traits. Oh, also, Boone has a tree, his ascending dragon tree, which is a Sierra juniper trunk grafted over with Kishu shimpaku foliage. That tree is very twisty and has an incredible spiral. So they are out there. They're just very challenging to find.
[00:28:16] There's not that many of them. So I think that is a very highly desirable characteristic when we're talking juniperus grandus, when it comes to the deadwood, I think Mother Nature is always going to be the best carver of deadwood.
[00:28:35] And we're kind of doing a different thing than a lot of. Well, than some people within Japan. Whereas some individuals within Japan, some professionals, their goal is more of to create sculpture with the deadwood.
[00:28:50] I would say that in the United States, it's maybe more common for us to look at the tree as a tree, as something that would be found in the native or natural environment.
[00:29:05] And we accept the dead wood that Mother Nature created. And I think that exists in Japan, too. Not saying that that's not the goal within Japan as well, but sometimes in Japan, it can be. Deadwood can be looked at more so as a sculpture in of itself.
[00:29:25] Often junipers are carved in Japan to create ribbon like sculpture out of the deadwood, which is also just an incredible feeling to these trees. But I think in many, many ways, it would be wrong for us to carve the deadwood that Mother Nature created on our native junipers, because it's already so awesome.
[00:29:50] Yes. So Mother Nature, best juniper carver out there, best creator of deadwood. We could never recreate what Mother Nature carves into these trees, and that's why they are so absolutely incredible.
[00:30:08] I think that when collectors go out into the native environment and collect trees, they should be looking for trees that have deadwood already.
[00:30:19] So the best Yamadori collectible junipers are going to be ones that already have a bunch of juniper, which mother Nature created from the elements that the tree is exposed to. And the generally, like, the more deadwood that you can find that's from Mother Nature already, the better. If you collected a tree and you didn't have to do a single carve, you know, you didn't have to make gin and shari on the tree. I think that's a good thing if it's already there and there's lots of it and it's good.
[00:30:56] One. One point I would like to make a, is that the most textured part or the roughest deadwood is typically going to be the furthest from the living tissue.
[00:31:12] And that's because live veins recede over time, and the oldest part of the deadwood is going to be the furthest from the actual live vein. So if you look at collected junipers, the way that they should typically look is the Deadwood should have the most texture that is farthest from the live vein. And as you get closer to the live vein, it should become smoother and smoother, and there should be less texture in that deadwood.
[00:31:47] So I think that is something that we can utilize when we man make juniper bonsai. So if you twist up a little shimpaku whip and after a certain number of years, you start adding deadwood characteristics to it and creating Shari on the tree, you can think about, hey, the. The oldest deadwood should have the most texture, and the youngest Deadwood should have the least texture, because that's how they grow in the native environment.
[00:32:20] Talking about texture in Deadwood. So, in Japan, one thing that I really like about the japanese bonsai is that they have given names to desirable deadwood characteristics.
[00:32:35] And so the most common example that I can think of, of this right now is with iebojin. So ebojin is a type of ginna. And I'm probably pronouncing that. I'm probably butchering that pronunciation. I apologize. But ibojin is a type of deadwood that is most commonly found on needle juniper or tosho. And it's like a. Almost like a spiky area, or I believe it translates to warty warty bark feature or something like that. And essentially what happens is Ibojin, excuse me, Tosho needle juniper. In Japan, often those trees are collected and a whirl of growth will come out of a specific area. So several branches will come out of a smaller area. And that area, when it dies off, it creates this, like, spiky. But often these spikes get kind of rounded out over time. So it's just this ebo gin. It's like a group of wart, warty gin things coming off the trunk. And some of them are more spiky, some of them are more smooth.
[00:33:51] And it's a very desirable characteristic when it comes to Tosho or needle juniper.
[00:33:58] So if you take a look at ibojin, I think it's like a really cool characteristic.
[00:34:03] And I really think that in the US, we should identify target specific characteristics within certain native junipers. Like on Sierra Juniper, on Rocky Mountain Juniper, on one seed, on our common juniper, we should find characteristics that are reoccurring and give names to those and talk about them using the names, so that they are. So that people know that they are highly desirable features with, on, within trees. So two of those that, that come to mind for me with Sierra Juniper, one is very similar to Ebojin, and I call it spike gin. I don't know what we want to call it. The US, I refer to it as spike gin, but essentially it happens very similarly to ibogyn, where there's a whirl of growth or several branches coming out of one location on a Sierra juniper trunk, and that area dies.
[00:35:06] So when you collect it in the mountains, sometimes it's hard to, to see spike gin right away, because often there's still bark embedded into that area. So almost looks like just a piece, like a big piece of bark or like a ball or something. It's. It's hard to tell exactly, but you should be able to see, like, little spikes coming out of this. And when you clean all that bark out of the spike gin, you're left with a really cool feature that I call spike gin. I don't know what we should call it, but a really cool feature that I believe is very desirable on Sierra Juniper. And it is definitely something that I look for in Sierra Juniper when I'm out collecting trees. And I think it is something that should add a lot of value to RCR juniper in general. So that would be the first one, the second one, I've seen it look a couple different ways. So either I call it feather gin or scale gin.
[00:36:13] Sometimes, to me, feather or scale gin. Like, either looks like feathers or it looks like scales. So feathers of a bird or scales of, like, a reptile or a dragon or something like that.
[00:36:25] And it's. It's kind of hard to describe well, but essentially, it's like little pieces on the shari have been almost, like, broken off, but they're still sticking on. And there's several of them in the same general area.
[00:36:43] So what I'm really referring to is just awesome texture on the shari of the tree, on the deadwood of the tree. It's just, like, really awesome texture. But I I like the name either feather gin or scale gin. I have some examples of these types of trees that I. Or these types of features that I've taken in the mountains, and then I have one tree in particular that is, like, a really good example of feather gin or scale gin. And I just absolutely love this characteristic of the deadwood. I think it is just, like the coolest thing ever.
[00:37:21] So I think spike gin and feather or scale gin are definitely something that we should celebrate and look for when we are looking for desirable characteristics in terms of Sierra juniper.
[00:37:37] Sweet. The last thing that I wanted to hit on was just foliage quality of Sierra juniper a little bit more.
[00:37:43] So I think foliage quality of Sierra juniper is beautiful, and I love the smell of it. So when you're working with a Sierra juniper and your hands just start to smell like Christmas trees almost, or something similar, like, if you rub Sierra juniper in between your fingers, their foliage, it just smells really good. And that is fantastic. I think it has beautiful color. Like, it goes from blue to gray to green.
[00:38:14] Most frequently, a blue is pretty common. In terms of domestic bonsai, Sierra juniper, I will say the negative aspects are that Sierra juniper foliage is heavy relative to other types of foliage, and it's kind of coarse. Not kind of coarse. It is coarse, and that's just mostly the nature of it. I do wonder if we will get varieties that just through finding potentially witches brooms or a chance seedling that is just genetically superior in terms of foliage quality. And by genetically superior, I mean just, like, tight and compact and has nice color.
[00:38:59] And maybe someday we'll use that to graft. Who knows? Maybe, maybe basically some other things that can be negative aspects of juniper foliage would be pollen sacs. And so sometimes, like, your tree will not have pollen sacs, and then all of a sudden, like, one year, it will have a ton, which is super annoying, in my opinion. That has definitely happened to me. Uh, berries can be not so cool, although you can pick them off for sure. The tree is spending a lot of energy into those berries, so you should pick them off if you do have a tree with berries.
[00:39:37] Also Sierra junipers. I mean, they do well in many parts of the United States.
[00:39:43] Uh, but maybe particular areas, another variety might grow better. So you may want to graft onto your Sierra junipers if, depending on the location in which you live.
[00:39:55] If you're constantly getting phomopsis or some type of fungal issues on your shared juniper, you might want to consider grafting them over with something that may help.
[00:40:05] Uh, let's see. Yeah. So, personally, here's how I think about it. My grafting opinion on Sierra jun.
[00:40:16] Typically, because I have quite a few Sierra junipers, I'll rate the foliage quality on a one to ten scale. And first off, if it's below a seven, I will automatically graph the tree. And some people are saying, like, oh, man, like, this is sacrilegious. And, uh, you know, you're wrong here. And maybe you're right. I don't know. Who knows? But basically this is what I do. So if it's below a seven, I'm just going to graft.
[00:40:44] If it is smaller than a large sized tree, I'm probably going to graft it. And I know, again, sacrilegious, I apologize, are beautiful native trees that I just spent so much time talking about and saying how awesome they were. But what I have found is just that it's kind of hard. Like on a tree, I'm just all about proportions. And I think large trees carry the foliage well, whereas medium size, small size, shohin size, it just doesn't quite look in proportion to me. Like, the foliage looks too big. And I think the tree would look way better if you were to graft something onto it that had a tighter, more compact overall design to the tree. So that's my opinion there. If the tree is constantly throwing out pollen sacks, all graft as well, I guess that would be below a seven. In terms of foliage quality, I like both colors. I like some green sierras. I like some blue. I'd say I might even like green more just because they're less common in the bonsai area. I do wonder, like, if you take a tree, you know, from one location to another, is it going to go from green to blue? Like, if it's already thrown out that domesticated foliage? I don't know. I'm not sure.
[00:42:10] But yes. So, yeah, I am grafting another. A few things to note about grafting Sierra junipers. So I do want some Sierra junipers with Sierra Juniper foliage, I definitely do, but I will graft many of my trees if they're too small or they have poor foliage quality.
[00:42:29] And, yeah, so not only is it just like the proportion, but I found that it tends to be hard to create individual pads. And I guess this is kind of a proportional problem, but it's hard to create pads on a Sierra juniper that is small.
[00:42:49] It almost just like, there's not the, the in and outs within the silhouette where you see these individual pads. It's more of just like a solid mass of foliage, which is a look that I don't love if, if the tree is too small. So I think for like, a large size Sierra juniper, you can create individual pads. And there are a few Sierra junipers out there with, like, pretty good foliage.
[00:43:17] So it just depends on the quality of the foliage, the size of the tree.
[00:43:22] You're probably going to have to keep wire on your Sierra juniper for the most part, like, for the tree's entire life. Now, in a show, you could get away with very minimal wire, like barely any, and a very small gauge. Most of the foliage will stay in the right place.
[00:43:40] But compared with, like, itoagawa and kishu, I feel like it's just a heavier foliage in general, and there's always going to be like a little piece that's kind of flopping down too much or just like one area maybe that needs to come up.
[00:43:57] And so I feel like it's going to be really hard to have zero wire on your Sierra junipers, but you can get away with, like, very, very little wire. I do think also the area that you're growing the tree in is going to determine what the foliage looks like. I know in my area, I feel like Sierra Juniper grow fairly tight and compact. However, from what I have seen in the Pacific Northwest, the foliage looks a little bit different. Like, it's a little bit.
[00:44:28] It just gets a little, like, larger almost. It grows a little bit different and it's not as tight and compact. Me.
[00:44:36] So the area that you live in is going to play a factor there, for sure.
[00:44:46] Yeah.
[00:44:47] Other than that, yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm missing anything. I think that about wraps up what I wanted to touch on with Sierra Juniper.
[00:45:02] I guess one note about the podcast is just that I definitely think that my views are going to change over time, and I don't, I'm not, I'm definitely not always right, as nobody is right, and we learn over time. And so I think one of my goals is like, I would love to get feedback from people, I would love to hear their opinions, I would love for them to share knowledge. And I think that if you hear different opinions on things in the future, that's a really good thing. That means that I'm learning, and I'm evolving and changing and growing.
[00:45:43] And I think that it is 100% okay to be wrong. Me not being a bonsai professional and just being a hobbyist, really a hardcore, super passionate hobbyist is nice because I kind of have the freedom where I can be wrong. I feel like as a professional, it might be harder to be wrong about things because people probably hold you to a higher standard, or maybe you just hold yourself to a higher standard. Because I think everybody should always be learning. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're a bonsai professional or not, you should always be learning, evolving, growing, trying to improve, to get better, to expand your knowledge when it comes to bonsai. And there's so much for us to learn, so, so, so much.
[00:46:29] And I just hope that as the podcast evolves and changes, I grow and learn more, and I am giving different opinions and thoughts, and it will be really interesting to look back on this years from now and see like, hey, what was I saying? And see how much of it I agree with in the future. I think that should be the case for all of us, really. Like we should all be growing and, and thinking about Bonsai differently. Uh, so this is August 2024, and it'll be interesting if I listen to this again in the future. Hope you enjoyed. Thank you so much for listening, I really appreciate it. I will talk to you later.
