THE ROUGH DIAMOND

Bjorn Bjorholm works on a juniper with hidden qualities

- Bjorn Bjorholm

For the past few weeks, this Itoigawa Shimpaku juniper had been sitting on the benches at Eisei-en, awaiting its turn for styling. In a sea of other junipers at the nursery, it did not appear to stand out, with its unwieldy branches, bushy structure and unkempt appearance. However, as is often the case at bonsai nurseries, it was a diamond in the rough, as just beneath the green-domed canopy was a wonderfully detailed story of the tree's past, told in the moving lines of the shari and live veins.

This unique bonsai originated in Japan, likely as a collected yamadori from the northern region of the country. The relatively chunky, unstriated characteristics of the deadwood, as well as the unusually fine Itoigawa foliage, suggest that it was likely to be a Tohoku Shimpaku grafted with a cultivated version of Itoigawa not typically found in nature. In Japan this is very common practice, especially seen in modern bonsai art, because collecting natural Itoigawa Shimpaku in Niigata Prefecture has been outlawed for several decades, and most of the newly collected yamadori junipers are extracted from the mountains further north in Tohoku Prefecture.

If this is in fact the case, though, then this bonsai was expertly grafted, as the graft union sites are imperceptible, and the foliar density and ramification suggest I its subsequent cultivation was properly administered by the caretaker in Japan. Following its development in Japan, this bonsai was legally imported to the United States only a few years ago - a process which involves completely bare-rooting the tree in Japan, followed by a 3-year quarantine stint in the US. During this period of quarantine, and after its release, it was heavily fertilized and allowed to grow unimpeded to generate vigour and strength.

Two apexes?