2017 Wisconsin State Fair Entry

more views (and why i am not as happy as i could be showing this tree) at:
http://arborartscollective.blogspot.com/

public comments welcome there as well as here...

Very nice!

Is that Portulacaria afra or Crassula ovata? Very hazy wheather there...  

I'd say Portulacaria from the colour of the trunk (?) - AND DON'T SAY "JADE TREE", PLEASE!

Will be even better on a long flat table with no feet showing I think. I understand it's for the photo, but it looks a bit crammed like that...

BTW, what's the weather like in Wisconsin at the moment? Must be very cold in the winter, but very hot in summer, right?...

afra aka spekboom !
(and yes - never refer to spekboom as jade )

and there are no feet on the slab, i just have it sitting on a stool for, as you said, photo porpoises

re: wisconsin weather, yes - we are in the middle of summer here and so temps and humidity have been relatively high (not florida hot but still...)
unfortunately, we have been unusually humid this year which means a fungal battle on some of our broadleaf trees

nice...
you managed to make it fat fast...
lot of fertiliser ??..good luck on
the fair..

thanks - nothing unusual in the fertilizer... the girth is probably more attributable to just letting it rip and then wacking it back...
again
and
again
and
again
and......

Very nice tree but it looks like a strong masculine tree to me.
Perhaps a strong square masculine pot?

Oh yeah, nice selection for a kusamono too!

bilbo... i do not necessarily find that pot to be feminine, but the more i look at it, i reckon it could go by the American name "Pat" or "Chris"

and thanks re: the accent... i liked the way the small pot matched the stripe on the main pot

and i would be remiss if i didnt give the potter credit... main pot by JOHNNY MENZEL of Waukesha Wisconsin and member of the Arbor Arts Collective

at any rate, the judge seemed to like it more than i thought they would...
1st place and an Award of Merit (which i guess is just an extra "attaboy"  )

Kevin aka Mr. Hoover,

Very nice kazari.

mr. hoover !!!

was that a refernece to the late hoover's predilection for cross dressing ???
if so - BRILLIANT !!!

and sorry Vlad, but i do not know what kazari is (and google no help)
but still - thanks ! i think

CONGRATS!!!

kevin stoeveken wrote:mr. hoover !!!

was that a refernece to the late hoover's predilection for cross dressing ???
if so - BRILLIANT !!!

and sorry Vlad, but i do not know what kazari is (and google no help)
but still - thanks ! i think  

Much simpler, Kevin. Mr Hoover = your are collecting appraisals in a such seemingly easy way...But we know you are working/thinking hard to get there.

kazari - one of the meaning could be about the art of displaying bonsai or suiseki... I hope:roll:

btw and with all the possible modesty: Brilliance is my second name. Especially when it comes to confusing people that have to deal with me...

Congratulations Kevin!

Vlad wrote:... ...btw and with all the possible modesty: Brilliance is my second name.   Especially when it comes to confusing  people that have to deal with me...

Nice to "see" you Vladimir!

my nellie wrote:Congratulations Kevin!

Vlad wrote:... ...btw and with all the possible modesty: Brilliance is my second name.   Especially when it comes to confusing  people that have to deal with me...

Nice to "see" you Vladimir!

You never walk alone, Alexandra.

btw This is exactly what I have said to the guy in the mirror this morning...

Congrats on the prize.

thanks

6 Years to that is amazing, and it is an epic looking tree.  I love these, being from South Africa.

I wonder if the tree will change for the better if you remove the lowest thick branch, and then also all the thin low branches below the first really thick one?

BrendanR wrote: (...)

I wonder if the tree will change for the better if you remove the lowest thick branch, and then also all the thin low branches below the first really thick one?  

Not bad either... I like the idea.

Plus you get a bunch of "trees" for a group planting.

Frankly I am throwing away all the babies I get from my portulacaria afra and crassula ovata as they are just such nuisances after a while.





Nice tree - you have the climate for it. In England it is quite fiddly to get them growing fast.

brendan... not a bad idea and probably closer to how they would grow in SA, with all the herbivore working on the lower portions...
but for now i like the low hanging branches and i think they make it look stouter...

re: climate - yes - our climate is perfect for these...
for about 3 months of the year