It’s always good to see the magic of shohin spreading across the globe and we here at British Shohin Bonsai are delighted to see Morten’s new shohin association in Denmark taking off.   We wish him every success with the association – the more people who are spreading the shohin love the better in our book.   Here is how Morten announced the new venture.

We are glad to announce that the national organization [url=http://www.shohin-bonsai.dk]Shohin Bonsai Danmark[/url] is now established. We look forward to see you at our events and workshops, were everybody are welcome. The website http://www.shohin-bonsai.dk is on air, with all content in Danish and English language.

The interest for Shohin bonsai in Denmark has grown considerably through the later years, and today more people have a special interest in this part of bonsai. We find the time right to help developing this further through workshops, exhibitions, online…

Geo Feng High School

The China National Penjing exhibition was held on the grounds of the Geo Feng High School which is a private boarding school owed by Mr. Ma. The grounds are exquisite with trained garden trees throughout the campus.

Most of the taller trees are Podocarpus which are trained and regularly trimmed. The value of these trees is at least USD $20,000 each, and there are countless number. Also there are a great number of trained Japanese five-needle pines, which look like they were imported from Japan, also expensive. Additionally large penjing are placed around the field track, swimming pool and around pathways. I wonder if the students realize the beauty they are surrounded with and also their value. The huge garden stones were easily taller than most people. Around back one could enjoy a beautiful pond full of prize winning koi fish.

These grounds are far superior…

I was not allowed to announce or share photos of the winning trees until after the award ceremony. The awards were different this year from last year’s “China Ding” award for the best individual penjing. This year the awards went to the artists with the best collection of trees. Below are the top trees in the exhibition.

It’s quite interesting that all three are Japanese black pine. AND even more interesting is that some came from Japan. The China Zun Award was presented to the artist who had the top three scoring bonsai collection. When the top winner cam on stage he never smiled and later we learned that he is in business, not a hobbyist and people did not like that he or the imported tree won. It WAS a good tree. The award was brought out on stage on a rolling cart and looked quite heavy. There were…

Many thanks to Bill and Diane for opening their garden for us to visit!

Great pyracantha in a fun yellow Yamaaki

Ginkgo

Larch

Entrance to the sales area:

Chinese quince:

And a great parting shot, meeting the iconic Penelope as she was being packed up at the end of the show.