I live in the California Central valley and the valley oak ( quercus lobata) is one of the few native trees we have here. It is my favorite tree . I remember the first time I saw them as a kid they just look ancient and tortured and twisted so of course I had to train one as a bonsai or five. Here’s some images of one that grows right along the Stanislaus River at the bridge that crosses on California highway 99 you can see it from the freeway it has amazing branch structure. There are many more in this area Caswell State Park is a great place to go see them although most of the truly ancient ones had to be cut down recently because they were dropping too many limbs as you can imagine that’s a little dangerous. At any rate here’s some photos of the morning question let me know what you think about it and the particular character that these trees have if you’re familiar with them
I have a deep, strong love for our California oaks. The Valley oak is so majestic, but there is something about the black oak (Kelloggii) silhouette in a field that always catches my eye.
The meandering branches of an old oak is natures art at its best
lets see some photos
That is a spectacular. Looks like it’s been through a lot.
This is my favorite picture of the black oak I took when we were on a fire in Calistoga a few years ago. The second oak was from the Mendocino complex fire. Most of my living tree pictures are coastal oaks
I have a small live oak hey I’ve been growing from a sead it’s coming along pretty good now
Share some pictures! 
I started some coast oak acorns this fall and they sprouted within a week
I love our California oaks, as a kid when I’d think of a tree I’d always imagine valley oaks. Definitely a favorite of mine as well.
Love this! The shape of the leaves is much prettier than a coastal oak.
My ultimate quest is to find a blue oak bonsai for my collection
I have a Mexican blue oak which is very similar in appearance to our California blue oaks but grows at a much more rapid rate but is not deciduous.
Close enough to California! I’ll have to keep an eye out for one too
Nice small leaves you have on that one
Neat to see some of the images. I’ll reference them for some of my Oregon white oak (Q. garryana) and Canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepis) that I am growing from seed. Both are out of their native range, so I have to protect them in winter since I can see 0F (-18C) or a bit colder. I might be able to get away with partial protection of the garryana in the ground. I have seen some areas for collecting neat looking garryana closer to the SW Washington, but have been told there is almost as much poison oak as garryana!
I have an affinity for CA natives, especially the oaks. I have a sampling of most in my foothills-east-of-Sacramento area; valley oak, canyon oak, coast live, interior live, and blue oak. I also have a huckleberry oak from seed collected at 8,000’ elv. Another native I feel is overlooked is the CA buckeye. Easy from seed or yamadori, fast growing with beautiful smooth white bark similar to a beech. (I think prettier) Another overlooked and usually derided native tree is the Gray pine. Lovely twisted mature trees in the wild but “oh the needles are so long!”. Yes but still easy, hardy, fast and fun to grow and they back bud well. I’ve tried manzanita, coyote brush, cottonwood and even a poison oak clump but haven’t quite discovered their intricacies needed for success. My next experimental victim will be a chamise bush.
Gray Pine
Buckeye
Buckeye
Interior Live Oak
Blue Oak
Your grey pine and blue oak!!! Dang! I’m so jealous!
The grey/foothill pine in “the wild” actually has pretty small needles
Topaz if you are east of Sacramento that’s not to far from me. I’m in Manteca just south of Stockton. I’d love to get some of your locals most of that list does not grow down here in the valley.
The blue oak was my first Yamadori collected when I seriously got into bonsai. It’s just dumb luck that it survived the dig out and first couple of years considering I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
Gray/Grey pines are hated by most folks around here as “worthless”. I think they are beautiful when viewed with a bonsai eye. Rarely are they straight and ‘pine’ like. An old one with huge limbs that twist in unbelievable contours is awesome to see. I’m surprised Ryan has never done an episode with it. He went to Cal Poly and must have been surrounded by them.
I highly recommend the buckeyes too. Beautiful winter silhouettes.
Chris, you gotta take a drive up in the foothills to collect something. Now would be a good time to dig trees. You can send me an email. I have some buckeye seedlings and I’d be willing to part with one to get you started.
Topaz_1850@yahoo.com
Those are some nice foothill natives. I’m just east of Sacramento as well and love the old contorted grey pines around here. I also have a buckeye I started from seed that’s starting its bonsai journey.