About The Cover– Golden Weeping Willow

ABOUT THE COVER

Golden Weeping Willow

From The Collection Of David Easterbrook Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Weeping willows are not commonly

seen trained for bonsai. The long slender twigs suggest a tree growing near water and present a cool feeling so they are usually displayed in early summer where the fresh green leaves can be appreciated.

This Golden weeping willow, Salix sepulcralis ‘Chrysocoma,’has an interesting story. The beauty of this bonsai is due more to a fortuitous set of circumstances than any artistic merit on the part of its owner. In 1989, a violent windstorm broke several thick branches from an immense Weeping willow overhanging the owner’s stone farmhouse built in 1800.

I started a few two to three inch diameter cuttings which were stuck into a bucket of wet Turface handily laying nearby. They were well rooted within a couple of months and were subsequently potted up in plastic nursery containers. The trunks were crudely wired into sinuous shapes at that time.

A few years later, one of the trees was planted on a large, imported Chinese tufa stone that was left over from the 1988 ABS Convention that was held in Montréal in 1988. It was donated to the Montréal Botanical Garden in 1997 where it still resides.

In 1993, the Golden weeping willow featured on the cover was planted into a fine quality Ming Dynasty, pale blue glazed, semi cascade container given to me by Mr. Wu Yee Sun after a two week training session at his Hong Kong garden in 1984.

In 2001, this tree was attacked by a fungal disease that left it almost completely dead. About to throw it out, I noticed a single, small, living branch on the back of the trunk. So it was replanted into a nursery pot until it recovered its health. In 2006, the small dangling back branch was converted into the new trunk line. However, the dead half rotten stump which was the original trunk posed a real dilemma. It was resolved by carving it into an interesting shape, treating it with lime sulphur, and when dry preserving it with wood hardener. The newly rejuvenated bonsai was then planted into a fine quality Japanese Tokoname-ware container from the Reiho Kiln.

Ironically, the mother tree in the garden succumbed to a fungal disease several years after the cuttings were taken but they are both alive and thriving to this day.

This Golden weeping willow was displayed in the 2012 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition held in Rochester, New York.

David Easterbrook

Cover photo by Joe Noga

WM. N. VALAVANIS David Easterbrook displayed his Golden weeping willow in the bonsai exhibit at the September 2008 Deciduous Bonsai Symposium in Rochester, New York.