• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Conifers at the Pacific Bonsai Expo

December 9, 2022 by Jonas Dupuich

If seeing great deciduous bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Expo felt like a treat, seeing the conifers offered a different feeling. It felt like a great opportunity to catch up with trees, and species, that I don’t get to spend a lot of time with.

Hemlock is the first species to come to mind. We struggle to keep hemlocks, mountain or Western, healthy in the Bay Area so they aren’t a common species here (warm winters and hot summers take their toll). Whenever I have the chance, I appreciate the time I get to study them.

It was also fun to see some trees I hadn’t seen in person before, like the fantastic blue atlas cedar by Konnor Jensen below.

Blue atlas cedar

Blue atlas cedar by Konnor Jensen
(Average score: 3.8) Photo courtesy Jeng Fonseca

It’s rare to see well-developed atlas cedars, and really rare to see them clinging to a rock at an improbable angle. This tree was a great addition to the exhibit.

In terms of the scores the conifers received from the judging panel, the main thing that comes to mind is the tension is between the percentage of the score attributable to core characteristics of a tree and the percentage attributable to the work of the artist.

Put another way, how do we score a tree with a great trunk that’s styled poorly against a tree with a so-so trunk that’s styled beautifully?

Although I can’t answer the question with a strict point-value (I can’t say “subtract 1 point for poor wiring” without additional context), I can say that I appreciate conifers that have been bonsai long enough to accrue characteristics that reflect the repeated application of bonsai techniques.

That’s a long way of saying I like conifers that show great age in the trunk and in the branches.

Here are some of the coniferous highlights from the exhibit. All of the trees show great age in the trunks while the branch development varies from tree to tree.

Can I tell whether the scores reflect characteristics inherent to the tree (like the bark or a great trunk-line) or characteristics that developed in the garden (like branch density)? I can’t – but I can say that when trees have both they tend to score well.

Mountain hemlock

Mountain hemlock by Paul Krasner
(Average score: 3.5) Photo courtesy Julian Tsai

California juniper

California juniper by Cholo Lucero
(Average score: 3.2) Photo courtesy Aki Yamakawa

Black pine

Black pine by Scott Elser
(Average score: 4.3) Photo courtesy Julian Tsai

Western hemlock

Western hemlock by Scott Elser
(Average score: 3.8) Photo courtesy Julian Tsai

Sierra juniper

Sierra juniper by Howard Correa
(Average score: 3.9) Photo courtesy Aki Yamakawa

Mountain hemlock

Mountain hemlock by Jason Eider
(Average score: 3.8) Photo courtesy Julian Tsai

Shimpaku

Shimpaku by Boon Manakitivipart
(Average score: 3.7) Photo courtesy Aki Yamakawa

Mountain hemlock

Mountain hemlock by Ken Wassum
(Average score: 3.9) Photo courtesy Aki Yamakawa

Western juniper

Western juniper by Peter Tea
(Average score: 4.0) Photo courtesy Aki Yamakawa

For photos of the award-winning conifers and more info about the judging, see “2022 Award winners” at the Expo website.

✕

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Filed Under: Exhibits Tagged With: Pacific Bonsai Expo

Previous Post: « Deciduous bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Expo
Next Post: Small and medium displays at the Pacific Bonsai Expo »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ryan says

    December 9, 2022 at 6:30 am

    As someone who was supposed to be there and didn’t end up making it, I’m loving these recap posts. Thank you so much!

    Any chance you can show a couple photos of some of the shitakusa and accents that were exhibited?

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      December 11, 2022 at 8:39 pm

      Awesome – happy to hear it Ryan! Will share some of the accents if we can find the photos.

  2. Ian Mc Dougall says

    December 9, 2022 at 8:06 am

    The beauty of Bonsai trees is indeed in the eye of the beholder and the skill of the creator will always be taken into account but judging and giving points to a tree can be difficult. I think if you judge only mechanically by roots, branch structures you might end up with a static tree. I think all of the trees are amazing and the ones that break or bend the rules are the most interesting . I used to judge Bonsai at various shows in Scotland and always found it difficult to end up with an overall winner. Thanks for showing us these wonderful trees.

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      December 11, 2022 at 8:44 pm

      Thanks, Ian! Totally agree about the challenges of judging shows, and interesting that we got different results when we asked different questions. For all trees in the exhibit we asked for a score of 1-5 which yielded different results from when we asked people to nominate trees for the best in show award. I don’t know if there’s a “best” approach but I am happy we tried out more than one approach from which we’ll be learning until the next event!

  3. jean-yves Guilard says

    December 9, 2022 at 9:12 am

    merci pour le partage de sais très beaux arbres

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2023 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT