After looking into the practice of shohin display, I thought it would be nice to focus on some of the beautiful trees at this year’s Gafu-ten. Here are some highlights.
Shimpaku
Zelkova
Cryptomeria
Chojubai
Princess persimmon
Shimpaku
Winterberry
Japanese pepper
Princess persimmon
Border privet
Shimpaku
Chojubai
Princess persimmon
Shimpaku
Beautyberry
Trident maple
The post Beautiful shohin at the 2019 Gafu-ten exhibit appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
One of the highlights of the Gafu-ten exhibit is the sales area. Like the sales areas at other top bonsai exhibits, the Gafu-ten sales area featured bonsai at all stages of development from seedlings to show quality specimen bonsai. Some of my favorites are pictured below.
Japanese black pine
Japanese white pine
Dwarf jasmine
Japanese maple
White pine
Black pine
White pine
Black pine
That wraps up the posts from this year’s Gafu-ten for now. Thanks for coming along!
The post Bonsai from the Gafu-ten sales area appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
I look forward to repotting some trees months ahead of repotting season. Sometimes it’s because the pot is falling apart or too small – other times I simply want to see the tree in a bonsai pot for the first time. All of the above applied to the coast redwood below.
Coast redwood
I picked up the tree from Mendocino Coast Bonsai last spring and have been looking forward to repotting it ever since. Once new roots are established, I can begin training in earnest. In the meantime, I cut the tree back as most of the foliage had grown beyond the future outline.
After cutback
I left a single branch long to help thicken the new apex. I plan to let the branch grow for another one to two years to improve the transition of taper from the main trunk to the new apex.
With the pruning done, I turned to the roots. I removed the roots that were circling the rootball and removed most of the soil from between the roots on the front side of the tree.
After root work
I tried a number of different pots before deciding to go with a container from the Kisen kiln.
After repotting
I’ll be curious to see how the color of the pot works when the bark and deadwood dry out a bit.
Dark-colored bark from the rain
I’ll hold off on pruning or wiring until I see signs that the tree is growing well. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the tree in its new pot!
The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt is hosting its annual fundraiser this weekend at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California. Saturday features an auction that starts at 1:00 p.m. (preview at noon). Sunday features plant sales and vendors from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, see the BGLM website and auction catalog.
I’ll be vending Sunday with a mix of trees, pots, tools, and supplies so stop by and say hi if you come to the event – I’m looking forward to seeing you there!
The post Coast redwood – initial repot appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
I’m starting this series on cork oak with the second step – reducing branches that are too long or too straight. The first step is repotting the tree into bonsai soil and generating healthy roots.
Last year I repotted this oak in a training pot after nearly bare-rooting it. The field soil supported few roots so the old soil mostly fell away during repotting. The tree responded well to the repotting and grew well last year.
Cork oak
The tree is now ready for initial cutback. I don’t plan to use many of the existing branches as most are long and straight. In an effort to get the tree to produce new shoots, I reduced all of the long and straight branches.
Straight branch
Reducing the branch
After reducing the branch
I expect that new buds will appear on some of these shortened branches which will help develop better branch structure. Some stubs may dry out and completely die back. Both options are fine as I expect to create most of the future branches with new shoots.
Here’s what the tree looked like after cutback.
After cutback – 27″
I plan to let the tree grow freely through spring. When new shoots emerge I can start to add shape by wiring them before they grow too large to bend. The timing of the next cutback will depend on how quickly the tree grows. I expect this will be in spring or fall.
The post Refining cork oak – step two appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Last spring I brought home a few coast live oaks. I repotted them in early May and found that they responded well to the work (see “Repotting out of season“). Here’s what one of the trees looked like last week.
Coast live oak
I did, however, notice that most of the new growth was on the top half of the tree. Many of the lower branches had died or become weak since the repotting.
Strong growth near the top of the tree
Dead branch lower down
From the side, it’s easy to see that the lower, back part of the tree has become weak.
Weak area
Because many of the old primary branches were long and straight, and because the new shoots were concentrated near the apex, I decided to significantly reduce the primary branches.
After reducing the primary branches
If all goes well, the tree will produce new shoots from the trunk and from the base of the remaining branches. I can’t say that I have strong expectations about how the tree will respond as I haven’t tried such an approach with coast live oaks, and when I’ve done this on related species like cork oak, I made sure to generate lots of healthy roots before getting started.
I’m curious to learn what’s possible with oaks so I took a similar approach with several other trees. I’m looking forward to seeing how they respond. My current guess is that plenty of shoots will emerge from rough areas on the trunk. I don’t expect as many new shoots to emerge from the smooth areas – the places where I’d most like to see them – but I’m hopeful there will be a few. Will report back when I know more.
Repotting out of season – bringing new trees into the garden
The post Reducing primary branches on coast live oak appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Satsuki bonsai are commonly bare-rooted when they are dug from the field. These trees can have lots of fine roots under the trunk that can make repotting difficult.
Bare root satsuki azalea ‘Hanabin’
Lots of roots under the trunk
Simply setting the tree into a mound of soil can lead to air pockets in which new roots cannot grow. To avoid this, we can work soil into the roots before setting the tree. Here’s what the process looks like.
First prepare the pot and fill it with a mound of kanuma.
The mound of kanuma in the pot
Once the pot is ready, we can start on the roots.
Holding the tree root-side up
After sprinkling fine soil over the roots
After pouring fine kanuma over the roots, use a chopstick to incorporate the soil into the gaps under the trunk.
Using a chopstick to work the soil into the roots
To keep the soil in place, spray water on the soil.
Spraying the soil to keep it in place
Repeat the process until the gaps are filled.
Sprinkling more soil over the roots
More chopstick work
Ready to go in the pot
After working the soil between the roots, flip the tree onto the mound of kanuma.
Ready to put the tree into the pot
After flipping the tree into the pot
The next step is setting the tree by turning if from side to side until it sits at the appropriate depth.
Setting the tree
After setting the tree
Once the tree is set, tie it in place and add kanuma to cover the roots. Using a chopstick, incorporate the soil between the roots to make sure there are no air gaps.
Filling holes with soil
This step can take a while when there are lots of nooks and crannies to fill. If the soil settles a lot during this step, re-fill the pot and repeat the process.
After adding more soil for a second round of chopstick work
Chopstick work complete
Once the chopstick work is complete, fill the pot just below the rim with kanuma.
After filling the pot
A layer of mountain moss can preserve moisture near the surface of the soil.
After adding a layer of mountain moss
Repotting complete – 6″ tall
The same process applies to any field-grown trees that have been bare-rooted. In the case of bare-rooted azaleas, sheltering the trees from wind or cold can help them recover from this work.
Preventing air pockets under the trunk – repotting satsuki azalea
The post Working soil into the roots below the trunk – repotting field-grown satsuki appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Here’s an example of an exposed root azalea that has been bare-rooted.
Exposed root ‘Korin’ satsuki azalea – 19″ from top to bottom
These trees can be tricky to repot as they lack a solid rootball to tie down.
Exposed roots
One of the best ways to secure trees with good roots but no rootball is with a chopstick. After fitting a chopstick through solid roots, we now have a good way to tie the tree into the pot.
Chopstick for securing the tree into the pot
This approach to repotting is fast and can save on wire as the tie-down wires only need to be long enough to cross over the chopstick.
Wire securing the chopstick
After securing the tree
I potted the tree toward the bottom of the pot to make sure all of the fine roots were covered.
Fine roots covered with soil
Here’s the tree after repotting.
Repotting complete
Have other suggestions for repotting exposed root azaleas that have been bare-rooted? Share them below!
The post Repotting exposed root satsuki azalea bonsai appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
I sometimes come across satsuki azaleas of unknown varieties. Although it’s nice to know what the flowers will look like, it can be fun to wait and see what colors show up in spring when the tree blooms.
Young satsuki azalea
In the meantime, I can make rudimentary assumptions about the flowers based on the foliage. Green leaves typically indicate white or pale pink flowers while red leaves indicate pink or red flowers. Striped or spotted leaves indicate striped or spotted flower petals.
Red and green striped foliage
Sometimes different parts of the same tree will produce different color flowers. I expect the azalea below to have darker flowers toward the apex and on the right side. I expect lighter colored flowers on the lower branches.
Young satsuki with red and green foliage
Green leaves
Red leaves
I’ll wait until the flowers open before making a guess about the variety, but with so many varieties to choose from, I don’t have any expectations about whether or not I can identify the flowers.
The post Determining flower color by looking at the foliage – satsuki azalea appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
The basic approach to developing material for bonsai is to first create the trunk and then focus on the branches. In between these two stages, it’s common to split the focus between the trunk and the branches.
When focusing on the branches, the idea is to slow the tree down to produce fine growth. When focusing on the trunk, the goal is to get as much growth as quickly as possible.
When aiming for both on the same tree, it’s common for the future branches to become weak, especially if they’re located below vigorous sacrifice branches. Here’s an example of this.
Root over rock black pine with a strong sacrifice branch
The future tree will be relatively small. To improve the ramification on the future primary branches, I decandled the lower part of the tree last June. The summer buds that resulted were very small.
Weak summer growth on the future primary branches
Part of this is due to a cold summer. When summer temps are low, budding after decandling is weak. The bigger problem is that the sacrifice branch is too large in relation to the decandled branches.
Vigorous growth on the sacrifice branch
When a tree is partially decandled, the decandled branches slow down and the remaining branches gain vigor. When the decandled branches are weak to start with, then get even weaker. That was the situation with this tree.
The solution is to cut back the sacrifice branch.
After reducing the sacrifice branch
If I had made these cuts when I decandled the tree last year, I could have expected better summer growth on the lower branches. This year I’ll skip decandling the lower branches, and I might even decandle the sacrifice branch to encourage the tree to produce more vigorous growth below.
Why keep the sacrifice branch at all? The main reason is to heal a large wound left after removing a previous sacrifice branch. Once this wound closes, I’ll remove the current sacrifice branch and focus on developing the remaining branches.
Wound created by removing a large sacrifice branch
The post Bonsai Development Series #13: Balancing vigor appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
After removing a large branch, you might find that the callus doesn’t form evenly around the wound. The best way to fix this is to reopen the wound. Here’s an example of a wound created one year ago after removing a large branch on a black pine.
Old wound on Japanese black pine
The top half of the wound is healing well but the bottom half has died back a bit.
Good callus formation on the top half of the wound
No callus
To encourage callus to form, I use a chisel, knife and knob cutter to carve away deadwood until I see signs of live wood. In this case, the live wood is yellow and white.
Live wood
Once I find the live wood, I expose a small amount of it all the way around the cut. The less that gets exposed, the better.
After reopening the wound
To keep the wound from drying out, I apply cut paste.
After applying cut paste
That’s it for now. I plan repeat the process next year as I expect the wound will close in about two years at the current rate.
The post Reopening an old wound to promote callus formation appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Not all sacrifice branches need to be big. Small sacrifice branches are a good way to thicken the trunk and close wounds on trees even when most of the branch work is complete. Here’s an example.
Shohin black pine – 7″ (16″ with sacrifice branch)
The tree above is fifteen years old from seed. I’d like for the upper section of the trunk to thicken so I let a branch grow freely for the past two years while decandling the other branches on the tree.
The lower part of the trunk
The slender section of the trunk
I plan to remove the sacrifice branch next year. This will give it time to thicken the upper section of the trunk, help close a large wound on the back of the tree, and give the branches that will form the future apex more time to develop before I make the cut.
Large wound on the back of the tree
Options for the future apex
Here’s another example. The tree is the same age but I started decandling later to give the trunk more time to thicken.
Japanese black pine – 22″
Like the previous tree, this tree makes a big jump in taper from the lower part of the trunk to the upper section. Because I like trees with more gradual transitions of taper, I’m using the sacrifice to thicken the upper part of the trunk.
The slender, upper section of the trunk
I plan to leave the current sacrifice branch in place for one year, at which point I’ll likely transition to a new apex and let a new sacrifice branch run for a few years. In the meantime, I’ll continue to work on the branches by decandling.
Location of the next large cut
Potential future apex
The large wound on the back of this tree has almost closed, so the primary benefit of the sacrifice branch will be to thicken the top section of the trunk.
Callus forming over a large wound
Neither tree needs large sacrifice branches at this point so I expect the wounds they leave behind when they are removed will close in two to three years.
The post Bonsai Development Series #14: Sacrifice branches – the last mile appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
It didn’t take long for new buds to appear after dramatically pruning some coast live oaks last month (see Oaks for details). Here’s a photo of new bud development ten days after cutback.
Signs of new growth on Coast live oak – 8″
Close up of new buds
When new buds appear in places where they’re not wanted, it’s best to remove them sooner rather than later to prevent more callus from forming on the trunk (more on this here).
I didn’t get to this fast enough this year – here’s the same oak one month after cutback.
One month after cutback – lots of new growth
The longest shoots are the ones that first emerged on the lower half of the trunk – the one spot where I don’t want new shoots. The buds that I want are higher up on the top half of the tree.
Buds forming along a branch collar
New growth on the top half of the tree
I removed the shoots on the lower section of the trunk with scissors and left most of the upper shoots alone. I’ll check the tree again in a few weeks and remove any new shoots that appear on the lower part of the tree.
After removing lower shoots
The post Reducing branches on coast live oak – follow-up appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Two years ago a coast live oak I’d been fond of for many years came into my collection.
Coast live oak – January 2017
I’d enjoyed watching the tree develop over the years and was looking forward to working on it. Before getting started, however, I repotted the tree to get a look at the roots. What I found surprised me.
As I pulled the tree out of the pot, half of the soil fell away. It turned out there was dieback on the left side of the trunk – the side where many of the roots originated. I potted the tree carefully and waited to see what would happen.
Dieback on the left side
The live half of the trunk
Very little, if any, new growth appeared that year. I watered only when the soil was dry, which was sometimes every 1-2 weeks.
Last year, a small amount of new growth appeared. I continued watering only when the tree was dry, but the tree was beginning to dry out faster and faster so I knew that the roots were active.
The tree is now sending out new growth again, as well as some flowers. Here’s how it looks today.
Coast live oak – 17″
Male flowers
The spotted, yellow, leaves are the last remaining leaves that grew in 2016. The spots reveal signs of fungal damage commonly found on otherwise healthy oaks in the area. I have yet to identify the culprit.
2016 foliage showing fungal damage
The strongest branches now have up to a dozen leaves from last year and another handful of leaves that are emerging now.
2018 and 2019 foliage
This isn’t enough new growth to indicate that it’s time to work on the tree. Especially since much of last year’s foliage shows signs of hail damage from a spring storm last year.
2018 foliage – grey spots indicate hail damage
I’m not sure what led to the initial dieback of the roots. I suspect that several factors contributed which is why I’m taking a conservative approach – no pruning, careful watering, and a generous-sized pot.
I expect it will be time to repot again in another year or two. Once I can establish that there are lots of healthy roots and I see signs of more vigorous growth, I’ll get back to the process of refining the branches.
The post Rehabilitating a Coast live oak appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Instead of sharing photos of the different pots I tried out for a Western juniper, I thought I’d cut to the chase and show the final selection.
Western juniper – 24″
After setting the tree in six different containers, I found that none provided additional interest to the composition. I had a few lava rocks in the garden so I tried them out. One turned out to be the right size for the tree.
View from the right side
The selection of a stone for the tree was somewhat ironic as I’d spent eight years working on the roots to develop a rootball that let me plant the tree in the center of a round pot (see “Finding the center” for details).
The repotting itself was relatively straightforward. I used one natural hole in the stone and drilled two additional holes for drainage and to anchor the tie-down wires. I used three pieces of galvanized steel wire to secure the tree in place and used a mix of equal parts pumice and akadama.
After securing the tree, I applied a layer of akadama and white sphagnum moss above the rootball to retain extra moisture and to help hold the moss in place.
The stone from the front
From the back side
I haven’t worked on the top of the tree in several years as I’ve been waiting for the branches to lengthen as this will provide more opportunities for styling. In the meantime, I’ve found that this tree develops the most dense foliage of any juniper in my garden with no prompting whatsoever on my part.
Dense Western juniper foliage
I’ll look to thin the foliage later this year and maybe style the tree towards the end of the growing season. In the meantime, I’ll work on watering the tree properly in its new home.
Finding the center – moving a Western juniper to the middle of the pot
The post Western juniper on a rock appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Last year I wired and repotted a group of crabapples from 2″ pots to 4″ pots. As the shapes of the lower trunks are set, the goal this year is to thicken the trunks. To facilitate this, I’ve left last year’s sacrifice branches in place and moved the trees into one gallon cans.
Young crabapple in one gallon can
The three sacrifice branches will help thicken the trunk and produce taper. The branch rising straight up will thicken the lower part of the trunk, the sacrifice branch to its right will thicken the top part of the trunk, and the branch growing to the right will thicken the middle part of the trunk.
Future trunk with sacrifice branches
Using multiple sacrifice branches produces taper as the lowest section of the trunk benefits from all three sacrifice branches, the middle section benefits from two sacrifice branches, and the top section of the trunk benefits from the uppermost sacrifice branch.
Crabapple flowers
I’ve really fallen for this species as the flowers are beautiful – a mix of deep pink, pale pink, and white with yellow anthers (the flower parts that distribute pollen at the end of the filaments).
I’ll revisit these trees in May or June and consider wiring new shoots to refine or extend the line of the trunk.
The post Crabapple update – focus on developing the trunk appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
If you’ve been to a bonsai exhibit in Japan or flipped though a Japanese exhibit book, you’ve likely seen accent plants featuring pyrrosia, an epiphytic fern.
Accent featuring pyrrosia at the 2011 Gomangoku exhibition in Okazaki, Japan
Although there are close to one hundred species of pyrrosia, many used for bonsai are cultivars of Pyrrosia lingua or tongue fern (hitotsuba in Japanese).
Young Pyrrosia lingua
The species gets its name from its tongue-shaped leaves.
P. lingua foliage
I’m not sure if the above sample is the straight species or if it’s a cultivar as it can be hard to tell one pyrrosia from another due to considerable variation from plant to plant.
Fortunately, pyrrosia are easy, if slow, to propagate by division. Shortly after dividing a clump, miniature leaves emerge signaling that the division has rooted.
New leaves
Two of my favorite pyrrosia featured curled and crenulated foliage. The first is a version of P. lingua known as crested pyrrosia (shishihitotsuba in Japanese).
P. lingua f. cristata
The leaves of this pyrrosia are interesting as they both divide and curl near the end of the leaf.
Foliage detail
Another favorite is P. lingua var. ‘Eboshi.’ I believe this fern gets its name from the man of war jellyfish.
P. lingua var. ‘Eboshi’
Like many pyrrosia, the leaves are green on the upper surfaces and tan or silver below.
The upper surface is green
The underside of the leaves are tan or silver
New leaves can have a yellow cast
Closely related to the tongue fern is Pyrrosia polydactyla. Polydactyly refers to the condition of having excess fingers or toes – the lobes, in this case, into which the fern’s leaves divide.
Pyrrosia polydactyla
P. polydactyla foliage
I’ve found pyrrosia to be easy to grow. They aren’t picky about soil, though keeping them too wet can cause problems. They don’t require a lot of light and get sunburned in full sun.
The above species are just a small sample of pyrrosia that work well as accent plants. If you have other suggestions – or corrections about any of the names above – feel free to let us know in the comments.
The Pacific Bonsai Museum’s LAB (Living Art of Bonsai) project is a four-part, multiyear-long experiment investigating the influence of inspired architectural settings and the effect of re-sequencing the art of bonsai in a collaborative environment. In short, it’s an opportunity to see what happens when one starts a bonsai composition with the pot or stand rather than starting with the styling of a tree.
Session one was held last August (see highlight video below). The second session will be held this Saturday, April 6th. To learn more about the project featuring Ron Lang, Austin Heitzman, Ryan Neil, and Aarin Packard, or to watch it live, click here.
The post Accent plants: Pyrrosia ferns appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
It’s fun to see new shoots elongating on black and red pines this time of year. The light colored growth makes a nice contrast against the darker green foliage from the previous year and the length of the shoots are a good measure of the tree’s health.
Spring growth on a black pine group planting
Because pines grow so quickly this time of year, it’s not uncommon for the new shoots, or candles, to wilt a little. This can happen even when a tree has adequate water.
Wilted foliage
Whenever I see subtle wilting, I double check to make sure the trees have enough water. If the wilt is more pronounced, I know the tree is dry. When this happens, I’ll water several times in a row and then return to the tree after 30-60 minutes and water a few more times.
I was surprised, earlier this week, to see so much wilt on the pine below after a rainy day.
Wilted red pine
The old soil had remained dry despite the rain which caused the new shoots to wilt. The tree recovered after several waterings but it was a good reminder that bonsai can need watering on rainy days too!
The post Watch out for wilting candles on young pines appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
One of the more fun parts of developing exposed root pines is adding movement to the roots. If you use a columnar container for the roots, the roots will grow in the shape of the column.
Exposed root red pine
It’s easy to add character to the shape of the roots as long as they haven’t thickened too much. The first step is removing the container.
Removing the container holding the roots
Column of roots
Before bending the roots, I like getting a better idea of what they actually look like. I use a pick to pluck out the particles of pumice around which the roots have been growing.
Removing pumice with a pick
After removing some of the pumice
After cleaning out the pumice between the roots
Although the number and distribution of roots is nice, the paths they follow can be improved. By bending some roots that form a ninety degree angle, I can create some taper near the top of the root mass.
Awkward bend on the right side of the root mass
After reducing the awkward angle with wire
Another way to add interest is to twist the root mass.
The roots are relatively straight
After twisting the roots counter-clockwise
At this stage of development, there are no right or wrong ways to go about improving the roots. The main goal is to add as much interest as possible.
After making a few more adjustments
The resulting shape isn’t necessarily the final shape the roots will take as there will be opportunities to further bend the roots in the future. For now I want the roots to continue to thicken for another one to two years and then see what happens.
To protect some of the smaller roots that I exposed, I built a cylinder with drainage screen that will hold 5/16″ pumice. The particle size is too large to encourage new fine roots to develop but will be small enough to provide additional moisture and insulation for the more tender roots.
Drainage screen
After adding pumice around the roots
It’s obvious from the change in the angle that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to the branches. It’s hard to know exactly how to set the branches until the final angle of the roots is set so I’ve been focusing on creating branch density as this will provide options for styling down the road.
I took similar approaches with a number of young exposed root pines this year. Here are some examples (thanks to Max for doing most of the work on these!)
An exposed root black pine after twisting the roots
An exposed root black pine after rearranging the roots
An exposed root black pine after bending the roots
I plan to prune these trees in the next few months, but will let them grow freely for the time being to encourage the roots to thicken as much as possible.
The Houston Bonsai Society and the American Bonsai Society will host Bonsai on the Bayou in Houston, Texas this Thursday through Sunday. The event will feature an exhibit, workshops, vendors area, raffles, live and silent auctions, and demonstrations from headliners Boon Manakitivipart, Ryan Neil, and Enrique Castaño de la Serna.
I’ll be vending at the event and leading a workshop on shohin red pine bonsai. Learn more or register online here.
In the meantime, check out Pete Parker’s introduction to bonsai on Houston’s KPRC 2.
Hope to see you there!
The post Refining the roots on an exposed root pine appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Just over a year ago, I reworked an exposed root black pine and started thinking about what kind of pot it could go in (see “Refining a young exposed root pine“).
Exposed root black pine – December 2017
Last month I took the tree out of the pot, did some root work, and started looking for pots into which I could plant it. After an exhaustive search around my garden, I realized that I have very few pots for kifu-sized trees.
Kifu bonsai (20cm – 30cm) is a subcategory of chuhin bonsai (20cm – 45cm) that’s just bigger than shohin (up to 20cm). This tree is 28cm tall. I have a number of shohin-sized pots and plenty of larger medium-sized pots, but very few in between sizes. Specifically, I had one.
Fortunately, it was an OK match for the tree.
Black pine after repotting – 11″
The tree is now fifteen years old and maybe one or two years away from having a more mature outline. I’ll plan to rework the foliage again this coming fall or winter. In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for more kifu-sized pots.
The post New pot for an exposed root black pine appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.
Last weekend the American Bonsai Society held their 2019 Convention in Houston, Texas. Hosted by the Houston Bonsai Society, the event featured an awesome program of workshops, demonstrations, lectures, and artist spotlights.
The convention exhibit included bonsai, suiseki, and kusamono displays. Headliners Enrique Castano de la Serna, Boon Manakitivipart, and Ryan Neil selected the prize-winning entries in accordance with the Lone Star Bonsai Federation’s Excellence in Bonsai program.
Here are the prize-winning trees.
Texas cedar elm – Best in Show and Best Deciduous
Japanese black pine – Best Conifer
Texas cedar elm – People’s Choice
Burtt Davy ficus – Best Tropical
Cuban laurel fig – Honorable Mention, Tropical
Bald cypress – Best Texas Native and John Y. Naka Award (ABS)
Boxwood – Best Broadleaf Evergreen
Willow leaf ficus – Best Shohin Tree
Black pine, Korean hornbeam, trident maple, white pine – Best Shohin Display
Itoigawa shimpaku, pyracantha ‘Santa Cruz’, Green Island Ficus, Chinese elm, satsuki azalea ‘Chinzan’, tiger bark ficus
Honorable Mention, Shohin Display
The post Prize-winning Bonsai at Bonsai on the Bayou: An American Bonsai Summit appeared first on Bonsai Tonight.