It’s rare to find a wild tree that needs very little for it to become a great bonsai (other than digging, keeping it healthy and a little refinement, which are far from very little).
I was delighted to stumble across the the photo above (here) but was disappointed when I read the following: “Saw this picture on FB. A natural growing juniper that already looks like a great bonsai.” It would have been simple to provide a link to the source, where more information may (or may not) be available. Like who took the photo, what kind of juniper is it and where was it found (not the exact location for obvious reasons). This lack of information, which is usually accompanied by a lack of inquisitiveness (there are several comments, but no one asks), is all too common on facebook (btw: accomplished bonsai artists tend to attribute when they show other people’s trees).
Here’s one from our archives (June 2012) that we found on El Tim. Their caption reads “Bonsai Budes Medellin-Colombia and Alejandro Sartori.” When I found this tree in Alejandro’s photos, it links back to El Tim. The same goes for Bonsai Budes Medellin, who have numerous photos of famous and not so famous bonsai and all the ones I checked are attributed. The same goes for Alejandro (no cause for complaint here).
Here’s another one from our archives (Sept 2013). The caption reads: “This magnificent juniper makes its rocky home in California’s Sierra Nevada range. This photo, and the next three photos, are from a recent series on Boon Manakitivipart’s facebook timeline titled Sierra trip with Dylan, Toby and Freddie at Carson Pass.