The day after this year’s US National Bonsai Exhibition, Bill Valavanis hosted a workshop at his garden, The International Bonsai Arboretum, while volunteers unloaded trucks and visitors (like me) enjoyed the trees! Bill’s garden is one of the must see bonsai gardens in North America, and it’s been among my favorites since I first visited […]
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Making a plan for a new bonsai
Two years ago, I saw a large Yaupon holly available in the vendor’s area at the US National Bonsai Exhibition. I’m a big fan of the species but for some reason I didn’t think about taking it home at the time. Two months ago, I saw the tree again at this year’s National Exhibition. As […]
Preparing for exhibits 12 months out
Roughly a year from now, we’ll be opening the doors for a second Pacific Bonsai Expo. For those who plan to submitting trees to the event, there are a few things to start thinking about now. (We’re working hard, btw, on some of the event basics and plan to share more news soon – stay […]
Preparing an olive for restyling
Three years ago I acquired a large olive that had come from the Blue Oak Nursery collection. Olive, July 2020 Although the tree was in need of styling, I wanted to gauge the health of the tree before proceeding. After letting it grow for a year, I repotted it into a deeper container. After pruning […]
Highlights from the 8th US National Bonsai Exhibition – part 2
One trend stood out clearly at this year’s US National Bonsai Exhibition: the prevalence of North American natives. Despite their growing popularity over the past ten to fifteen years, natives have made up a relatively small portion of the trees at the National Exhibition. This is likely because it takes time to train bonsai to […]