BCI China 2010

I will try to post some photos of Chinese trees. In many cases the trees were not maintained and were out of shape. Many of the trees were quite large, with two and three man trees the norm.

This tree is very large but is styled in the Yangzhou style. They say "three curves in one inch." They allow a thin branch to grow out and then pull curves into it with palm fiber. This is from the city that will host BCI 2013. Go if you can.

Thanks for sharing Billy for sharing....hope your over with the jetlag

Great trees Billy. I hope you had a blast!..."Off"
I would love to go to China. Most of my trees seem to "favor" Chinese styles and your pictures give me HOPE! Do you have more pictures?
Salut, Todd

I will try to put up a few more trees from China.



I think the tree above came from Mr. Han's private garden, I hope I got this right, we saw so much. I know that Lindsay Farr or Autralia did a video of the same garden.



This tree was displayed at the Chenchun World of Flowers by the Guangdong Bonsai Club.



All of these trees were in the southern city of Guangzhou (Canton). This tree was on display at a public garden near out hotel.
At every stop we saw trees or stones and often both. We were frequently hosted by the local club or government. Which is some cases included entertainment. Some of the entertainment was traditional and some contemporary.
The food was always Chinese with some dishes that were difficult to identify. In one case we had donkey, it was good. Fish was usually served whole and baked chicken always had the head on the plate.

Hi Billy,

Thank you for sharing some really nice pictures. The one on the wall is stunning.
Love to see some more, if you have any:-)

Regards

The two above are front and back of the same planting. All are still from Guangzhou

Great definition of the "root over rock" style
Thanks for shareing!
Martin

Thanks Billy for posting these very fascinating photos. Any more you have...by all means keep them coming. I just can't get over the 'root over wall tree...is it a ficus microcarpa? Also, how are the roots getting nuitrition/water,etc? Dustin Mann

Dustin Mann wrote:Thanks Billy for posting these very fascinating photos. Any more you have...by all means keep them coming. I just can't get over the 'root over wall tree...is it a ficus microcarpa? Also, how are the roots getting nuitrition/water,etc? Dustin Mann

Yes it is F. microcarpa. The "wall" is really a pot with a space behind it for soil.

Billy,

the ficus on the wall is brilliant... Its like a piece of a building wall infested by the ficus...then the wall with the ficus was detached from the building altogether.
now...where can I find a building with ficus on the wall. that would definitely be an extreme urban yamadori.

thanks for showing new ideas.

regards,
jun

It was a great trip. I took over a 1,000 photographs.
Jet lag was a real b*tch this time. I slept over 18 hours yesterday.
Anyway, here is a nice shot of the garden in Canton with some trees on display.




There were some interesting trees that looked like Bald Cypress. But with a little research I believe they are Chinese Swamp Cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis). Great trunks but the foliage is light green and wants to grow straight upwards - hence showing the trees with little foliage. Note the pot filled with water.

Rob,

Is the water in the nice antique pot part of the display effect? a swampy display? no smaller branches?

regards,
jun

The water is for the health of the tree. This tree usually grows in water. Although cypress in Florida can be trained to grow in soil, it thrives in water.

The first tree above is from Guangzhou and I think it is an Elm.

The others are from Nanjing

Boxwood ?

Fukien Tea ?

Podocarpus

Thanks Billy and Rob for posting. Hope we get to see many more when the jet-lag has eased. It's really interesting getting a 1st hand insight on another bonsai culture.

This was one of my top 10 trees that I saw. It was a hackberry on slab on display in a garden in Nanjing as part of the BCI show.
Everywhere we went the Chinese hosts put on a nice show and had nice pomp and ceremony.


The owner posed with me for a photo next to his creation.
He won an award for the tree.


This is another one of the Chinese Swamp Cypress. Great trunk but the foliage is not really suitable for bonsai so it has to be cut short and forget about making a typical pine tree pad. Note the poetic name of the tree pasted toteh side of the pot - raise any eyebrows?


Another interesting tree on marble slab. I believe this was a needle juniper. There were so many trees and stones

Thanks for sharing these pictures! The Chinese styles can be very interesting and daring! The swamp cypresses are very interesting, as well as the weeping style tree.

~Brian~

Billy, I really enjoyed seeing the Juniper which has a reclining Gargoyle. Wow! Did you see any other trees with similar creatures? I have seen Penjing with animals and people, but never Gargoyles (aside from Nick Lenz's lovely trees). Do you ask any of the natives about this?
I am curious about the Cypress. Did you look to see if the pot had holes?
I hope you get over your jet lag soon.
Best, Todd

Rob, AWESOME TREE!!!!!!!
thanks for posting. It gives me ideas for my collected Beech.

Todd Ellis wrote:Billy, I really enjoyed seeing the Juniper which has a reclining Gargoyle. Wow! Did you see any other trees with similar creatures? I have seen Penjing with animals and people, but never Gargoyles (aside from Nick Lenz's lovely trees). Do you ask any of the natives about this?

Many of the trees in Guangzhou and in Nanjing had figurines with them. The figurine you refer is not a gargoyle but a reclining human - probably capturing the image of a drunken farmer. The Chinese enjoy adding figures to tell their story.

Todd Ellis wrote:I am curious about the Cypress. Did you look to see if the pot had holes?

The pots were lined with plastic sheeting so they probably had holes but were covered.
As I mentioned the foliage on the Chinese Swamp Cypress is very upright and not real attractive for a bonsai. Here are some other examples. One Chinese gentleman told me the trees were now protected in China so collecting might be problematic. They sure had nice trunks and when one considers the upright growth of the foliage the fantastic trunk shapes are very interesting and makes one wonder how they came about.

Another nice trunk.

Here is one that reveals the unruly upright growth characteristic. (Note the little tree in the background.)

Just saying,
Thank you very much.
Khaimraj

Hopefully Rob and I will not post duplicates.

This tree was in the corner of a building in Mr. Han's garden in Guangzhou



This a view from the building into the garden, there was a pond in front and water dripped from the roof to cool everything



We had a number of people on the tour of Chinese decent and they were a great help. Our English speaking guides were great but sometimes made basic directions over complicated.
In Tianjin a young Chinese woman wanted to practice her English on me, one of the Chinese men from the UK walked over and that really confused her.

The next few trees are from the Bonsai/Penjing Museum in Yangzhou. We really didn't have enough time here, BUT it will host BCI again in 2013.





This Museum is on the grounds of the Slender West Lake Park.





Lots of boxwoods in this display.