PAYBACK TIME

Bill, What an awesome collection. Something some of us can dream and strive for (though it is an impossible one for me). I too would offer my free service to help move and protect those if I am close.

Jay, You have a very nice collection as well. I hope in 10 years I will have somewhat like that. Love the raintree. What's the 1st pic lower right (2nd from end) in beige rectangular pot?

Poink88 wrote: What's the 1st pic lower right (2nd from end) in beige rectangular pot?

Thats a Phoenix graft of an (otherwise useless) Juniper Pro' nana onto a chuck of native white pine dead wood, Unglazed grey pot.

hats off to you but the trees are well worth the effort.

if it was a regular annual occurance i'd certainly have those plastic tables fitted with wheels - that would make the operation far easier.

Like Jay I kept the trees as cold and exposed as possible to keep them dormant as long as possible - only when individual trees woke up early were they protected. In the cold snap we are having here too I have put just 3 acers in the greenhouse because the brand new leaves are just opening and the likeleyhood of hail stones is high.

The deciduous trees that have hardened off are staying on the benches - even the kiyohime, as the center shoots have been pinched out after the first pair of leaves opened so there is no tender growth to be frost damaged. Later in the season the original leaves will be cut off or cut in half too, so a little damage to the edges makes no difference as the tree is being redeveloped rather than shown.

Beautiful collection of high quality japanese trees in those pics, very very nice. Are they your personal trees or trees for sale?

cheers Marcus

Marcus

What do you mean "Japanese" trees!!!

Those are "AMERICAN" bonsai, all trained by me!

That's the problem with many European people, they don't think Americans have any beautiful and well trained bonsai. Just look at the two Commemorative Albums of the past US National Exhibitions to see other fine quality bonsai.

Even better yet why not visit the upcoming 3rd US National Bonsai Exhibition on June 9-10, 2012 in Rochester, New York? I'll be happy to give you a complimentary weekend pass.

Bill

and....back in again. Thank God my wife is cool with this madness of mine.

William N. Valavanis wrote:Marcus

What do you mean "Japanese" trees!!!

Those are "AMERICAN" bonsai, all trained by me!

That's the problem with many European people, they don't think Americans have any beautiful and well trained bonsai. Just look at the two Commemorative Albums of the past US National Exhibitions to see other fine quality bonsai.

Even better yet why not visit the upcoming 3rd US National Bonsai Exhibition on June 9-10, 2012 in Rochester, New York? I'll be happy to give you a complimentary weekend pass.

Bill

hahaha, that was a big bite!

I know you have trained many of the trees for a long time as I have seen some fantastic progression pictures of some of them, and saying they are Japanese was not in any way derogatory, quite the opposite in fact......but were the original pieces of material born and bred in the USA?, for surely many originated from imported trees? - if everyone is an american seeded or grafted tree I apologise for my assumption. My acers began life as imported trees so they are not ENGLISH, and in 30 years they will still not be English either. Maybe you would feel happier if i'd said they are fantastic material trees of potential japanese parentage, totally styled in the good old USA in a way that would be credit to any japanese grower.

Many of the japanese material trees are infinitely better varieties than any homegrown - both for you in the usa and me here (as you know perfectly well)- the red varieties are more vibrant, even the basic palmatum they prefer to use is chosen for leaf colour & size, fine growth, nice bark etc, the fagus crenatas have whiter bark than any western seed grown one, the tridents have better leaf quality....the list goes on and on.

From the way you jumped to Americas defence I guess you have either heard or imagine others think you (as a nation) have no good trees or skills of your own - not me I can assure you - my upcoming highlight is two days styling with Ryan Neil and I would have loved to have accepted your very generous offer of a pass to the show - but this year my trip away is a honeymoon to Africa and my treat is finding a juniper for the workshop with Ryan (japanese of course) so alas all funds are spoken for in advance. (I dare not miss my wedding!! )

There will be plenty of shows in plenty of years though for me to enjoy some American trees, you can count on that.

Regards Marcus

Here are a few labels of the origin of bonsai.

Must go move trees back in again..









Bill

Wow, what a collection Bill! And your's aren't too shabby either Jay

And I feel for everyone who has to undergo this aggravation! Fortunately here in Chicago, we're only hitting lows of 36-39F. The leafed out JM's don't like it though, they all have skinny leaves. Even the landscape Red Maple and Coral Bark Maple have skinny leaves. I hope the nights warm up for everyone.

Very nice everyone!
Bill I have been a fan of yours for years, we met last summer in Kentucky. What about using some large carts or rolling tables to make it easier?

Mitch

The "seedlings" and "cuttings" and "air layers" have all grown up! I just finished helping Bill with class and then doing the tango in the moon light with most of them. I am really appreciating Shohin Bonsai more and more every day!
Mark

Mark wrote:The "seedlings" and "cuttings" and "air layers" have all grown up! I just finished helping Bill with class and then doing the tango in the moon light with most of them. I am really appreciating Shohin Bonsai more and more every day!
Mark

My cranky back might be pushing me in that direction as well...

I love the fact that so many of these trees have been grown from seedlings, cuttings, and air layers. So much for those who say you can't do it that way (or that it's not worth starting with anything less than field grown or collected stock)!

superb - a lifetime of credit goes to your nurseryman skills...if the cuttings are this good what do all the parents look like now I wonder?.

Did you do anything special with the deshojo cuttings - bottom heat, humidity hard, semi ripe or soft wood cuttings? . Or was it a case of just trying to root the pruning 'spares' from another tree and get back what decides to make roots ?

cheers Marcus

I completely agree with Marcus here. Wonderful collection, Bill.

I'll be doing the happy dance myself this weekend with my Raintrees. Low of 47 tonight, 40 tomorrow night and 44 Saturday night. Might be a great night for a fire.

Have a great week!!!
Sam

Yeah we have strange weather this year, here in Northern Virginia some days we had above 70 degrees (F) and at night the temperature dropped near freezing

Bill,

It's an interesting perspective - what percentage of a collection is imported vs otherwise trees. Of my 200 + trees, I believe that only 5 of them originated in Asia - from Japan 3 JBP, and a shohin pyracantha and a shohin Premna from Taiwan. (The premna has gone on to spawn hundreds of cuttings)
I do have a couple of trees that originated in Puerto Rico. The rest of my collection is native or grown from cuttings or seeds.

Hi William,
What a wonderful collection of maples,and great to see the origins of these trees
Do you have any photos throughout the years of these, it would be great to see how they have progressed
I too have never had any luck striking deshojo cuttings or even airlayers what is the secret?
Thanks for posting

Thank you for posting Bill. I am amazed at the beauty in your nursery. The Deshojo (?) the red maple in the shallow blue pot is incredible. Your huge wisteria is a monster! I bet its stunning in full bloom; worth the effort to take in and out. Thanks to your labor and insight, I have decided to put a heater around my maples tonight; forecast is upper 20's to 30 degrees. Luckily there is a breeze so the frost will have a hard time establishing itself. I brought in my Geisha (A. palmatum) - buds just starting to open and some flowers showing, and two recently potted - weak on their roots - Chinese Elms. I don't want to take chances with them. Everyone else is on their own .
Again, beautiful trees! BTW, the Dwarf Winter Hazel I bought from you was a site to behold; so many blossoms! I styled it into a nice clump.
Best,
Todd

Come on Bill..............
You were nice and quick to defend the parentage but several members are asking about your propogation methods to get in particular the deshojo cuttings through to maturity, lets turn this thread into something to learn from..........I'd love to know about the parent Deshojo - was it a mature bonsai or young garden graft , whether the cuttings were hard, soft, semi ripe, how many you succeeded with and if the young trees were put in the field to fatten up.

They are tricky to do on their own roots so any hints will be well accepted and appreciated - we are worthy !! .

Rob - 200 trees, wow that takes some maintaining - I sold half my junipers because just the 6 big ones needed so many hours wiring & thinning. It is interesting the percentages of imports in our collections - but a lot depends on government policies - if it is made so incredibly hard to import trees that they are rare and expensive the 'home produced' market will be so much stronger. The only thing keeping all our countries home produced (grown not dug up) trees from ultimate greatness atm is a few decades more work as none are actually that old in the big scheme of things.

cheers Marcus

marcus watts wrote:Rob - 200 trees, wow that takes some maintaining - I sold half my junipers because just the 6 big ones needed so many hours wiring & thinning. It is interesting the percentages of imports in our collections - but a lot depends on government policies - if it is made so incredibly hard to import trees that they are rare and expensive the 'home produced' market will be so much stronger. The only thing keeping all our countries home produced (grown not dug up) trees from ultimate greatness atm is a few decades more work as none are actually that old in the big scheme of things.

cheers Marcus

Yes Marcus, lots of work, I've posted photos of most of them over the years. When I'm home I spend at least an hour a day working on trees and lots of weekends. Luckily I don't watch TV. My approach is more along the lines of letting the trees develop into a design - I use a lot of wire but also a lot of clip and grow.
A large percentage of my collection is shohin - in addition to being small, they take less space, less time to work on and are just so cute!!!
Being a nerd I keep a database of my collection. Here is a distribution of the sizes. Total is a bit over 200 but I am not counting hundreds of cutting and seedlings I am developing Even still, I'd like to get another 100 shohin. When making a display you really need a good assortment to pick from to make sure they work together, are in optimum condition, and have not been shown recently.

marcus watts wrote:It is interesting the percentages of imports in our collections - but a lot depends on government policies - if it is made so incredibly hard to import trees that they are rare and expensive the 'home produced' market will be so much stronger. The only thing keeping all our countries home produced (grown not dug up) trees from ultimate greatness atm is a few decades more work as none are actually that old in the big scheme of things.

cheers Marcus

The few decades of work is perhaps the most impressive thing I gleamed from the two national bonsai shows that Bill Valvanis has sponsored. There are many bonsai artists in America that have been doing bonsai for 2 or 3 or 4 decades that don't post trees on line but they had them at Bill's show. The trees shown truly depicted refinement from those years of work. I am not certain I can make that observation about other shows I have visited in other western areas in the US and Europe.

marcus watts wrote:It is interesting the percentages of imports in our collections - but a lot depends on government policies - if it is made so incredibly hard to import trees that they are rare and expensive the 'home produced' market will be so much stronger. The only thing keeping all our countries home produced (grown not dug up) trees from ultimate greatness atm is a few decades more work as none are actually that old in the big scheme of things.

cheers Marcus

In England, what would you guess the percentage of imports is in relation to homegrown (not dug up), especially with maples and junipers? I've seen many posted where the owners state that their particular tree was imported. Do you guys have a good source of growers in your neck of the woods?

John

I definitely think the restrictions on importing are easier overseas then in the USA. Anyone in Europe can also receive any tree from the entire EU which gives a great variety and resource base. I have only three imports in my collection. The USA restrictions are pretty severe.

-Jay

Orion wrote:
In England, what would you guess the percentage of imports is in relation to homegrown (not dug up), especially with maples and junipers? I've seen many posted where the owners state that their particular tree was imported. Do you guys have a good source of growers in your neck of the woods?

John

Hi John,
With the shimpaku junipers in the Uk the ones worthy of show are basically all imported -trees from shohin to the medium & large trees with natural deadwood were coming into the UK since the early 1970's. Very few actual show ready specimen trees come into the UK to my knowledge (other than shohin and one ot two well off collectors who may buy directly via agents )- these imports are mostly material trees that are established in pots but largely unrefined. From the trees I see on my travels much of the great material was originally imported by Danny Use of Ginko Bonsai Center in Belgium and over the years several bonsai nurserymen from the UK visit and choose trees directly from there. Other good material comes via a very small number of traders that visit overseas and import containers of trees after QT etc. There are basically no field growers in the UK with good quality large semi trained & weathered juniper material with heavy curves, wide bases etc - although large landscape junipers in tubs are available (imported from Holland!) The few juniper rigidas we have are all imported too, mostly as 1/2 done bonsai. I'd say the 'better trees' we have are 95% imported material but styled here, the normal workshop and play about material is garden center (EU import) or from basic nursery grow beds.

this is a material juniper from Ginko in 2008

and this was the tree 2 days ago, just the upper carving to finish


The acers..........Much the same - good 'true variety' specimen trees are virtually all imported, it is down to the trunk base and root flare and if it is perfect the tree was sourced in Japan. There are a few growing beds of Deshojos and palmatums here and there where the trees are getting some top pruning to make them bonsai material but the real skill is in making a tapered trunk with perfect root flare and this isnt happening here yet. When you actually study the acer pictures that started this thread closely you can see that even these lovely trees have room for improvement in the trunk bases, taper and visible rootage (but really nice branches) and this is a similar case here. Because the acers in the UK are easily available there are more garden center sourced trees in collections and lots of small, starter and workshop trees that are UK grafts and seedlings. I think at least 95% of the maples in bonsai collections are home grown but at better shows 75% will be imported material.

here are trunk bases of imported trees -this one is a perfect graft

and this clump was formed in the 1930's (came to UK in 82 as semi specimen)


cheers Marcus

Marcus.

Looking at the juniper's 2nd/latest pic...it looked like the "vein" was totally carved or terminated near the top w/o anything to feed there. Is this just on the pic (an illusion)?

Marcus,

Really nice trees and interesting info.

Poink88 wrote:Marcus.

Looking at the juniper's 2nd/latest pic...it looked like the "vein" was totally carved or terminated near the top w/o anything to feed there. Is this just on the pic (an illusion)?

Hi Dario, its not the vein at the top of the trunk but the start of my carving - the heart wood on these junipers is red, like the vein and the carving was alongside the living vein.
Here is a picture from this morning after i finished carving last night and the LS has dried


cheers