I am very excited that I managed to buy 2 of these Gowen pygmy cypresses from Bob and Zack at the convention. They are small yamadori, only about a foot tall, and the trunks are rather thin (almost an inch thick), but I've never seen such an amazing character on small trunks like this. Great old bark, ancient shari, etc. I don't know how old they are, but in spite of their small trunks, they look very old. The foliage is bright emerald green, and emanates a wonderful citrus smell that fills the whole room. I paid a total of $250 for two trees (I always ask for a discount from Bob, and he graciously gave it to me). I can't wait to start working on them next spring.
By the way, (edit) a subspecies of these trees are endangered on the US Species List, and the goveniana is extremely rare as bonsai (I've never seen one and any exhibit). Personally, I feel that owning such a rare yamadori is a great challenge and responsibility.
On another note, when I asked Bob Shimon about his ethnic background (he asked me first), he is an Assyrian (ancient people much persecuted by the islamic governments). Probably the only Assyrian in the world, practicing bonsai
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Edit: I edited this last portion because I made a mistake and said that "contrary to the title of this thread, this is NOT a Mendocino cypress. I meant to say that this is NOT a Monterey cypress - so the title of the thread is correct, the popular name IS Mendocino cypress. The scientific name is Cupressus goveniana. It has a few subspecies, the var. goveniana is endangered.
