Maybe you all remember me telling you about how somewhere in the middle 9ties of last century I was lucky to collect some amazing field grown and more than 50 years old Chamaecyparis obtusa nana gracilis mother plants in Boskoop (Holland).
Below: Well, one of those that I collected that day was styled by me and some years later shown in the famous “Noelanders Trophy” in Belgium. That all happened well before the year 2000!
Two decades later I sold this Bonsai to my good friend and student Diederick, who during a styling session with me at his place (Holland) brought it back to a very promising Bonsai again! Diederick has become such a fan of this species that he is always searching the internet to find another promising one! And he did find one and what happened then is just unbelievable, but true!
Diederick found while surfing the internet for Bonsai and raw material a guy near Utrecht (Holland), who had a very old Chamaecyparis for sale. So he drove up there and when he saw that tree, he immediately thought that it looked very familiar to the one he has at home?! So he asks about its history and origin?! The owner then told Diederick that many years ago he collected it and a few other ones at a professional growers’ place in Boskoop (Holland)! And that it was like the other ones in that plot always used as a Mother plant that was grown to take many cuttings off. And that it grew on its own roots so it was not crafted and that it must be by now about 70 or 80 years old! He told Diederick: I remember that day well because Hans van Meer was digging up 2 or 3 of these Chamaecyparis Mother plants right next to me in that same plot?! Diederick was flabbergasted by this coincidence and told him that he recognized this story and that he now owned one of these Chamaecyparis trees that I had collected all those years ago right next to the one he was now planning to buy from that guy?! Diederick was more than happy to buy this tree and later wrote to me: Hans after more than 25 years of separation these so closely related trees are back together again in my garden…what was the change of that ever happening?! Now I know that they are just plants…but I find it a heartwarming story in these troubled times!
Below: The garden of Diederick where the (top-picture) Chamaecyparis that he just bought now closely lives next to his (below-picture) brother-sister again after all these years!
I hope you enjoyed this little heartwarming story as much as we did?
Stay safe and healthy everybody!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 