Page 36 - BSAM 2018 Q4

Top; Tom Vuong, who collected the tree and Michael Jonas in March 2017.
Middle; A view of the tree from the right side.
Bottom left and right; The original front and the new front, before styling.
Power & Balance
Styling a yamadori Juniperus californica
By Mauro Stemberger, Italy TPhotos courtesy Mauro Stemberger
he California Juniper is the type of tree I like to work on the most when I visit the United States. My agent, Michael Jonas in Los Angeles, has a great collection and most of his trees are great junipers collected in
the desert. The California Juniper is a very strong tree that grows well if it is properly cared for, with good watering and fertilizing. A good way to fertilize it is to add a siphoning system that is connected to the water supply, so that with each daily watering the tree gets a small amount of fertilizer to help with its growth.
The tree arrived in Michael’s garden in March 2017. It was probably collected a couple of years before by Tom Vuong, one of the best California Juniper collectors. Michael cared for the tree all season and when I returned to Los Angeles in November of the same year, the tree was ready for its transformation.
I was unsure if I wanted to keep the front originally selected because I really liked the very old deadwood on the back part of the tree. That characteristic and the location of the beginning of the live vein caused me to choose the back side for the new front.
34 | BCI | October/November/December 2018