You often think of LA as a concrete Jungle but I did find a few nice trees on my travels. Most of them in Beverly Hills where each street in the main residential area has a specific tree planted on it.
Some great Ficus nebari in there and I just love the purple flowering tree, an Australian native I believe. Anybody get the movie reference?
I felt some excitement as I approached the exhibit. The set up was excellent and showed the trees well. I took in the first area thinking that was it only to find another courtyard full of trees. Quality was varied as you’d expect when trees are donated but I was thrilled to see my first California Junipers and a few trees created by the pioneers of American bonsai. Condition and heath was generally good with only a few showing signs of stress. I fell in love with the Cali Junipers and a few of the olives. Also nice to see shohin getting a display in there even if a few of them were below par with the rest. Perhaps accents would have added to the whole display but again, this might be hard to maintain in an exhibit like this. Well done to all those who donated to make an exhibit like this possible for the public. I can only dream of something like this being possible in Ireland someday.
I was also lucky enough to visit another exhibit by the GSBF at Lake Merritt, but more on that later in the week.
Walking on from the Chinese Garden at Huntington, you could feel the change transitioning to Japan. The Tea House was special and there were some beautiful paths that always left you wandering what was around the next corner. The general landscaping was well manicured and full use of the grass areas was being made by the public. Here’s the gallery. Next up the trees from the bonsai display.
Well, I’m home safe and have been trying to get get over my jet lag, worst I’ve ever had. I think I may have overdone just about everything on this trip. Nearly 3000 miles covered.
A holiday to remember and I plan to share all the photos here once I wade through the 3000+ images and edit what’s worth keeping. A massive thank you to all those who I met on my travels and took the time to show me trees. Here’s a few of them.
The biggest thanks however goes to my wife Allison for making it such an enjoyable trip. It would have been a fraction of the fun without you.
I’ll share my bonsai visits, those above and more, and also my visits to old growth trees in the wild. Some inspiring stuff. Stick with me while I get things in order.
Yesterday I managed to fit in some bonsai here in LA. I had the opportunity to visit Huntington Gardens for a few hours and gallop around the Chinese and Japanese Gardens, and of course take in the bonsai display. Well worth a visit. I only wish I’d have had time to give the whole place a look over.
Next stop was Fuji Bonsai, Roy Nagatoshi’s nursery, cram-packed with trees and a great welcome from the guys and gals who were there for the Saturday morning workshop.
I then popped over to see Robert Pressler at Kimura Bonsai as he’d got in touch and kindly invited me to visit. I have loads of photos from all these places, but hotel wi-fi doesn’t want to play, so you’ll have to wait until I get back home, or a get better connection for the full run down.
I blogged last night looking for ideas for my road trip to the USA and just want to say a big thank you to everyone who responded. I have all sorts of offers from simple advice to offers from people wanting to give up their time to show me around even offering me a place to stay! I will reply to you all, there is a lot of you 😀 , once I get my timings sorted out and see what my long suffering wife will put up with along the road. She’s being a star about it all so far.
What a great thing the bonsai community is. It never ceases to amaze me what kindness is out there. It’s one of the main reasons I keep blogging. Thank you all.
I’m over on holiday this May/June starting off in LA and then travelling north with a final stop in Seattle. I have a basic route showing my stops below. I think the only one missing is Pismo Beach.
I was hoping to pick your brains about good ‘tree places’ on my travels. That’s big trees, old trees and of course small trees.
There are so many places for sequoia/redwoods that I’m bamboozled! At the moment it looking like Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon as my stops. I had hoped to make it over to see the Bristlecone Pines but the timings look to have made that difficult bar a driving all night type scenario.
I’m stopping to see the old Monterrey Cypresses at where else… Monterey.
I’m hoping to stop with Michael Hagedorn on my trip and I’m staying at Bonsai Mirai for a few nights. Pacific Rim Bonsai Museum and Bonsai Northwest are on my final leg.
What am I missing guys?
Is there anything between San Francisco and Sun River? I have a little more flexibility there to fit more in 🙂
I’m open to suggestions in the comments section or send me a private message via email to bonsaieejit@gmail.com.
About 200 metres from my hotel was the Botanical Gardens. A nice place for a walk and some great specimen trees.
A nice Davilla, the local variety.
A stunning big Ficus in the middle of the Gardens. So many mature aerial roots that are now trunks.
Some stunning flowers throughout the gardens.
Trip hazzard!
The beginnings of new aerial roots on another ficus.
This retirement lark is good. I had a last minute holiday recently to Tenerife and the Hotel Botanico. I can not praise this place enough, a top notch Hotel and Spa.
The usual photo on the way in.
Arrival at the hotel.
View from room.
Great rooms
First ever letter with a wax seal lol
Mount Teide from the balcony.
The Hotel gardens were special.
The spa and hotel pool areas.
Great food.
and to top it all, the hotel had it’s own Bonsai collection ! They hold a workshop for guests every Tuesday morning but sadly that was my day or arrival and departure, so I missed it.
I never recommend hotels to people as everyone has their own tastes, but this place I would recommend to anyone. Gandalf was even staying there 🙂
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