I like the way the shari is understated, relative to many juniper bonsai at least. It contrasts nicely with the striking reddish bark, which someone went to a lot to some trouble to clean up. It’s a Sierra juniper, which as you might guess from the name, is native to the Sierra Nevada Mountains (and further north into the Cascades). The photo is from the Bay Island Bonsai’s 15th Annual Exhibit. Aside from the fact that this is an excellent bonsai with potential to become even better, the fact that it’s a native North American species is an added plus (this has something to do with the future of bonsai here, but we’ll save that for another time). This photo and the one below are by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight.
When it comes to bonsai excellence there’s nothing else on the web quite like Bonsai Tonight. Not only is the quality of the photography unrivaled, but Jonas keeps finding great trees to shot.
I’ll just give you a little taste here and encourage you to click your way over to Bonsai Tonight as soon as you can spare the time. It’s a great show and it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
The elegant, rangy Ponderosa pine is another native American. It grow from the Rockies to the mountains of the far west. Sadly, it is one of the trees that is being decimated by the mountain pine beetle. At least in parts of its range. Note, if you look at the bark, you might think this is a Lodgepole pine rather than a Ponderosa, which usually has more reddish bark with larger plates that tends to be less shaggy than what you see here. But it’s hard to tell from a photo and there can be a plenty of variation within a species.