Adachi Museum of Art

In Nov last year I attended the 11th Aspac convention in Japan. As part of my tour, we visited the Adachi Museum of Art. They have a very impressive collections of paintings. However what impresses me most is the Garden. Exquisite ! The best I have seen so far. No wonder it was honoured as the  best Japanese Garden for eight consecutive years by the Journal of Japanese Gardening. Some photos to share the beautiful scenaries.

11th ASPAC Convention And Exhibition

In Nov 2011, I attended the 11th Asia-Pacific Bonsai n Suiseki Convention & Exhibition in Takamatsu, Shikoku Island. It was an enjoyable 4 days event. There are bonsai and suiseki demonstrations and talks by the leading experts from Japan. Exhibitions and other festivities like tours to gardens and bonsai production areas. With over 50 bonsai farms producing fantastic materials and quality bonsai, Takamatsu rightfully claimed to be the top bonsai production area in Japan and thus the world. Of course the sales area got plenty of attention. No where else do u get such a wide range of bonsai, bonsai stocks, tools and utensils on sale. As usual I ended up buying more than my needs and paying for excess lugages. It was such a pity that I cannot buy any of the wonderful materials which were reasonably priced as West Australian quarantine is very strict. Close to a thousand people from all over the world attended. About half from Mainland China. Nice to catch up with old friends and acquaintances and made new ones. Here are some photos of the event. CJ.

Opening Ceremony.

Exhibition Trees.

Sales Area n Trees.

Lots of buzzes were created by the sale of this tree priced at Yen 100 million which is about A$1.3 million at current exchange rate.

Bonsai farm.

A few Shohin Bonsai

I have trees from 5 cm to over a metre. The small ones are easy to handle. The big ones are a challenge especially during photography session. Here are some of my shohin. Enjoy n cheers, CJ.

Pyracantha, 22 cm, trained from $1 nursery stock since 2001.

JBP, 23 cm, trained since 2004.

Lilypilly, 19 cm, trained from $2 nursery stock 2001.

Tiger bark ficus, 20 cm, trained from $4 nursery stock since 1998.

Wild Olive, 15 cm, dug 2001.

Blooming Bottlebrush

This Bottlebrush is big, 1 m x 1.2 m. Photographing it is a challenge especially when I have to do it on my own. However the bloom is at its' peak and the urge to capture the beautiful moment overcame the time constrain and the challenge of moving it to my make-shift studio. It was saved from a demolition site in 2001. According to the lady living next door to the demolition site, this tree was planted 50 years ago (as of 2001). So now it is about 60 years old. An expert lady at Friends of King's Park identified it as a Parker's special.  Enjoy n cheers, CJ.

Another blooming NZ Tea Tree

This Leptospermum Scoparium has been blooming since May 2011. The bloom is reaching its' peak. So I decided to photo it. This is the first time I photo this tea tree which I have been training over the last 12 years. It was kind of neglected until about 3 years ago when I started to pay more attention to it.
Enjoy n cheers. CJ

Update on my smallest Tea Tree bonsai

This little fella is blooming profusely this Spring. It was air-layered in 2007. Here it is in a self made pot.
Enjoy and cheers, CJ

Colours In My Backyard

Here are some colours in my backyard. Hope u enjoy them. CJ

Blooming NZ Tea Tree

Today I photographed this NZ Tea Tree bonsai which is in full bloom. A Leptospermum Scoparium Civic Pride, it was developed from ordinary nursery stock about 11 years ago. The flowers have cabbage petals and is a mixture of white and purplish pink. I once counted over 5,000 flowers on a larger tea tree bonsai. So I presumed this one must have thousands of flowers as well.  Enjoy. CJ