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BABA 32nd Annual Exhibit

March 11, 2014 by Jonas Dupuich

This past weekend the Bay Area Bonsai Associates – better known as BABA – held their 32nd annual exhibit at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California. The exhibit opened on Saturday evening with dinner and a demonstration by satsuki expert Suishou Nakayama. Nakayama worked on several large azaleas that were raffled off while describing his approach to azalea styling and maintenance.

The exhibit itself was great, featuring a variety of bonsai providing evidence that spring is nigh. Of particular note were the exhibit’s many shohin bonsai.

Shohin bonsai

Shohin display

San Jose juniper

San Jose Juniper

Pomegranate

Pomegranate

A friend at the event asked which trees in the exhibit stuck out to me. I answered by pointing to a small black pine nearby. The tree was grown from seedling cutting made 23 years ago. Through the owner’s skill, the tree has developed into one of the better home-grown shohin pines I’ve seen.

Black pine - 23 years old from seedling cutting

23-year old black pine

Another of the owner’s pines sat atop a second shohin stand.

Shohin bonsai

Shohin bonsai

Black pine

Black pine – what a tiny pot!

Deciduous bonsai

Deciduous bonsai

akemi no tsuki

Satsuki azalea – Akemi no tsuki

White pine

White pine

Potentilla

Potentilla

Many of the small and medium sized bonsai in the exhibit lined the walls of the hall.

Medium bonsai displays

Small and medium-sized bonsai

Trident maple

Trident maple

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Ume

Ume

Gooseberry - phyllanthus emblica

Gooseberry

Satsuki azalea

Satsuki azalea

Contorted quince

Contorted quince – tree and pot by Jim Gremel

The exhibit also included a number of suiseki, including a box display featuring small stones.

Suiseki

Small shohin

Suiseki

Figure stone – what do you see?

One of my favorites was a new addition to Kora Dalager’s collection – a stone with two fronts.

Suiseki

Pointing to the left

Suiseki

Pointing to the right

As for the demonstration, Carl Morimoto did an admirable job translating the oftentimes humorous Nakayama. In response to a question about fertilizer, Nakayama answered that he feeds his trees meat, pork bellies and tofu skin. A mix of organic compounds, in other words – a summation made clear by Rick Garcia who helped with the demonstration.

Suisho Nakayama

Suishou Nakayama and Carl Morimoto

✕

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Filed Under: Exhibits Tagged With: BABA

Previous Post: « Shohin pines at Gashou-en
Next Post: Large-sized bonsai from BABA’s 32nd annual exhibit »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dave Martin says

    March 11, 2014 at 8:28 am

    Jonas, thank you for posting these pictures of the BABA exhibit. It is a show I alway look forward to seeing pictures from. The trees are always good quality.

  2. Maria says

    March 11, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    Is this a new trend using red pots for bonsais? I noticed at the show that 2 of the bonsais were shown in red pots.

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      March 11, 2014 at 8:21 pm

      @Maria – good question about the red pots. I don’t know that I’ve noticed a trend – maybe you’re on to something. I’ll pay more attention to this going forward.

  3. brendenstudio says

    March 11, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    Great show! Thanks for sharing!

  4. eloratour says

    March 12, 2014 at 1:00 am

    Love it !
    Beautiful …

  5. Timothy says

    March 13, 2014 at 4:42 am

    I love a tiny pot!

    I quite like the look of trees in very small pots, similar to the pine above.

    Do you have any recommendations about tree and pot sizes? Are there any rules of thumb?

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      March 13, 2014 at 10:56 am

      Super practical question Timothy, thanks. The best guide is a good exhibit book – the Kokufu-ten book, for instance. Show pots tend to be a bit smaller that the pots we want to grow trees in year-round, but it’s a good starting point. I’ll think about whether there are any obvious rules of thumb and keep this in mind for a future topic.

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