Bill Valavanis took this photo at the 45th Gafu Ten Shohin Bonsai Exhibition. Bill is a very busy man who provides an endless photographic stream of some of the world's best bonsai. Many are from Japan, including the ones shown here. Because it's impossible for him to do everything, some photos are without captions, including this one. So we'll leave it at that

Today's photos are from the recent 45th Gafu Ten Shohin Bonsai Exhibition in Kyoto, Japan. According to Bill Valavanis, who took all the photos shown here, Gafu Ten is the highest level small bonsai expo

Because Bill posted well over a hundred photos at Gafu Ten, I've decided to narrow things way down and focus on some that combine great trees with colorful pots. We might show some others later

A yellow to end all yellows. The tree looks like a flowering quince

 
Bill identified this one as a Crepe myrtle 

It takes a strong tree to hold its own in such a brilliant pot

Though there's no caption with this one, the fruit looks suspiciously like kumquat 

Though there are several shown here, bright yellow bonsai pots are not all that common.
The tree is a Rough bark privet

Must be a quince. Red like yellow, is not that common when it comes to bonsai pots

Serissa!!
The two exclamation points are straight from Bill 
Must be because Serissa aren't all that common in Japan 
You see them sometimes sold as indoor bonsai in here in the States,
but they're not that easy to grown and are prone to mites and other problems 

A pot with a story! Here's what Bill wrote about it...
"The 15th bonsai container competition included entries from France, Germany, Australia as well as the United States by Stacy Allen Muse and Roy Minarai. All the containers were beautiful and some were quite unique in shape as well as glazes. One of my favorite containers in the competition was a red container featuring a floral applique by Roy Minarai from South Carolina. I was at the set-up and judging and carefully looked at all the containers. Roy’s beautiful container had the top left of one flower petal broken off! I immediately phoned and facetimed Roy to show him the flaw. He was quite disappointed and I offered to darken the light-colored area with a black magic marker to disguise the break. Roy watched me from South Carolina as I painted the broken area. A couple of hours later as I was leaving the exhibition for the day I stopped to see his container. Someone found the broken flower petal and glued it back onto the container!"

To enjoy more of Bill Valavanis' endless stream of great bonsai photos, you can visit his blog here

Time to start making your plans. Here's your link to Bill's website where you'll find what you need to know. We'll see you there!