I’ve often heard, and likely repeated, that the most important part of a bonsai is the trunk. An impressive trunk shows character and age. It establishes movement and sets the foundation for whatever style the rest of the tree follows. I would be hard pressed to identify good bonsai with mediocre trunks.
I found myself appreciating the trunks of a number of trees on display at last weekend’s Redwood Empire Bonsai Society’s 30th annual show. REBS is well known for hosting the largest exhibit in Northern California, if not in the entire western US (anyone know of a bigger exhibit?). Such size allows REBS to display trees of many different sizes and varieties.
As you browse the photos of trunks below, see if you can guess the variety, the size, and the style of the bonsai to which they belong. Some varieties are easy to guess, others less so. The size and style of the tree can be trickier. Can you guess them all? Any surprises? Click on the images to see the rest of the tree.
Trunk #1
Trunk #2
Trunk #3
Trunk #4
Trunk #5
Trunk #6
Trunk #7
Trunk #8
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Daniel Dolan says
Jonas:
Great photos………….we just had our exhibit in Chicago, at the Botanic Gardens with Bjorn Bjorholm who was terrific. He spoke about the absolute necessity of completely covering the surface of the soil with moss in preparing the tree for presentation.
I noted that several of the trees you sampled had naturally growing moss and a few with only a small amount of naturally occurring moss at the base of the trunk.
What is the attitude toward this subject in your community and what percentage of the trees had little or no moss in your estimation.
Best regards,
D/D
Chicago.
Dave Martin says
I echo that last comment, Jonas a great post.
Jonas Dupuich says
As I understand it, there’s a convention in Japan that bonsai displayed indoors are displayed with moss covering the surface of the soil. Some clubs in the area try to adhere to this, others don’t. If there’s little or no moss to be found, selected clumps of moss and/or a nice top dressing can improve the look of the display. The main thing is for the tree to look good and for the surface of the soil to not detract from the overall display.
Janet Nelson says
It’s interesting that your selection of trunk photos is entirely of deciduous trees, all of which wonderfully show much age and character.