I had the opportunity to visit and volunteer at the exhibit hall during the convention. I did have the pleasure of meeting some familar faces. The format was informal with pedestal in the middle of the room.
Photo by Colin Fraser
A panoramic photo of the bonsai exhibit hall.
Brazilian Pepper - Steve Valentine
Totally unique tree. I have never seen any type of pepper tree in a show before. The tree is powerful and has a ton of movement. The compound leave structure causes some difficulty making a formalized padded branches, but what Steve has done this tree is fanastic!
Brazilian Pepper - Up close bark
California Live Oak - Al Nelson
I got lucky and the owner was in the room while I was taking a photo so I asked Al if he would pose for me.
Sierra Juniper - Dan Robinson
I have seen this tree on the net for awhile now. It is truly amazing to see a tree styled in a naturalistic form. It makes so much sense with how the tree presents itself than with padded out branches.
California Juniper - Takashi Shimazu
This California Juniper is amazing! The deadwood is superb and the movement of the deadwood is classic California Juniper. What push this tree to be awesome is the grafted Itoigawa Shimpaku foliage onto a single live vein. This tree has been development for a long time.
Chinese Elm - Huntington Garden Collection
Itoigawa Shimpaku Juniper - Jim Gremel
Jim Gremel produces these trees from cuttings and puts major bends into the trunks has he field grows them. You can tell from the branch structure this tree has been in development for years.
Procumbens Nana Juniper - Clark Bonsai Collection
Willowleaf Fig - Ted Matson
I found Ted walking around and he tried to hide from my camera behind his own tree. Too bad the tree isn't that large Ted!
California Juniper - Tom Vuong
Big Joe was my back drop person for the photo opportunity. No the tree did not have legs to run away.
As you can tell I was not the only person asking for a back drop for the trees in the center of the room. This man is holding his wife's black velet jacket here!
California Juniper - Huntington Bonsai Collection
A photo of Kathy Benson Exhibit Co-Chair and Jim Folsom Director of Huntington Biological Gardens. Only person that I keep missing in action is Ann Erb also Exhibit Co-Chair. You ladies did an awesome job on putting everything together!