Mahogany Row Studio

BCI 2009 Survivors of the Storm

Posted by Rob Kempinski on Jun 24 2009

The Bonsai Clubs International (BCI) held their annual convention in New Orleans, Louisiana this past weekend. BCI selected the Big Easy to try in a small way to help the city recover from the aftermath of the terrible hurricane that assaulted the city several years ago.

The show was held at the New Orleans City Botanical Garden. After the storm there was 8 feet of water on top of the garden. It has recovered well but not without a lot of hard work by the citizens of New Orleans. As you can tell from the photos the exhibit was outdoors, meaning we didn’t use the normal Asian style stands. In fact, the display was as if a museum were showing the trees and frankly I liked it. The few trees without a wall behind them were a bit difficult to photograph but then that is the advantage of attending the show in person.

The theme was “Survivors of the Storm.” Unfortunately most of the New Orleans club members bonsai trees were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. There was one survivor, a buttonwood by Jim Osborne. The story is incredible and touching. Prior to the storm’s arrival he put all his trees inside his house. Then he evacuated as ordered by the local government. He couldn’t return for many days, and he hated to think how his trees would have been slowly dying inside his house. When he did return home- his house was damaged extensively. In one spot, a tree smashed through his roof of his laundry room and opened the roof to the elements. There water and sun was able to reach his buttonwood and it survived the ordeal (unlike his other trees in different rooms). So thanks to Jim for sharing this incredible story and for sharing his nice buttonwood with us.

Here is a Indian Laurel Fig (Ficus Microcarpa) I brought to the show in Ed Trout’s van (long story).
Due to my travel schedule I really wasn’t able to prepare the tree as well as I would have liked, but the show needed trees from out of town as most of the New Orleans bonsai trees were destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Sadly I met several Great New Orleans Bonsai members who no longer do bonsai due to having their trees lost in the storm.

A nice Twin Trunk Bald Cyprss by Ed Lippencott of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

Ed Trout and I drove together in his van. Ed brought several south Florida trees to the show. Here is his Florida Elm.

Here is a Japanese Black Pine originally grown by Florida’s father of bonsai, Joe Samuels, and now owned by Ed Trout.
Joe started this tree in a metal pail back in 1960.

Northwest Florida master and one time holder of many bonsai offices, Jean Smith, who passed away a few months ago, developed this beautiful Jaboticaba. It is now maintained by Lynn Fabian. Beautiful feminine style.

Here is Louisiana’s own, Guy Guidry’s Bald Cypress named “Twister.” The photo is a bit hazy as my camera lens had fogged due to the humidity. I thought I deleted the blurry shot but guess not. This tree won the BCI Excellence Award. It is huge.

Guy also displayed this cascade Hackberry. Both the Hackberry and Twister were at the US National Exhibition last fall.

Ed Trout also delivered Charles Mickelson’s, President of the Bonsai Societies of Florida, Brazilian Rain Tree to the show. This was nursery grown from a cutting.

This nice Japanese Black Pine belongs to Guy Guidry. I believe this was field grown in the Maryland area for several years before making its way to Louisiana.

The photograph does not do justice to this Parsonii Juniper by Glen Hilton of Miami Florida. It was a fairly large tree and nicely styled.

When the call went out for out -of-state trees, Russell Coker and Joe Day of Mobile Alabama, responded. They drove a few trees over for the display although they didn’t stay for the actual convention. Here is Russel’s unusual Gingko. It had a bulbous base and several tall skinny shoots – an interesting design. Nice pot too.

Russell also brought along a windswept Boxwood. I believe Joe Day made the slab.

This Cedar Elm by Russell Coker looked good. Russell said he collected this Cedar Elm at the same time he collected the large Cedar Elm in my collection.
Small world!

Anyone who has visited the Gulf Coast of the USA would have seen the large Live Oaks that grow there. Joe Dey is trying to recreate bonsai versions of these trees. He says he has identified at least 6 different live oak styles. This Boxwood is reproducing one of them.

And here is a full size Live Oak on the grounds of the Garden (at least part of the tree.)

This American Hornbeamm came from Alabama – I believe it belongs to Joe Day.

Cedar Elms seemed to be the tree of the day. Here was another by Ed Lippencott of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

While he was at it, Ed brought along this Hackberry (not sure of the variety.) This tree was in the Walt Disney World show several years ago.

Speaking of Cedar Elms, Alan Walker, former President of BCI, displayed this collected tree in a beautiful pot by Horst Heinzreitler of Austria.

I’ll try to post more images later. Enjoy.