Stunning Tropical Bonsai at the U.S. National Tropical Bonsai Exhibition 2026

Welcome to the US National Tropical Bonsai Show here in Dallas, Texas. Not Dallas, this is Houston, Texas, excuse me. Here's a really big showing display. Excuse me. Really cool. It looks like a Divine Ilarox. That's kind of cool, it's almost flowering. Tiger Bark Ficus and Willow Leaf Ficus right there. Really cool. Let me shrink the screen a little tight here today. I think this is Jay's. Yep, this is Jay's. Met him at Expo. Here is a Water Jasmine. You never, you know, I've never seen a Water Jasmine so close. Check out the trunk. Really nice informal twin trunk actually. Really cool. We have a Bougavia. That's not flowered yet. This is a Saturday if you were wondering what day it is. I'm just going to go down the aisle as best I can. Here's a really cool Tiger Ficus in a, almost a pinging style. Which is really cool. And a slab defoliated. And they're still working on some trees. How you doing? Hi. This is a Indian Bat Fig. Huh, I wonder what's the difference between a Bat Fig. You know, it would be interesting to talk to Mike Lane and other people that know Ficus really well. Is there are different varieties, how they match up. This is a three point, it looks like a four point display, two point display. Two different trees. I don't know. These are the smaller trees on this side. So we're going to the smaller trees first. Here is a Bougainvillea, which is that smaller. You got a Tiger Bark and a Prima. Prima is that really small tropical. I actually want to pick one up. I'm to a point. These are two individual trees. Looks like this is a Yellow Dwarf Oxara. You see the yellow flowers right there. Fucantula, really small Fucantula. Nice spot on that one. Two different trees. Yeah, two different trees. So this is one display right here in a Green Island Ficus. Really a well done Green Island Ficus in a cascade, a Henk Henkei. Really small Dwarf Water Jasmine. It's interesting to see the barkage. Let me see a close up. That barkage right there. I wonder if it's carved in. Just wondering. Would that increase that barkage? How that runs? Who knows. If you guys know in the comments, be it likes to know. This is the trees that we saw in Forth Worth, Dallas, Texas. This is from the collection. Water Jasmine. Bougainvillea. It's not blooming. You know, I'm surprised that they don't force it to bloom. Or maybe at a time of season. Again, this is a Prima. Nice squatty trunk here. Let me get down to the trunk line. Really cool, small trunk line there. Really nice radial roots. Oh, Nabari. They have the composition plant. So this is one of my... Not sure what you guys think, but this is one of my favorite trees. It is a Birch Deadeye. Look how wide this is. I'm going to put my hand towards the pot. That's a pot. You can see this is a big tree. Let's look under the canopy really quick. Absolutely spectacular. Look at that ramification. Really tight. I don't think we can grow radial roots like that in Southern Cal. Amazing tree. I will love it. There's the bookend. This is a Bluebell. Not familiar with these Bluebells. I've been seeing it online a lot. I wonder if it's growth habits. I know they have these really cool purple flowers. But again, I wonder what these trees really do in Southern Cal. If they do well in Southern Cal. Looks like they do well here. Here's a Brazilian Rain Tree. Lighting is not the greatest with these black backdrops. But this is a spectacular rain tree. Ramification all the way to the end. It's drooping just because we're indoors. But it has that fluted trunk line with the molted bark. Which makes these rain trees really spectacular. Again, really big tree. I just wonder the growth habits on these Brazilian Rain Trees. This is a Phuket Tea Plant. Looks almost like a Penjing. Or a Litterati. Where they accentuate those fine branching at this point. Empty slot here. My wife and I were discussing. Is this really a tropical? This is an Australian Pine. I think it's a tropical. I know it's not a true pine per se. Like a Pinus. Because the foliage itself is scalular. So it's very different than a regular pine. Like a black pine. But if you're very familiar with this species. Leave it in the comments. What is it? Is it really tropical? And then this growth habits. Is it really like a pine? Like a single flush? Double flush? Or is it really more of a scale of a Juniper? Here's some more. Three point display of a Shohi. Excuse me. I'm a little lost there. I wonder if the snail goes with this one. Or if the snail goes with that one. I'll just say it goes with the three point by itself. We got a... Looks like a... Umprima? Looks like a Water Jasmine. This is a Dwarf Water Jasmine. That's how small the flowers are. That's my pinky. That's how small the flowers are. And then of course you got a Green Island Ficus. Again, if you guys know the difference between the ficuses. Put it in the comments. I'd love to hear it. Just for knowledge sake in this case. Water Jasmine. Blue Bale. Singapore Holly. Looks like a Burk Tibia on the very top. No, it's a Mound Green Island Ficus. Prima. Oh, Parrot. This is a Parrot Beaks. And then that is a Willow Leaf Ficus. But that's... So Singapore Hollies. I had one. It does not do well in Southern Cal. I think it's too dry. I think it loves the humidity. This is kind of fun seeing things I normally don't get to see. Like I'm guessing what these plants are. This is a Blue Bale. Again, purple flowers. It looks like little... Oh. Not Potato Vine. Dang it. I can't get the words out of my mouth. But that's a cool Double Cascade. So what's interesting is you've got two Apexi. You can see one there, one there. It'll be interesting as a design. Here's a Sea Hibiscus. I've seen a lot of these in Florida. It looks like a Root of Rock. I think... Oh, no. It's called Exposed Root. I wonder what's going on with that black spot there. But they defoliate, which is kind of interesting to see. Some people have left their leaves on. Some people have trimmed them back. Someone wants to let them grow. Here's a Prima. Really small branch structure. Look how fun. And last on this row is a Kampachi. I think it's like an Ebony of some sort. And it's some really cool carving into it. This is going to probably be a long video. I'm trying to go through each tree as best as I can. Here's another really cool tropical rain... Brazilian Rain Tree in a very long cascade. Just your idea of how this length... Here's my hand. Just to give you an idea of scale. Really cool to see it underneath. We go down one of these rows. Here's some more Brazilian Rain Tree in a cascade. I've never seen deadwood on a rain tree. I wonder how well that lasts. You can see it's been cut. Probably been limed sulfur to keep it not decaying. But that's kind of cool to see. You've seen this one. This is a multi-hobby display. This is from Mike Lane. This is a sea hibiscus. If I'm correct, this is one of his original trees. And then it's been grafted onto a smaller variety. Here is a lovely... And of course, Mike, on his spare time, does do fishing. That is one of his lowers he makes. It's kind of cool to see. Bluebell? Sorry. No, you're good. This looks like a bluebell. Bluebell? Yes, this is a bluebell. Rather large. Nice movement trunk-wise. Good six, seven inches across. Six, seven, if you guys are into that. Some flowering at that point. Nice barkage. Beautiful tree. Nice movement on that one. This is a buttonwood. Buttonwood is a really tropical tree. Brackish water tree that grows in... I don't know what brackish water it is. But it is an endangered species at the point. Very rarely collected. Highly tropical. Needs protection. If you own one, especially in dry areas like I do, you need a greenhouse to keep that alive all year long. Here is a Ficus tulittle. It's a big tree. I don't think this is a tulittle tree. But it's a twin trunk. You can see the twin trunk. Twin trunk, excuse me. I bet it's tulittle. Tulittle is basically the sub-variety of the leaves. The leaves are extremely small on this tree. And you've got a collection of accents. Kind of cool. Like a little village. Here is a... Oh, Dwarf Jade. A Porticaria. Really nicely done. Ports are really hard to ramify. This guy did a really good job. Nice trunk. No scars or no decay on the trunk. Turn around really quick here. Here's one of the bookends. This is a Nea. I'm not sure what a Nea is. It looks highly ramified. I think that is its growth habits on this case. Kind of interesting with the cut in the front. To show off that. That has to be a very different way to showing off a tree. I'm surprised that has not decayed out all the way. Here is a Buttonwood. Again, brackish water growth. Good deadwood on these things. You can see the deadwood on this tree. Nice movement. Oh, it has flowers on it. Check that out. Never seen flowers before on a Buttonwood. I've never seen a lot of Buttonwoods in my lifetime. That would probably save my expertise matter. Here is a Willow Leaf Ficus. Scarlet Flower. A really old one. This is from Melbourne, Florida. You can tell how old this thing is just based on its trunk. You can see it is 12-18 inches in width. You've got some aerial roots coming down from the trunk line. Old tree. Multiple tree display here. Prima. Looks like a root over rock. It is a root over rock. This is when we like to use darker stones on trees. So you can have that good contrast. This one looks like it blends in. Looks like a deadwood instead. Just ideas for when we do exposed root or root over rock. This is a Carved Nea. Just to give it some character. Some deadwood there. Going to go back a tree. This is a Green Island Ficus. Not a slab. Black growth. What kind of grown in the... I'm not sure how to describe it. It is really cool that it does have aerial roots. Which is highly difficult to grow. Especially in my area. Big old Tiger Bark Ficus. We are talking about 18 inches across at least. You can tell by the size. Really nice scale. Then we go to the really small ones. Prima is here. Nice little tree. This is a Buttonwood. What is interesting on this Buttonwood. Is the wood. Not the live beam. But the deadwood. It is actually colored in a darker color. It is usually white. But they colored it into charcoal. Very interesting. I think it is a way for that deadwood to expose itself and shine. So we have an exposed Brazilian Rain Tree on root over rock. I think that is kind of cool to see. Let's see how that rock is darker. It is a higher contrast. Versus the other stone that we saw on the other tree. And exposed. It looks like a Prima. I wonder how well they do. This is actually a 3.4 point display. 4 point display. Water Jasmine. A couple of elements. I think this is a Water Jasmine. That is a Water Jasmine. I love the Nabari on that tree. That is a really cool accent. That type of ficus. If you guys know what it is. I would love to get one. Here is a giant Boca Vida. Really nice Boca Vida here. You can see how old this tree is. Just by growth wise. No deadwood. A little bit of deadwood here. But everything is still solid. It is almost blooming. Let me go down the row here. We have one really big tree here. This is a defoliated Tiger Bark ficus. Check that out. Check the ramification when we get close up. Someone took a lot of time defoliating this. You can tell some wire marks on it. You know this tree has been wired. Let me try to get a back shot of this guy. Check that out. Nabari all 365. Beautiful tree. Absolutely beautiful tree. Well done. One of my favorites. This is a Buttonwood. In a full tropical scene. Check that out. Native. Just perfect. See this deadwood you can see it is white. With the dark. Let me go down. Let me kind of ping pong here for a bit. Here is a seven point display shoheen. Everywhere from a really gnarly cascade. Looks like a Green Island ficus. Whoa. Look at that. Dwarf Hong Kong kumquat. Look how fatty that guy is. Beautiful. Kampachi I think. Texas ebony. That is that one right there. This is a hibiscus I think. There is a sea hibiscus. I am getting pretty good here. And then finally there is a birch deviant. This is probably the only tree I have seen today. It is a really unique one. It is a monkey thorn acacia. Just to give you an idea. It is acacia. You can see the little tiny thorns are actually hooked on this guy. This might hurt when you are wiring your tree. And then on this side is a giant. Absolutely giant Brazilian rain tree. Nicely fluted trunk. Again these guys have these nice fluted trunks. And molted bark. It is almost like a crepe myrtle. The coloration on it. So it is like a crepe myrtle. But again you get the fluted that you don't get on a crepe myrtle. You get these really nice green pads. While I am here let me kind of get this guy. This is a Whitney's bluebell. Again this one is unique compared to the other ones. You got this bark. And then a nice movement on that trunk. This is a bit cut right there. That is also flowering which is kind of hard to time. Let me go down one of these walkways really quick. Let me go down that center really quick. Come back and grab that one. Here is a Nea. Molto trunk. It almost looks like the myrtle that we have in Southern Cal as a strawberry. I wonder if they are related. Time to do some more research. This is another rain tree again. Rain trees have that fluted bark. Let me see that fluted bark, that trunk line. Really hard to see. It is really compact on this guy. Really huge. Four feet, three feet tall, three and a half feet tall. Really cool accent. Second time I have seen an orchid with a really cool pot. Here is a Green Island ficus. It was a kind of exposed root which I think is kind of cool in a cascade. So multiple forms. Here is a water jasmine. A really large water jasmine. Almost like some rootage here or some nebari. And of course these beautiful flowers that are flowering at this time. We got a prima and a tamarind. I think these primas are really easy to ramify it looks like. Almost every single tree is well ramified. This is a tamarind. I wonder if it is edible. It actually has a tamarind root. Just wondering. We got three trees here. Maybe a three tree display. This is a Texas ebony. And a slack. We got this tiny prima. And a red pond. And of course you got a small. So this is the size of my Sally right now. It is the Brazilian rain tree. But see even the small trees it is really cylindrical. Versus those bigger trees where you have this really thick. Kind of what you would call it. Robust. Kind of looting of the trunks. Let me go on this side really quick. Let me just get the one ahead of me. So there is two trees right here. Elephant tree. Elephant tree is that. Usually has a more like a. Bulbous. Trunk line. That I have seen. And I will go this way. It is another elephant tree. Funny. Two elephant trees side by side. What is the chance of that seeing that one. It does look kind of like elephant. The skin of an elephant. And here is a tiger by Ficus. It is really cool to see that. Really large nebari. Really spread out. Here is some tie wires. You can see the tie wires actually being pulled in together. We got a porticaria. Some branches. It looks like the. Not the Frank Yee variety. But it is a regular house variety. We got a. Almost a mame display. Shogi mame. If you want to call that that. They are smaller than 6 inches. Little smaller than 6 inches. This is a dwarf. Blue bell. You got a. Willow leaf. Prima. You got a porticaria. Of course you got a. Tiger bark of some sort there. And you got this lovely. Icy hibiscus. One of the accents. Really cool. Go back down this lane really quick. This is a. This is a very unique display. Blue bell. I think it is no label. So I am just guessing this is a blue bell. Which is based on flowers. Nice. Almost. Should be like a single. One of the smaller displays. So we got. This juxtapose here. We got this giant rain tree. Let me back up some more. This is huge. You are talking almost 4 feet in width. Doesn't have the molted bark though. On this tree. One of the most unusual trees I have seen so far. Not it's. Like it's. The tree itself. But just the. A mass of. A mass of trees in this forest. It looks literally like a. Like a little forest of. Ficus there. The tropics. Huge tropics. This is a tulip cap. You know I looked at this one. Tulip caps have these like. Little red or yellow flowers. The very. Only the ends of that tree. So really hard tree to grow too. Awesome little tree there. There is a dwarf boxwood. Sunders. Dwarf. Never seen it. Never heard about it before. It looks like it is flowering. It looks like it wants to flower. This is a companion larger tree. It is going to be a. Portulacaria. A couple of ports I have seen on this trip. This is a green mountain. Ficus. With a. A fig tree of some sort. Rupar fig. One is edible. We are almost there people. About three quarters of the way through. There is Kampachi. Another. Really a carved tree right now. Does it flower? I mean that would be kind of interesting to look at. There is a last display. That I did not get this time around. This is a three point display. Call this a three point display. It is kind of cool. I mean a little diorama holding it. Hagerbush. Prima. And a Nea. Which I think is kind of cool. I could not see that. This is like Angela Jolie. The biggest. Oopsie. The biggest rain. Here you go. This is the biggest. Brazilian rain tree I have seen here today. I think. It is pretty close to the other ones. Again almost three, four feet across. Look at that fluted trunk line. Check that out. Not the most of bark that you see. A little more yellow than the other trees. Again. Look at the trunk line. It is kind of cool. It is undulating back and forth. Kind of cool to see. Here is a tiger bark ficus. This is a mound. Not bad. Prima microfilia. I wonder if this is a smaller leaf variety of that Prima. Here is a Texas ebony. Almost an upright. Here is a larger. This is a big. This is like a big show here. A little bigger than six inches. Almost eight. Eight and a half. Some of these are pushing. You got a Nea. That is kind of coolly carved actually. Very top. You got a Iroxa. Which has that flowering. Green island ficus. You got a Prima if I am correct. I am getting pretty good at identifying now. Gimma. A pirate's beak. That is a pirate's beak. That looks like a sea hibiscus right there. Really cool. Really larger than your normal show heen. Here is a water jasmine. All right. It is a pea bush. Maybe like a pea. Not a bee bush. Tell me in the comments. Is it a bee bush or a pea bush? Here is another ficus. All right. This is one of the biggest displays so far. This is a laurel fig. What is the difference with a laurel fig? Really cool though. It is almost pinging on the marble slab. Here is the largest. Portulacaria. It is not the franky style. Or the barking. That is interesting. I always like to see how they bend branches on these guys. You can see it has been wrapped. It has been wrapped before it is pulled. Interesting. They do use some techniques. Especially on that type of tree. Here is a really cool looking Brazilian ranger with a molted bark. You can see the molted bark there. It is pulled off on that one. Really cool. Kind of interesting. These things have super sharp thorns. This is the most unique tree I have seen so far. The Pablo Blanco. It looks like a stump that has been cut at one point. The leaf edge kind of looks like crepe myrtle at one point. It does not have thorns. I am not sure because it comes off from one petal leaf area. That would be kind of interesting. This is a road. I have no idea. I have never seen it. Interesting to see. This is why you come to different shows. To see different varieties of trees. A Nea and a really cool... This took a lot of setup to do. Oh look, there is a little person holding up the tree. That is a good buddy. I like it. It looks like a Prima. Here is a Tiger Bark Ficus. A lot of air roots that are coming down. Really cool. A Bluebell. Exposed root Bluebell. Really kind of cool to see that. Look at the flowers. Perfect timing on the flowers. Just about to open. This one takes like the... It is almost like Avatar with the little spaceship. It is kind of perfect because you cannot see its stand. Which is a metal stand in the back that is hooked up to the table. And this floating... Like Avatar kind of rock. The floating island. I think it is kind of cool. A for creativity on this one. Last one on this one. I think it is the classic frame. Tiger Bark Ficus. Really cool. I like how it is elevated to eye level. With the frame. It is framing the whole thing. I think it is kind of cool. And it is floating with a floating shelf. I think it is really cool to see that. Last row here. I am going to follow this gentleman as we go. It looks like a... Buttonwood. Oh man, I cannot get these words out of my mouth fast enough. With the nice dead wood. Again, this is colored in white. It is probably lime sulfur. I do not think it is lime sulfur. I do not know. It is not my tree. Again, it is flowering which I never get to see before. Here is a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 7 point display. In a large format. This is larger than Shohin. A little larger than Shohin. You got a Lily Ficus. It looks like a... Prima? Yeah, there you go. This is the Iroxia. And this is a yellow flower one. I know we can grow that in Southern Cal as a... As a yard tree. I am not wondering. This is a Bougainvillea that has not been... Not in flower yet. That is an unusual way to display. Here is a... Rain tree. This is like... This is the girth that we grow in Southern Cal. I am not sure if it is this... It is like that. This one has a fluted trunk which is kind of cool. Molted bark. But that is like the size we get in Southern Cal. Unless you grow it for many years. Acacia. It is kind of cool. Well ramified. I love the barkage on it. I think the... The... Negative space is done well. Especially on an acacia like that. There is a water jasmine just by looking at it pretty quick. It is a water jasmine. A little, I think... I think there is a little bit of reverse taper right there on that mainline. On that, not bad. But it is tropical. These things probably go pretty quick here. This is a Nea, a four point display. A two point display? I am not sure anymore. But I do like these. You can like ramify them pretty quick. Oh, I lied. There is another large Brazilian rain tree. Again, back to these Brazilians. If you do not have these fluted trunks and molted bark. I think you are not going to run it here. This one is really cool. You can see that the fluting goes all the way down to the bar. Which lots of these have like a reverse taper I think. It is so large I cannot even get it in frame. Even though it is zoomed out here. Last tree in this row. A Nea and a Green Island Ficus. And a Cascade. It is kind of an S trunk-ish. But it is kind of hidden well in the foliage. You cannot really tell. And a Nea again. I wonder if the Neas are more upright. Did I get this tree? I am not sure. Let me get this last tree here. It is a Ficus. This is part of the Fort Worth collection. So are Ficus fruit pollinated by bees? Wasps? Flies? Sorry about that. This is a Tiger Bark Ficus right here. Going down the last row here. Here is a Hemlock Velvet Seed. What the heck is that? I wonder. Is it a flower? It has some really cool deadwood. Some person put a lot of time into carving deadwood. Let's see. A Buttonwood. Again, the Buttonwood in this one has that really darkened deadwood. It does not look like what I normally envision what a Buttonwood is. This is not it. Which is cool. It is different. Especially the darker deadwood. That kind of sets it apart. This is a Prima. This is a Kampachi. I wonder if it is an ebony. That would be interesting to figure that out. Check that out. It is a small Prima. This is a Texas Ebony. Which is kind of cool. You never see deadwood. There is a deadwood right in the front of that. Here is a Barstow's Cherry. This is the first Cherry Tree I have seen. In a weeping form. And exposed root. All the same one. Check that out. All the same one. That is exposed root. Here is kind of cool. This is the second orchid I have seen. Excuse me gentlemen. Last tree here is a Forest. Narrowly Forest. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. There is a grove right there in the middle. It is kind of funny. Really cool. Let me turn the camera around really quick. That is pretty much it at this point. There you go. First inaugural. U.S. Tropical Bonsai Exhibition here. In Houston, Texas. Tell me which one is your favorite tree. If you like the video, like and subscribe. I will see you guys next time. Bye.