SANTA MARIA TOWN CENTER BONSAI SHOW

Sunday April 25 the Santa Maria Bonsai Club had our annual Town Center Bonsai Show. These shows provide our club members with an opportunity to share their enthusiasm for the art of bonsai with the community. I believe the show was successful with relatively good attendance and much interest in the displays. There was some serious interests expressed in our club. The following photos are just a small sample of some of the trees on display.
CLICK on any image to enlarge.


Shimpaku cascade


Chinese elm forest


Ficus

Chinese elm forest

Chinese elm informal upright

Foemina juniper forest

****** BONSAI DEMONSTRATION ******

Our bonsai demonstration is always a big draw, and our father and son team did a terrific job. Kanemi and George are both bonsai instructors, and are past and present club presidents.
The tree selected for the demo is a San Jose juniper that had been trained as a vertical topiary with three balls of vegetation.


Kanemi is studying the tree to determine how he will style it.

George is explaining the process and fielding questions from the audience.

Here Kanemi forms new apex for tree. The top of the tree has been striped of bark and tapered to form a jin. This makes the tree appear more tapered and makes it look much older.

Here he has wired the major branches to allow the branch direction to be modified.

Now the roots get pruned. You should remove approximately the same percentage of the roots as the percentage of top growth you have removed.

Finally the tree is potted.