This twisty bunjin style collected Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) shows what can happen when a tenacious tree hangs onto a Florida shoreline that is ravaged by repeated tropical storms and occasional hurricanes. It belongs to Doug Hawley who has been refining this tree for about ten years (this was written in 2009). Height 28" Pot by Sara Rayner
To whet your bonsai appetites, I’ve decided to devote all our posts between now the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition to North American Bonsai
We’ll start with three photos which were originally from a book titled North American Bonsai* (out of print), that we originally featured in a post by the same name. The date was February 2nd, 2009. A mere 14 days after our first post, Welcome to Bonsai Bark
But first… what if you woke up on September 8th and realized that you are nowhere near Rochester and the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition? Ugly eh? However, there is a simple solution… it’s not too late to make you plans. You’ll thank me for the reminder, and we’ll all thank Bill Valavanis and all the other dedicated folks, who made it happen.
Continued below…
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This old Sierra Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) with it's super shari, belongs to John Romano. Height 42"
Continued from above…
In addition to the spectacular bonsai a the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition, there’s those other compelling reasons (from the title above)… connecting and reconnecting with your fellow bonsai artist and lovers (bonsai lovers!), the demos (more on these soon), the valuable trees and bonsai necessities offered by all the hard working vendors (visit our Stone Lantern booth and tell us you read this far, and we’ll give you a gift). There’s more, but we’ll leave the rest to your imagination
Here's a great old yamadori that will knock you socks off (well, mine at least) when you realize that it's an Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus). They are the dominant tree in much of the northeastern US and eastern Canada, and yet, I've never seen a real quality Eastern White Pine bonsai until now (this is still the case almost ten years after I wrote this), as their largish needles, long internodes and upright growth habit makes good bonsai stock extremely rare. The tree belongs to Martin Schmalenberg. Height 42"
*North American Bonsai was published by the American Bonsai Society and compiled and edited by Martin Schmalenberg
