Yesterday we dropped off trees for the 2010 Walt Disney World EPCOT Flower and Garden show. This is the 15th or 16th year that the Bonsai Societies of Florida and Walt Disney World have jointly arranged this long exhibition. Over a million people see the bonsai trees at the Japan pavilion.

(BTW if you click on a photo and then click again in the new window you will see full size photos.)

Sometimes if feels like we are in Japan.

This has been the coldest winter on record for Florida and yesterday was no exception. In addition the show has started the earliest in the year ever – EPCOT feels it needs to run the show longer to get a better return on its investment. As a result, the selection committee had to limit the tropical trees on display for fear of damage due to a major frost. Nonetheless I submitted an Australian Pine and a Buttonwood figuring they can deal with the March weather. In addition, the committee arranged a person on cold stand by. Disney will provide the person a room at a Disney hotel and they will go to the exhibit and remove the trees and place them in a hotel room for the night if there is a frost warning.

Setting up the display is always a challenge as there are some big trees involved. This year Disney was prepared with two Lull lift trucks.

Here two Bonsai Society of Brevard club members show how life imitates art imitating life by photographing me as I photograph them. Ronn Miller with the camera and Dr Reggie Perdue with two pairs of glovers on.

The Bonsai Society of Brevard had 4 members show tree – Ronn and Reggie, along with me and Gene Callahan.

Disney now coordinates all trees on a trailer in a holding area and then drives the trailer to Japan. It’s easier to cross the Pacific that way The trailer is partially unloaded in this shot.

Jarbas Godoy, of Miami, stands in front of his Aussy Pine prior to placing it on a pedestal.

And here is the tree on a pedestal. The pot is about 40 inches across.

This is a Maphigia from Eric Wigert of Fort Meyers Florida.

Eric also brought this interesting Live Oak bonsai.

I believe this Simpson Stopper was from Mike Rodgers of Deland.

Ronn Miller, Tittusville, displayed this large and old Willow Leaf Ficus.

Mary Madison, Lake Placid, stands near her Gardenia.

This fairly modest Japanese Maple is really a miracle that it lives at all in Florida. I believe it belongs to Mike Rogers of Deland. The cold weather will help it this year.

This Hackberry also by Mike Rodgers can take cold weather but really needs more ramification for a show.

This is an interesting shot where the fine branching and layering of David Thompson’s, Orlando, Japanese Black Pine is mimicked by the large tree and pagoda in the background.

My Buttonwood Tree Spirit went by the restaurant.

My slant Style Aussy Pine was placed in the meadow.

Paul Pikel, Orlando, is the chairman of the event. He had this nice San Jose Juniper on display.

I didn’t get to photograph all the trees as it was so cold I decided not to linger. When it warms up I might go back to check out the rest. You can see a few more of the meadow trees in the background of this photograph. The Juniper on the left is actually a tanuki over buttonwood deadwood – very well done by Julie Trigg.

This Egret landed near the pond and was eyeing the koi.

It managed to eat a smaller one; see the lump in its throat.

Then it hung around awhile and poked at the larger koi. There was no way it could eat one so I wonder if humans are the only species that like to kill for sport!

He had a bunch of 2 year old seedlings. These were small and had just been up potted. We worked on setting basic shapes and on some branch selection.

We also did some grafting and some basic styling on a few older trees.
The soil is a bit heavy so I recommended he move them to a spot where he can better control the water to allow the soil to dry out a bit between watering.
In a few years he will have lots of nice bonsai stock.
This reminded me I needed to start some more seedlings as I am getting low on material.

Here is Richard behind one of his large bougainvillea. His nursery is known for great bougy material. Sorry about shooting the photos into the sun but it was getting late in the day.

A nice elegant collected Florida Elm.

Due to the sun you can’t really see how nice this Sea Grape is. Awesome trunk.

Here it was in 2009

After thinning and a bit of wire but only on the heavier branches as this tree’s growth is too prolific for lots of wire. Clip and grow works well for elms.

The pot is from Tokonome in Japan.

This is what it looked like in the past few years.
February 2006

In February 2007

Shortly after collecting in 2004.

I went to the Kawa Bonsai Society annual club show that they call the Joy of Bonsai.
Here are some exhibit trees. The red and black ribbons show the award winners.

This one had a different sort of display.

Here is a close up of the accent.

They had Suthin Sokusolovisit for workshops and demos.

A couple of pot vendors including Paul Katich.

Some interesting pots Paul is making for home use to satisfy the significant others.

UPDATE: Dateline February 2010 My Chinese elm broom is pushing the soil out of the pot so time for a repot and buds are popping.

Look at the roots.

Here it is after repotting.

I found a photo from 2001 that I scanned.

UPDATE: Last year I posted there repot of this Chinese Elm. Here it is January 19, 2009 and it has already leafed out.

The remainder of the photos are from last year.

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It’s January 2008 and the Chinese Elm buds are popping so its time to repot them here in Melbourne, Fl.

This is a before shot of the elm. Note the mound of soil under the tree. It was repotted last year but I didn’t reduce the root ball as much as I would have liked. I will do it this time.

Here it is after the repot. The mound is gone and the nebari looks better with a very slight change to the front.
]]> http://blogs.knowledgeofbonsai.org/rob_kempinski/2010/02/03/chinese-elm-2010/feed/ 0 http://blogs.knowledgeofbonsai.org/rob_kempinski/2010/01/27/some-new-starts/ http://blogs.knowledgeofbonsai.org/rob_kempinski/2010/01/27/some-new-starts/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:20:04 +0000 Rob Kempinski http://blogs.knowledgeofbonsai.org/rob_kempinski/?p=2060
Here are a couple of brand new projects.

The first is a Japanese Black Pine group planting with three seedlings I grew from seed. I planted them together two years ago and decided to do some initial shaping and put them in a pot by Jim Smith, of Vero Beach. (That’s right, Jim the famous bonsai grower made several bonsai pots many years ago. I recently bought two of his pots. ) This first photo shows the trees in a small pot that I made. This pot is kinda blah and a bit small for the group.

I toyed with changing the planting angle but decided to leave it as is and to put it in this larger but still flat pot by Jim. The pot is glazed but subtly so it still works I feel.
I wired most of the buds but since this is very early in the design I will likely remove some branches not needed at a later point. I am thinking about calling it “The Clique.”

Recently lots of people have been posting on the forums and Facebook massive and impressive collected pines and junipers. I am still torn about collecting these hundred year old trees from the woods/mountains. Without careful silviculture these specimens will run out and will need to be protected. And considering hundred year old trees will take along time to replace – hmmm. Then everyone will be back to seedlings and nursery grown material (as has happened in Taiwan.) Anyway, these pine seedlings are about 7 years old. They are not massive but fun.

This is a Florida Elm I grew from some cuttings. I struck the cuttings about 3 years ago. Somehow it folded over on itself.
It is now going to be “The Ray Gun.”

Here’s a virtual of the Ray Gun.

Now in a pot by Tom Dimmig. The recent cold weather insured this tree would be in a leafless state. Probably will start budding in 2 or 3 weeks.

BTW this was the tree during one morning of our recent cold weather.

Here is the entry from 2008.
Mike Pollack gave me an idea for this tree on the IBC. When I repotted it, I took his advice and carved some notches into the chop site. It helps break up the straight section near the chop. Thanks Mike.

Leaves are starting to arrive in 2008.

The little twig on the bottom left is the upper end of a cutting used as a root graft to try to improve the nebari at the rear of the tree. (which is now removed.)

With the blast of arctic air penetrating Florida I have temporarily moved my tropical and sensitve trees indoors or in my garage.

While in there I took a few photos.

My purple bougy starting to make a few flowers. Indoors won’t help out the process.

And how about some fall color – finally in January. This is a shohin cedar elm called “Creepy Hollow”.

Here is a close up of the trunk and the reason for the name.

This is a shohin Bougainvillea Pink Pixie. I grew it in the ground for a few years and then put it in this pot about 5 years ago. It takes forever for this variety to build girth in the branches and last year I whacked it very hard to make it a shohin -granted a sumo shohin. the pot was one of the commemorative pots were had made for our 2004 convention.

“Red pot at morn, bonsai take warn, red pot at night bonsai delight.” Sorry for the corny parody of the old sailor’s salt. This is a Ficus Microcarpa retusa with Kingmen foliage grafted on some of the branches. Dale Cochoy made the red pot.

The cold weather hammered my tropical collection. I probably lost several trees – including many of developmental tropical cuttings I had been growing in the ground. Even several of the trees in the garage suffered and are either dead or severely damaged. I guess time will tell as the weather eventually warms. If global warming makes things cold I’d hate to see what global cooling is going to do.

This Juniper needed a makeover do to losing a couple of branches. It’s a Juniper San Jose trunk with Juniper shimpaku grafted to it.
Here is what it looked like a few years ago.

I repotted it a few days ago. Looks like a puff ball on a stick.
I decided to change to a round pot by Floirda potter and artist, Chad Beatty.

After some work including wiring.

And after trying a little display.

I’m in the midst of repotting lots of trees. Here’s a peek at several shohin trees. Some are show ready and some are just starting out.

A Dwarf Yaupon Holly, (Ilex vomitoria Schillings nana) mini display with a small house plant foliage. The Ilex is in a Chinese Xjing pot. The accent is in a hand made Puerto Rican pot. I forgot the potters name.

And a close up of the Ilex. It’s about 7 to 8 inches above the pot.

A Chinese Elm in a nice blue glazed pot by Rob Adonozzio. About 9 inches above the pot. The tree is going dormant although Chinese Elms don’t always lose all their leaves in my yard over the winter. This tree has been under styling in a bonsai pot for only a 1 and half. The canopy is not quite there.

This little Juniper features shimpaku foliage grafted to a juniper parsonii trunk which in turn is growing over a river rock from the Slate River in Virginia. I made the pot by carving a block of clay with a plastic scraper with the pattern in it. This tree has had a lot of work in it over the past 8 years. About 9 inches tall.

Frequently I pick up shohin pots with no particular tree in mind. A while ago I bought this Dale Cochoy asymmetrical pentagon shaped pot in a white glaze and pondered what tree to put in it. I finally decided that this Japanese Umagashi Oak (from an acorn that had fallen off a bush near the Gold Pavilion in Kyoto in 2000. That’s right this tree is 10 years old. ) This tree has more curves than Jennifer Lopez, but like most trees with lots of movement its hard to photograph. In real life one can see that the tree has a decent pyramid canopy that doesn’t show in 2D. I feel the pot shape works well with the trunk and the glaze is great with the evergreen leaves. Now all I need is for it to start making its own acorns. Its about 9 inches tall.

This pitiful thing has been on my bench for over 5 years. It’s a Gingko and frankly it was in such a small pot all it would do is make a few leaves and add no girth or branches. So this week I put it in this European pot. Still not a very big pot but twice what it was in. Its either a Czech Republic potter or French potter. Can’t recall but I bought it the last Gingko show – how appropriate for the tree. I keep it as curiosity more than anything else and I do like the shape of the Gingko leaves. Its only about 5 inches tall.

This might be the worlds smallest Juniper bonsai. It has been in this pot for over 8 years and I never repotted it until 2 days ago.
It is J. procumbens and for reference a golf ball is 1.6 inches in diameter. So that makes the tree right about 3 inches tall.

I call this one my “Preppy Tree”. Pink pot by Rob Adonozzio and a green foliage by a Elephant Bush, Portulaccari afra. About 2 months ago I noticed it was rife with root aphids so I totally removed all the old soil with a jet of water and repotted it in this unusually glazed pot. About 5.5 inches tall.

Here is a Florida Privet I just potted up. Only two years since being a cutting and ony 3 month since first styling. A fast and prolific grower. Very nice green color to the leaves. By next year this time I predict a full canopy. The pot is a modest Chinese blue glazed pot. About 6 inches tall right now.

This dwarf Crape Myrtle Pokomoke is in a Horst H. pot. Never fall in love with a branch on a Crape Myrtle – they have a tendency to just lose them and then grow another one somewhere else. I’m hoping the branches on the left re-sprout but you never know. The chop scars are taking forever to heal as this tree has been in styling for at least 5 or 6 years.

This is a urban-adori. I collected it from my yard last year. I might have left too much of the native sand and the soil didn’t drain well. This year I replaced all the fine sand with well draining bonsai mix and am looking forward to better growth.. The exposed roots already have a old wizened look to them. Just needs a transformative canopy (as Robert Stevens would say.) The pot is a fine quality Chinese Xjing stubby lotus shape.

Something like this virtual.