Coast live oak by Greg McDonald of the Sacramento Bonsai Club. If you want to see more detail, check out this larger image.
California dreamin’ but no diggin’
Though I don’t know the history of the oak above, I imagine it was collected in the California Coast Range. California (and most of the West Coast) is blessed with some of the most spectacularly wild mountain ranges anywhere, and these ranges are covered with a multitude of collectable tree species. Enough to boggle even the most jaded tree lover’s mind. This is not to say that I think you should run off to California and start digging. For most of us, this would be a very bad idea.
Bonsai Tonight in Sacramento
All of the photos in this post are from the Sacramento Bonsai Club’s 64th annual Bonsai Show. They were taken by Jonas Dupuich, the brains and brawn behind Bonsai Tonight.
Japanese maple and Japanese black pine. I don’t know who the artist is.
Accent’s accent. Is this an accent plant (Mimosa?) with its own accent plant? Or is it a small bonsai with tiny accent?
Another example of what’s being dug in California. This one’s a California juniper. Though the crown isn’t really show-ready, this is more than compensated for by the trunk’s striking shari. This tree grew somewhere in the very arid mountains of southern California. How many years do you think it took for such a massive trunk to grow and then mostly die and develop into such a spectacular shari? (Or are we being fooled? It has happened before.)
Boston Ivy. Here’s one that wasn’t collected in California.
There’s a lot more where these came from…
More bonsai, more accent plants and even some worthy suiseki.
I love that oak tree. As a former Californian (still a West Coaster), I’d love to see scrolls that evoked nature scenes we’re familiar with here. A scroll that would be great with a Coast Live Oak might have a scrub jay, a soaring turkey vulture, a red-tailed hawk, a raccoon, or clouds shrouding a rounded foothill.
Any scroll-makers out there?
Yeah, well said. As a fellow former (native) Californian, the live oaks speak to me. And I agree, a scroll that picture a natural scenes where you might find an oak would be better than bamboo.
Wayne, the Japanese Black Pine display is Boon’s. John
Thanks John.