Bill’s Photos from the Zhongguo Feng Penjing Exhibition

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It's hard to tell how large this tree is, but I'd guess that it's fairly substantial. No matter how large or small, it's a powerful twin trunk juniper with excellent taper, fluid lines and deadwood that's just right (substantial, but not overdone). I borrowed this and the other photos shown here from some shots Bill Valavanis took at the 4th Zhongguo Feng Penjing Exhibition

Just in case you’re wondering, we’re reposting this blog with a different title due to a problem on social media (fb). You can consider it an experiment

Even before Bill Valavanis was inducted into the U.S. Bonsai Hall of Fame (see our post from one week ago), we always tried to keep track of what he was up to. In this case he was taking photos at the recent 4th Zhongguo Feng Penjing Exhibition at the International Garden City in Rugao, China. You can see more bonsai from this exhibition and other exotic and not-so-exotic destinations on Bill’s Welcome to My Bonsai World blog

Continued below…

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Again, it's hard to tell the size, but this one looks very substantial. It reminds me of some of the ancient Bristlecone pines in California's White Mountains

Continued from above…
To quote our famous Mr Valavanis… “I was very pleased to see this exhibition, as it was different from others I’ve seen in China. There were a wide range of different styles and sizes represented which presented an interesting balance, something for everyone. I was told it “almost” represented all the different styles of bonsai in China. Some of the bonsai were huge, while most were of average size. But I believe there were more individual shohin bonsai than larger trees. The only reason I’m in one of the photos is for size comparison, but remember, I’m not that tall. Good things come in small sizes. Compare the prices of small bonsai containers to larger pots”.

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Even without Bill for contrast, there's no denying that this is a big bonsai. Here's what Bill wrote about this photo... "The only reason I’m in one of the photos is for size comparison, but remember, I’m not that tall. Good things come in small sizes"

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This one looks familiar, but Google's image search only turns up Bill's post. Almost looks like a Robert Steven tree...

More from Bill… “As in most of the exhibitions I’ve attended in China, the opening ceremony and first day were extremely crowded and made it difficult to photograph the exhibition. But on the third day one could roll a bowling ball through the exhibition and not hit a single person. On the first day seven busses were necessary to move people from our beautiful and comfortable hotel to the exhibition. On our last day, everyone fit in one bus.”

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