A Few More Goodies From This Year's Mid-America

     Those who have been to the Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition know that when you enter the Regenstein Center thru its front doors, you pass down an entrance hall to the doors of the exhibition space itself. This year, someone decided to put a row of bonsai down the center of the entrance hall, giving the visitor a foretaste of what waited for them at the end. I think it was an inspired idea!

Looking down the entrance hall toward the Phillips Exhibition Center.

Here's a closer look at one of the trees in the center space (normally a pool), the very first one you encountered. Its trunk just above the nebari is as thick as my thigh. (And I'm not a little guy.)

Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum) with its Hosta spp. companion plant.

Besides the awards given by the Midwest Bonsai Society at the guest master's behest, the American Bonsai Society also gives an award for the best bonsai using a native North American species. This year's winner is this Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum); the owner (and, I presume, artist) is Mark Karczewski.

A superb design job, combining harmony with dynamism.

OK, real quick: when you hear "California redwood", what do you think of? The tallest tree species on the planet, right? Would you believe a shohin California redwood, less than nine inches high from the soil?

California redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, shorter than my handspan.
Very nicely designed. Owner is Steve Carini.

A small collection of pots was on display, protected by clear plastic cases. The owner, Tim Priest, told me that these pots were the work of a certain Japanese potter who passed away in 1970. Since his death, no one has been able to reproduce his glazes.

The glazes on these pots are now unique.

A closer look at two of them.

The largest of these pots (at the extreme right above, and below) has another unique characteristic. Most Oriental potters stamp the bottom of a pot with an identifying mark known as a "chop"; sometimes there will be two. This pot, for whatever reason, has eight - count 'em, eight - chops on its undersurface! No one is sure why now.

(What's your guess as to why this pot carries so many chops?)

:-)  :-)  :-)