Tuesday, June 11, 2013

2013 June Exhibit Features Full Penjing Landscape & Fine Bonsai

Eleven section penjng landscape
The June 2013 ACBS showcase exhibit featured the first ever exhibit of our composite penjing landscape, as  well as number of fine member trees, many of which just get better every year.  In addition to photographs, our gallery site also contains a brief video walk-through of the exhibit.

Trident Forest
Outstanding Elm
Visitors to the exhibit were greeted by the wide expanse of the full eleven section penjing landscape that was the club project for this year. It was the last step in a design conceived by ACBS member Carlton Buck who back in September first proposed doing tray plantings that be viewed separately or assembled to form one large landscape.   The ongoing project has been written about here on this blog as it progressed though the winter and spring months.  In addition to photos on our gallery site, the video walk through posted there gives a little bit better indication of just how cool the completed penjing looks.
Two concord grape vines

Large Juniper
The exhibit also contained bonsai from members at all skill levels with nearly twenty participating members.  Among the visitor favorites were the trident maple forest, the large junipers, the miniature mame plantings, tropicals, several
pines and the two grape vines. You can see photos of all trees in the exhibit as well as a short video walk thought on our galley spot at this link. Enjoy.

Friday, June 7, 2013

Material for Bonsai: from Trash to Exhibit


by Michael Rusnak
ACBS Newsletter Editor

Some of the bonsai trees in our club's June exhibit were created out of shrubs, stumps and other material that was destined for a trash heap or the wood chipper. If the discarded shrubbery is “usable” and is successfully transplanted to a pot, it can have a new life as a bonsai.

Such material is like having a blank canvass from which something spectacular can be created over several seasons. 

Akron-Canton Bonsai Society member Dan Tullius collected a massive juniper from a park that was being renovated in 1994. After successfully transplanting it into a training pot, Dan has worked to create some spectacular results. 

The juniper just gets better every year, and like many good trees, it can be viewed from either side.  It has many interesting shapes and movement all around it's sizable trunk.  

What was once thrown-away has found a new life as a bonsai, and in this case Dan has created a real specimen tree.