Finding Sprucehalla: Black Hills spruce, Picea glauca v. densata

摘要

One of the things I love about bonsai is how easily it lends itself to becoming a quest. To me it's a quest for beauty, knowledge and a true harmony with nature that often takes me where I wouldn't normally go—both to big, wild mountains in search ofyamadori specimens, and to big, wild cities to attend bonsai shows and symposiums. And like any real quest, it takes up a lot of my time, energy, money, and thought. If you wanted to call it an addiction it would be hard to argue about it, but it's an addiction with more positives than negatives—at least from my point of view. Like with any quest, it's the things you can't quite get that keep you on the trail. For myself, that would include finding sites to collect old Black Hills spruce, Picea glaucav. densata. Over the years this is the one tree that I have probably spent the most time looking for and the least time finding. Since I live in the Black Hills and work in the woods you'd imagine Black Hills spruce trees would be easy for me to find. And they are, as long as I'm satisfied with collecting seedlings. But I'm not, and finding old contorted specimens with character has been a puzzle. They're out there to be sure, but they just aren't saying where; and believe me, I've asked.