A well-traveled Itoigawa Juniper, part 1

I enjoy knowing the history, or provenance of trees, as it increases the sentimental value somehow. It has been a couple years since I added a tree to my benches, and I’ve been looking for an older Itoigawa showing some Shari and movement. I’d been taking my time and talking to a few of the guys I go to for trees. Don (of Gregory Beach Bonsai) sent me some photos of this one to consider. It took about 30 seconds to decide it was going to be my next tree, and a likely subject of a few posts here!

The photos from Don:

And the brief description:
Japanese import. I got it from Doug Paul, sold it to Harry G., and reacquired it about 2 years ago or so when he sold his collection. Been in the states for about 5 years now.
So it came from Japan in around ’08, through MS or PA, to Pennsylvania, then Michigan, Oklahoma, back to Michigan, and now to Alabama.

I was able to go back and find a few earlier photos out there:
First, a shot from around September ’09 when it was at Don’s nursery previously:

Marco Invernizzi visited Harry and worked on his trees. Harry stated this was wired out by Marco in April ’10. These are the before and after shots:

In late June ’10, here is the tree at the Oklahoma City Bonsai Show:

Don reacquired the tree in 2012 and I bought it in December ’13. As it arrived to me (perfectly packed):

I don’t know who potted it last, possibly at Doug Pall’s place, the Kennett Collection in PA, or perhaps when it was originally imported and quarantined. Doug imports through Brussel’s (though it doesn’t look like Brussel’s mix), and Jim Doyle’s Nature’s Way. In either case, the soil is fine-grained, and no longer drains well. From the photos, it’s been at least 5 years in the pot, so next week we’ll take a look at the plan for the next few years.

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