Eye Popping Color, Some Spring Shows with a Northern California Bias & Boreal Bonsai 3/8/13

Great tree, great pot. It belongs to Wolfgang Putz. The pot is by Ingrid Kralovec. At the risk of stating the obvious, I’ll venture that it’s the eye popping color, the muscular well-gnarled lower trunk and the soft glow of the pot that caught your eye (in exactly that order no less). The tree is a Korean hornbeam. The botanical name is Carpinus turczaninowii (though you’ll sometimes see them referred to as Carpinus coreana).

So many shows, so little… time, money, get up and go?. Though we just did a post about some upcoming bonsai shows, I’ve decided to follow up with another because we missed so many. This time, we’re focusing on spring shows only. We know we’ve missed more than we’ve found, so don’t hesitate to put yours in the comments below and, if it’s not too late, we’ll feature it next time.

We’ve also sprinkled in a few trees for your viewing pleasure.

 

Better hurry if you want to make this one.

 

This looks like a good one and you’ve got just enough time to plan your trip.

 

Boreal Bonsai. This White cedar (Thuja occidentalis) belongs to Paul Chong of the Toronto Bonsai Society and the Lakeshore Bonsai blog. White cedars grace much of northern Vermont, including right here on my land. Unfortunately, the best ones for bonsai are usually found further north and west in Ontario, along the escarpments or near the northern tree line, where sparse rocky soil and nasty cold winds provide just the right degrees of difficulty for spectacular yamadori (bonsai collected from the wild) like this one.

For the three or four of us who are interested in such things. Thuja occidentalis must have more common names (in English at least) than almost any other tree species on this planet. Four of the most common common (ha!) names are Northern white cedar, Eastern white cedar, Atlantic white cedar and Arborvitae.

 

I know that so far this looks like a Northern California bias, but it’s really just a coincidence, even though I’m a born and raised native. Anyway, enough about me, let’s talk about Michael Hagedorn who happens to be one of our most gifted and accomplished bonsai artists. Go if you can. You’ll be happy you did.

 

Just west of Northern California. Do you have a hankering to view masterpiece bonsai against more exotic backdrops?  If you can pull yourself off the couch, there’s still time. BTW: the dates are April 21-28.

 

Just east of Northern California at the lovely Atlanta Botanical Garden. This should be a good time to visit Atlanta and maybe take a little tour of the old (and new) South while you’re at it. Here’s your link.

 

And just a little north of Atlanta along the rocky shores of Maine, you can visit Colin for a spot of tea and a little bonsai education.

 

This White cedar seems like it’s getting ready to go somewhere. The Lakeshore Bonsai caption just says by David J. Nice tree anyway.