The Front Collection

This is the majority of our small bonsai collection, which resides on the bedroom windowsill and fire escape of our third-floor, San Francisco apartment. It faces west and gets sun all afternoon. Unfortunately, it tends to be very windy.

The highlight of this juniper is its trunk, which is twisted around on itself and has grown together.

This is a sweet little alpine juniper, which Robert got at an arboretum sale a few months ago and is training as a Sekijoju (root-over-rock) style. It is only about 5" tall. He has yet to work up the courage to prune and wire it.

I couldn't resist this cypress for $1.98 at a local discount store. It looked more like a Cedar of Lebonon when I got it, but for the price, I decided to dive right in and prune and wire it as a formal upright. I think that I have more pruning to do, but removing branches makes me queasy. It is about 7" tall.

Robert's latest arboretum sale purchase -- a manzanita. He hadn't read about how difficult it is to get manzanita to grow as bonsai before he got it, but it's worth the challenge for their beautiful bark.