by George Buehler

Since the last newsletter, I have made a couple of road trips related to bonsai. Over Memorial Day, I attended the Brussel's Rendezvous along with about 200 other bonsai enthusiasts. For those of you that don't know this event, it is a weekend of workshops, shopping the massive greenhouse for bonsai material, and salivating over the large number of specimen bonsai. It is also a time to talk to other enthusiasts, compare notes, discuss the good and bad points of a particular tree, and in general form friendships that can last a lifetime. I never met a bonsai person with whom I couldn't talk. I believe most bonsai people are willing to share their experiences with others. At this year's meeting, I met people from Iowa, Chicago, Florida, and even Columbus Indiana (of course I asked them if they would like to join the GLBS). This is the first time in several years that I was able to attend this event. While I was out looking at some specimen trees, several people walked up and started talking about the tree I was looking at. After a few minutes, we all realized that we had attended this meeting several years ago and started comparing notes about the trees we had bought at that time. It was like we had been in contact on a routine basis (which we hadn't). It was also obvious that we all had the love for little trees and that was all that counted. I spent more money than I should have, but not as much as I could have (I'm still thinking about that specimen Shohin Hinoki cypress that I didn't purchase). There were a number of workshops at very reasonable prices. All around, the weather was great, the people were friendly, and the quality of trees was fantastic. If you haven't been, I would strongly recommend putting it on your calendar for next year.

The second road trip was slightly more involved since it amounted to an approximately 1800 mile driving experience. My wife and I went to the National Arboretum and, to make it slightly more interesting, we swung down into North Carolina to see their arboretum. To visit these two arboretums was the main purpose of the trip; however, to keep the peace in the family, we had to make several other stops along the way.

This was the first time I had visited the National Arboretum; and, as you can imagine, the bonsai on exhibition were outstanding. It was well worth the drive to see these specimen trees. We spent quite a bit of time looking at and photographing the trees on exhibit. They currently have about 50 - 75 bonsai on display with a total of about 350 in the collection. Some are permanently displayed, while others are rotated. There are trees that are over 300 years old and some that are less than 5 years. They have a lot of the more common bonsai - like pine, juniper, and azalea. They also have some unusual types like crabapple, persimmon, pomegranate, smooth leaf elms, and others. The interesting point for me was that they had trees that were such diverse ages next to each other.

Everyone talks about the bonsai exhibit at the National Arboretum, but the Arboretum itself has many different types of trees and shrubs throughout the whole grounds. It is quite relaxing to wander through the conifer collection or through the Asian garden. What I recommend is that if you are able to go to Washington to visit the Arboretum, allow plenty of time to not only visit the bonsai exhibit but also drive around the whole 446 acres to see specimen trees that are full size.

Our next bonsai stop was the North Carolina Arboretum. Unfortunately, I was really disappointed with this stop - perhaps I am being unfair to them. The NC Arboretum doesn't have trees that are 200 years old - or even 100 years. They do have a number of unusual designed trees, such as a boxwood Juniper combination with several Juniper surrounded by boxwoods. Most of their trees are collected and represent mostly American trees. It looked like they had about 200 trees. My problem here is that this is a rather new arboretum and they had not completed the permanent bonsai exhibit building (was supposed to be completed in the spring of 2005). Due to this, they had all their trees "jammed" together behind some farm fencing that was about 5 feet high. It was so high that it was very difficult to enjoy looking at the trees (and photographing them impossibly hard).

In talking to one of the staff members, we learned that they had to have this set up because people were not respecting the trees (touching and breaking branches) and they even had one tree stolen. Of course this is unacceptable, but I find it interesting that the trees at the National Arboretum were almost out in the open. Perhaps when the permanent building is open, this arboretum will be worth visiting. I would suggest waiting until next year before planning a visit here.

As we were heading for our next non-bonsai stop, we came to a mountain stream and decided to stop to try to collect some stones. We found several interesting stones and decided to put them in the car to transport back to Louisville. Now I will have to try to make a base because one of the stones looks like a mountain (or at least I think so). The hunt was fun, relaxing and something everyone should try.

On the way home, we noticed a roadside stand that had 'bonsai' printed on a truck that was sitting there. I wouldn't normally stop at something like this but since we had some extra time, I took the chance and stopped. Interestingly enough, the lady who was managing the stand directed us to her husband's nursery - Bonsai East. This was a full size bonsai nursery that had been in business since the 1970's. He studied in Japan about 60 years ago after serving there in the army. As with most bonsai people, even though I was an unexpected visitor, I was warmly welcomed and was shown through his nursery. Although I didn't buy anything from him (just didn't have any more room in the car - perhaps another road trip is in order), we had a great discussion on bonsai and of course I picked up several new tips.

This brings me back to where I started with this month's editorial - bonsai people are always ready to talk about bonsai and willing to share their experiences. It's a great hobby to be in.