YAMADORI ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST
Along the coast on the heights between 300 and 600 meters, one can find a native Dalmatian sub-Mediterranean hornbeam species growing, Carpinus orientalis. With naturally small leaves and a beautiful light gray bark, this species will prove to be as good as Korean hornbeam in the future.

We also shouldn't forget the mediterranean stone oak (Quercus ilex). This species has already proved to be  great bonsai material by the Italians and Spanish. I'm not going to mention all the species one can find,  from which I know they are valuable for bonsai, because I hope people don’t rush to Croatia to collect after reading this...





Many people familiar with bonsai and collecting, think that good yamadori are only to find in the high mountains. Well less is truth.

I was born on one of the many islands along the Adriatic coast in Croatia. As a child, I went many times during the winter times with my grandfather to the north side of the island, feeding the sheep who where walking around freely. I remember that I could sit down on some of the "bushes" and I wouldn’t fall through, because they where so branched and full of tiny leaves, that it was impossible. All the work of sheep eating almost anything they can find. Around me there where also junipers (Juniperus oxicedrus) dead and alive, many looking so freakish, in that time, in my eyes expressing such grotesqueness that even as a child, you had to look at them.

These trees are growing in "Karst", a landscape with a very poor soil with a high percentage of rocks. The second factor is a wind called "Bora". A hard northern wind which can reach the speed of almost 200 km/hr during the winter. This wind is also very dry, what is in my opinion important for good quality Jin and shari. Speaking about wild olives (Olea oleaster), Phillyrea's (Phillyrea latifolia) and some others trees, the sheeps are also a very important factor. Each spring, they eat the new growth, on and on again, so those trees remain little, they can only get thicker and ramify better. All these factors are crucial in shaping a young tree during many years into a high quality yamadori, that only we bonsai enthusiasts can appreciate. Especially the junipers (Juniperus oxicedrus and phoenica) are looking so marvelously shaped, curving with incredible shari and jins, that it is pure joy for the eyes to watch them.

The wild olives and terrain are similar with the terrain on the island of Mallorca where the famous Angel Mota is collecting. But for an untrained eye, man wouldn’t see that between these olives also Phillyrea latifolia are growing. Phillyrea is typical evergreen shrub species which you can find in the mediterranian maquis. Collecting them is the same as collecting olives, (they belong to the olive family) which means one can collect them even without a rootball, just a bit of roots can be enough for surviving when pulled out. They sprout abundantly, even from old wood. In these karst landscape it is possible to find very old, dwarfed specimen, even without help from the sheep.
This article is written by Marinko Beg, an amateur bonsai enthusiast from Hasselt in Belgium.









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