Last weekend the Bay Area Bonsai Associates held their 35th annual exhibit at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. Due to a slightly different cast of exhibitors this year, more trees than normal made their BABA debuts, and some of the trees we’d seen before were looking better than ever. Two beautiful examples […]
Exhibits
Exhibits are where we can see bonsai at their best. Explore posts from Bonsai Exhibits in the U.S. including the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition and Japanese events including the world-famous Kokufu and Taikan-ten exhibits.
Medium is the new large
Bay Island Bonsai’s 17th annual exhibit featured small, kifu, and medium-sized bonsai. The larger trees got a break this year. Here, then, are the largest trees on display – the medium-sized bonsai. Black pine White pine Shimpaku grafted on Sierra juniper displayed with Boston Ivy Shimpaku grafted on Sierra juniper – great character Shimpaku saikei Dwarf Sawara cypress […]
Not too big, not too small – Kifu bonsai at BIB exhibit
Kifu bonsai don’t get a lot of attention. They are the trees that are a bit larger than shohin, but shorter than the medium sized bonsai. They are generally between 8 and 12 inches tall. The increased size allows for a bit more character and complexity than shohin trees, but they still work on a […]
Shohin bonsai at BIB’s 17th annual exhibit
The focus of this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit was on smaller trees – shohin, kifu and chuhin, or medium-sized bonsai. This meant a couple of things for members: there would be no lifting of heavy trees (easy), but we’d need far more trees than normal to fill the exhibit hall (tricky). Altogether, BIB members […]
The Artisans Cup Retrospective
Last week, the Artisans Cup launched a novel exhibit retrospective – a multi-media website that lets visitors take a closer look at the exhibited bonsai and hear, in the words of the judges, what makes each composition special. The Artisans Cup The retrospective is available for a $65 membership at the Cup website. Membership includes […]