Michael, you are certainly allowed to have an opinion, but opinions don’t equal facts. The Sierra Junipers most certainly do form “green helmets”!My point is that the so-called green helmet (which you brought up by the way) is the lazy man's way of copying nature. That most wild windswept junipers in the sierras do not have a neat green helmet. Certainly no wild shimpaku did either. That most juniper bonsai (most conifers in fact) are made with the green helmet because it's easy. That, as Vance mentioned, many beautifully wild yamadori junipers are ruined by being domesticated by topping them with a green helmet. So much so that all you can see is a trunk with some deadwood and a green helmet and that is pretty crappy done like that (IMO). That the models for this modern styling come from other bonsai and not real trees and because of that the original appreciation has been refined out of existence. Another example; The Japanese practice of polishing juniper trunks has put much pressure on every other juniper grower to do the same because it attracts attention but unfortunately detracts from the (once seen as) valuable wabi.
And yes before you say it, everyone can do and say what ever the hell they like....which is what I'm doing.
In case you missed it, my “Oh no! another green helmet” Post was sarcasm. So many say that @green helmets are not natural.
Dude, I was just up on the mountain about a month ago. The pictures I posted are ones I took, or my hiking companions took. Unless the tree has suffered recent trauma ( within the past 100 years or so) they form domed apexes.
Obviously, you need a few more pictures:
This one is a juniper branch from below, looking up. Check out the branch structure. It made a pretty amazing pad of foliage, with all the foliage on top of the branch structure:
