Page 43 - BSAM 2016 Q2

The plant was collected in the winter of 2013 after a rainy period.
After harvest the plant is potted in crushed granite and lava rock to retain moisture, and the plant is treated as a large cutting (frequent mists and under shade) until it shows signs of recovery. At that point it can be moved into the light and watered normally.
Ever since my rst trip to the US I have been fascinated by the native pine and juniper spe- cies, similar in some ways to their European cousins, but also very di erent.
e subject of this article is a huge specimen, a Californian juniper that was given to me by a friend and client during one of my tours in Los Angeles.
e plant was collected two years prior to the styl- ing session during a rainy period.... Yes, exactly! e California juniper, a renowned desert inhabitant, is
collected only following a long period of rains because it is precisely in this period that surface capillaries ac- tivate to absorb as much water as possible; capillaries that dry out during the rest of the season because of the extreme dryness typical to deserts.
We can treat these junipers almost like big cuttings. O en in nature they survive the dry seasons thanks to a few long taproots that prove irrecoverable during harvesting. So, you should rely only on the few surface capillaries resuscitated following a rain.
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