World famous and Iconic Must-See Bonsai (Touring the US national Bonsai and Penjing Museum)

Now this stride at Naples is my personal favorite of the whole show. I've seen it the first time about 20 years ago in a few pictures and every single time when I need inspiration I look back at this tree and it's such a pleasure to see this tree here in the flesh in this show in perfect health doing so well. We are in Washington, Washington D.C. U.S. National Arboretum. It hosts the National Bonsai Impinging Collection and what we can find here are some of the finest bonsai you've ever seen. One thing this museum reminds me of is how large bonsai can be. Of course you might know them as these tiny little trees but here these trees they're man-sized. Behind this wall is the biggest tree of them all and it has a story. Many of the trees here have a story but this story is so exceptional I'm sure you've heard of it. This tree was in Hiroshima when in the 40s an atomic bomb fell on the city. It was only a few miles away from the detonation location and it survived and during the Japan donated this tree as a part of 50 trees to the U.S. and that actually led to the constitution of this botanical garden section with the bonsai impinging. This tree however is a few hundred years old. It has been growing here for the last 50 or 60 years and before that it was home in Hiroshima. Interestingly when this tree was donated to the museum they did not know of the province. It was only when the son of the previous owner came to visit Japan and he told the story that's when they learned about the history of this iconic tree. But what a tree it is! Now the bonsai museum is made up of several sections. There is a Chinese pavilion, there's a Japanese pavilion and here we are in the North American pavilion which is pretty much dedicated to John Naka one of the biggest best-known bonsai artists in the U.S. Right next to me here is one of the most famous trees that he made. This is probably the most well-known North American bonsai cushion by John Naka and he made this as a demonstration but also to really record his love for his family. It is said that every single tree represents one of his children or grandchildren. This has been around for decades and it is really nice to see it in perfect health here at the National Bonsai Collection in Washington. This is the latest addition to the National Bonsai Collection. It was donated by Mike McCallum just today added to the collection and this tree is a western hemlock created by Nick Lentz. Nick Lentz of course you know from all the exceptional trees and one of the other trees that's also on display this weekend only is Penelope. I'll show you an image of Penelope and I think you know that tree as well but this is an amazing piece of North American history. Gorgeous! If you are in Washington D.C. and you have the chance drop by and take a look at this amazing tree no longer in Canada back in the U.S. Now and if we go from this western hemlock and we turn one tree to the left this is another iconic tree. This was donated just a few weeks ago by Bjorn Bjornholm here to the museum and it is a Douglas fir and why was it donated? Well as you might know Bjorn has left the country and he set up shop over in Japan so even if you want to see more of his trees this is not the place to be. You actually now have to go to Kyoto, Japan to see his trees where he's setting up his ICN again. But fortunately this tree is still here you can still see it. Very cool trident maple. To me this is one of those trees that you just want to climb in and you can see the inspiration of long rock cliffs with trees that have grown their roots along the rock surface exposed to the wind washed away from the rock. The trident maple not sure how long it's been in training it was gifted to the museum in 2002 like many of the other trees. Now it's important to realize that if you watch these big shows or a museum like this one the tree needs to grow. You can see here this trident maple they have extension growth on it. Bonsai do not always look well manicured especially in spring the first flush is allowed to grow and that builds the strength of the tree making them more resistant to disease but also help them develop. So if you see little branches growing out of the canopy that's actually a sign of good management of the trees. Now the art form of bonsai of course originated from China and is typically referred to as penjing in China and it's characterized by bonsai that are less refined because mostly it is due to clip and grow styling rather than with wiring and therefore the tree has a looser image and often they depict landscapes and one of the landscapes that you can see here is this nice landscape of multiple trees and as a little joke yesterday they had a treasure hunt here and they put little animals with the trees. Of course they're not always here they're just here for this weekend. A little joke on the side of the staff to make it more interesting also for kids to rummage around and find animals and scenes. And that looser form of styling is very clear here in this trident maple. It is very open the branches are loosely styled and yet it just gives the impression of a nice old tree as you would expect with normal bonsai as well. Some of these landscapes are really really big and if you delve into it you can see that there's a lot of bottom growth to it but also that they've hidden some little features like this little fishing man that sits here in the middle. Really really impressive and the size of it. This has been made about in 2004 and it came to the museum also in that year. This Chinese elm has been with the museum for 22 years and it is in a very particular style. It is actually a windswept tree. You can see all the branches coming towards me. What is interesting about this windswept one is that the main trunk is actually moving in the opposite direction. It creates a tension in the tree where it looks like a tree should be growing that way but the branches are coming this way. Very very well executed very nicely done mature windswept elm tree. Typically in Japan azaleas are seen as a different form of bonsai and they're grown because of the flowers. And one of the things that you see here on this tree is that there's a mix of flowers. There's pink, there's white, there's white with a pink stripe and that is typical for certain varieties of Satsuki azalea is that on one tree you get different types of flowers. So these are not grafted on this is the natural habit of the tree. Of course it is then up to the grower to make sure that each branch has the color of flowers that you want and that you don't prune off the wrong colors. One of the centerpieces on display this weekend is this massive zelkova serrata. Zelkova of course is often found in shops and in fact it's not a zelkova what you find in shop stays are normally elms. This is a true zelkova it's been in training since 1895 and as a result this trunk is nicely barked up. It's no longer smooth and yeah we look in the canopy itself we see the nice ramification having developed. This is one gorgeous tree with a perfect nabari. So this is a Japanese black pine, cork bark black pine and the one thing that I found impressive if I recall correctly was this tree about five years ago was here as well and then I noticed that this was cutting grown that means it's not crafted from another black pine. You also don't have the typical narrowing of the trunk lower down and that actually inspired me to try some cuttings as well. Mine have not taken yet but this tree is proof to me that you can actually grow the cork bark pine on its own roots. Really really cool and do note the very very long needles here compared to the younger needles that are coming out. These long needles will grow out to be that long as well. Landscapes are great. Junipers are great. Junipers has a landscape with side planting and a little walkway in between. That's just amazing and what's even more amazing about this one in training since 1970. So that is 30, 40, 50, 54 years old. Also a gift. 1999 it came to the museum. This is one of the most iconic North American trees. It is Penelope. It was created by Nick Lenz by growing this out for decades in full ground and now it is actually owned by someone in Canada who has kindly provided the tree for this exhibition and every time I see it I am impressed by the beauty, the fine foliage of the larch on top and then the intimate embrace of the tree with the statue Penelope. Until a few hours ago this was the most recent addition here to the museum. It's Colorado Bruce Spruce. It was owned beforehand by Karen Harkaway and she is the president of the North American or the U.S. Bonsai Association. This tree was collected by Todd Schaefer, a well-known North American collector and then stalled by Karen with help of Mauro Stemberger from Italy and fun fact the pot came from Czech Republic and the repotting was done by Karen with Mauro Stemberger on video call. How cool is that? A tree with a history and unfortunately no longer the most recent addition to the collection because this morning there was another tree added to the collection. This Jabuticaba is one of my other favorite trees here in the Arboretum. Jabuticaba, better known as the Brazilian grape, flowers on the trunk and then also grows about two three centimeter wide black fruits on the trunk and on the branches. I have one myself but not as nice as this one. As before, a perfect example of how vikas can indeed make great bonsai. You just need to apply the right techniques and take the same time as you would for other trees.