Evergreen Gardenworks Purchases

Brent Walston’s site has been very helpful to me over the past few months of learning about bonsai from any source that I could get to.  He is an experienced grower with a variety of trees in his bonsai nursery.  He has lots of articles that describe in detail the information he has gathered and learned over the years.  I highly recommend checking it out.  I really wanted to buy some bonsai trees from his nursery for a couple of reasons.  One, he has a good variety and I could get trees that aren’t available in my area.  2.  With his contributions to bonsai, I wanted to support his business.  Here’s what I purchased.

Cedrus atlantica (Atlas Cedar) -10° Pale blue green foliage in tufts, much used for formal upright bonsai. Native to the Atlas mountains of North Africa.

Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’ (Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar) Similar to above in needle length and color, but this cultivar is perfectly prostrate and must be staked or trained. It can be worked into any shape but continues to grow and develop a large caliper just like its tree counterpart.

Juniperus chinensis ‘Shimpaku’ (Shimpaku Juniper) The classic Japanese bonsai species. Deep green soft scaly foliage to about 3 feet x 6 feet makes a very dense flat mound. Pinching the tips keeps it very compact. Excellent rock garden plant.

I’m really excited about the trees that he sent and are hoping they have a good future.  It’ll take a few years before I even think about pruning them, but I’ll have species that aren’t very common in this area as bonsai.

Louisiana Day of Bonsai Hosted by Bonsai Northshore

This was really one of my first real visits to a local bonsai show and I must say it was excellent.  I really enjoyed talking to the people and seeing all the great trees at the show.  Guy Guidry is a great artist, but more importantly, he’s a hospitable person.  He welcomed everyone into his backyard and asked them to stay as long as they wished.  There were several bonsai workshops, including one working on a monstrous bald cypress where his nephew and son were wiring for a few hours.  I managed to take some pictures, but unfortunately, my camera died really early in the day.  I did get some video of the bonsai competitions, but I haven’t been able to edit it yet.  His nursery was really spectacular and I thought the prices were reasonable. Here’s a gallery of the bonsai trees that I did manage to get.  These were on display for judging by everyone that attended.  The kingsville boxwood won.