The Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai, or BASA, hosted their 17th annual exhibit on June 11-12, 2011, at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California. Despite the late season exhibit date, most of the satsuki were in full bloom.

Satsuki azalea – Miyako

BASA encourages all of its members to show at least one tree in the exhibit. The material reflects this, ranging from starter bonsai to trees like the large Nyohozan below.

Nyohozan

Nyohozan flowers

Trunk detail

Some of the tree were covered in blossoms. Satsuki are special because many varieties can produce different blossoms on the same tree.

Peach-colored blossoms – Yama-no-Hikari

White blossoms – Yama-no-Hikari

Peach blossoms with stripe – Yama-no-Hikari

Yama-no-Hikari

Rick Garcia of the North American Satsuki Bonsai Center provided an extended demonstration and generously answered all questions.

Wiring the demo tree

Late spring is a great time to remove all blossoms, cut back new growth, and wire young branches. I’ll bet most of these trees will get this treatment within the next couple weeks.