Our August exhibit has the longest history, going into its 39th year in 2016. It is one of the largest regional shows in the nation. Centered on the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Permanent Collection, featuring over 50 world-class trees, it’s a showplace of trees from across the Midwest and beyond. Enthusiasts from across the country bring their trees to be judged in the main hall at the Garden’s Regenstein Center – with this year’s guest master Colin Lewis.
The Exhibit was great again this year with many amazing trees. Gary Andes’s three point display with a Trident Maple over a wonderful rock took Best in Show.
Bill Valavanis’s Larch forest took 1st Place in the Professional category.
The other trees were fantastic as well, although my photography is poor due to my lack of photography knowledge and some funny lighting.
A good reminder…
Do this:
Not this:
And when it’s time to thin out a juniper for wiring:
Recently one of our members visited Japan and spent some time in Omiya. There is a great Bonsai Museum here as well as many nurseries. They also visited Bjorn Bjorholm at Kouka-en near Osaka. Another member spent a month apprenticing at Kouka-en as well. For now we will start with Omiya Bonsai Museum and get to the rest later.
This is just a taste of the trees at the museum, there were only certain areas where photos were allowed.
August 14-16, 2015 at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Guest Judge: Ivan Watters
Our August show has the longest history, going into its 38th in 2015. It is one of the largest regional shows in the nation. Centered on the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Permanent Collection, featuring over 50 world-class trees, it’s a showplace of trees from across the Midwest and beyond. Enthusiasts from across the country bring their trees to be judged in the main hall at the Garden’s Regenstein Center – with this year’s guest master David Easterbrook.
Visitors can take advantage of hotel discounts arranged by the Chicago Botanic Garden. When making reservations tell the hotel you are in town to attend an event at the Garden. Suggested hotel accommodations can be found at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s website.
Follow us on Facebook for additional info or visit the website www.midwestbonsai.org
More good news for the Chicago area
A second shipment brought more than 80 new trees to Hidden Gardens in Willowbrook, IL. These trees are collected Engelman spruce, Rocky Mountain junipers, Ponderosa pines, Lodgepole pines and others. Many of outstanding quality for reasonable prices. In addition many Japanese Black Pines, beeches and other broadleaved material arrived. By now there are more than 150 very good trees available in the Chicago area. This is the biggest offer in the Midwest.
International Bonsai Academy in Chicago area in October!
Tuesday, October 6 from 6:00 to 10:00 pm at Hidden gardens we will have a lot of fun together with trees that are there and with threes that you bring
It will be the full Bonsai Academy very similar to what we doing three times a year in Harrisburg, Pa at Nature’s Way Nursery.
Call Jeff for information: 630.655.8283
Hidden Gardens
16W658 Frontage Rd.
Willowbrook, IL 60527
Here are some highlights from our spring show and a few shots of the permanent collection at the Chicago Botanical Garden. This show is all about teaching and learning so there were many more trees in various stages of development and undergoing some radical techniques. Please excuse some of the photo quality, I’m no photographer and some of the lighting was difficult.
There are a lot of things we might say about watering bonsai. I’ve tried a few times on this blog to mention some of them. Some are hard to make sense of in words, but as ever I’m willing to try. This one is about watering recently repotted trees.
At post-repotting time we need to be awake to one change-up, and that is that the interior soil mass (the part that was returned to the pot) may dry out much faster than you’d think.
This pine is beginning to develop a solid mass of soil and roots, and this is the area that we’ll take our moisture ‘read’ from when deciding when to water. When dry, it will look very light colored compared to the surrounding new soil.
If you cut all the fine…
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