Last Tuesday our club had the yearly club exhibition. Each member could bring in their best tree. This year, 'judging' was done by the members; every member could vote for one tree.

When I entered the club house, I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously, there are newer and older members and the quality of the trees was mixed. However, the last couple of years the overall quality of the trees and the way of displaying them has significantly improved and, no doubt, will continue to improve.

This was the tree I voted for:



but this was the winner:



More images can be found here:
bonsai-nh.nl/gallerij/nggallery/werkdag-...stelling-2016/page/1

Until I saw the picture of the owner holding the tree you voted for, I didn't realise how small it was compared to what I thought.
I guess that's the point, though.

Thanks for sharing

Thx for sharing Auk. All the trees are very nice. The tree you voted for is definitely the winner to my eyes; it has more character, more original composition, and really nicely positioned on the pot. The pot is in harmony with the tree as well, great Bonsai. I liked the pines as well.

AUK,
I appreciate you sharing the photo's. It's always inspiring to see other people's trees and how they decided to train different species.
Thank you

Love the forest bonsai. I can imagine sitting under the trees and watching the big white puffy clouds in the sky. I am also intrigued by the bonsai with the different colored trunks. Beautiful

Ruth wrote: Love the forest bonsai. I can imagine sitting under the trees and watching the big white puffy clouds in the sky.

I think that's the metasequoia forest, and that's one of the creations I find underdeveloped. The trees are young, there's hardly any ramification. Looks a lot at what you'd buy at a garden center.

I am also intrigued by the bonsai with the different colored trunks. Beautiful

I guess you mean the juniper with the white shari?

Yes. It's incredible. The contrast is what I like.

The forest one I liked because it looks doable for me. Some of the other ones look impossible. Like me trying to paint a Vermeer.

Ruth wrote: Yes. It's incredible. The contrast is what I like.

Then maybe you like this tree too. Note: the tree got in trouble beginning of last year. That winter the foliage turned purple. For junipers, that is not uncommon, but this tree had never done that before. That year, it did not grow as much as usual, and in autumn, tips started to get brown. Now, this type of Juniper (a Squamata) easily sheds foliage, for example, when inner foliage doesn't get enough light. However, it were the tips that were browning, which is not good. This started at the lowest branch, but spread to the other branches. I'm still not sure what it was. Before the winter started, I decided to place it in a larger pot (the ugly one it is in now), filled with stone grit. The chopstick you see is to poke holes in the soil it was still in, to improve drainage. I feared it wasn't going to make it through winter, but it did, and in spring, new buds started to form (while old buds were still dying). I've been plucking dead tips and dead needles ever since, sometimes every day. It does look much better now, but it I'm not convinced it's fully recovered.

Long story... but as the tree was/is not 100 % healthy, I could not train it. Normally, I would have wired it to form nice foliage pads, so it should have looked better by now, but all that will have to wait. Maybe next year... if it continues to recover.

Oh.. the toothbrush:
The white area is created by treating the dead wood with lime sulphur. I've cleaned the trunk using that toothbrush and water, and have applied 'jin fluid' again to make it nice and white again (it got a bit green due to algae).

I like it. I love color and contrast. It would scare me to death to see brown on my juniper. However I sorta expect it with what i put the poor thing through. I'm in Michigan with very cold winters. We can have no snow, but normally there is a foot to two feet of snow in my yard for months. If I understand junipers correctly, I need to put it inside maybe our garage that is unheated during the winter. I know it can't come inside. Please let me know if I am correct.

I find Jin a funny word they use for the scarring process. In middle East and Indian, as in India, a jinn is a bad spirit. Is this word, Jin, Chinese or Japanese? I wonder if it has any connection to the jinn word I know.

Oh, one more question , do u plant maples outside in the winter or leave them in the pot and put that in the ground. I don't have one., But i was watching a video about one today and wondered what I would so during winter.

Thanks

Junipers you can normally leave outside. CHeck for your specificcies, but I think they can handle -20 in a pot without too much problems (But beware with dry wind and sun when the pot is frozen! It is normally not the cold that kills them, but the drying out)

Maples can be tricky; It depends on the species. I have a large shed in the garden, with open-air acces (free hanging roof). When serious frost (colder than -5) is expected I put trees in that shed. But for regular winter weather (Which normally is around freezing, dipping a bit below zero every once in a while for a couple of days) they stay outside. So far so good.