This Trident maple in its coat of many colors belongs to Tobie Kleyhans.

One of the great perks of this job is the happy accident. Today’s is the discovery of Tobie Kleyhans’ bonsai. Tobie lives in South Africa and here’s something from his  facebook timeline that I like … “Celebrating 20 happy bonsai years! I started this fascinating hobby during the first week of March 1998 and since then had heaps of fun, met the most wonderful people and encountered truly remarkable trees. Here are some of my favourite trees. Maybe not the best in the world, but I love them all.“

Boug (aka Bougainvillea glabra)

Black monkey thorn (Acacia burkei). I like the rugged bark and simple lines, but I can't tell what that is around the base of the trunk. Any ideas?

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Without making too big a fuss, this Blaauw juniper (Juniperus chinensis blaauw) raft is natural, uncontrived and perfectly in scale. Nice pot too.

Here's another one I like. It's a Juniperus virginiana, one of our North American junipers. We usually call it Eastern red cedar (it's still a juniper, not a cedar; common names can be a bit confusing). Tobie calls it a Pencil cedar, but no mater what you call it, it's still a juniper