Memory Lane – Newstead 3 2008 Pines on show

This was our third Newstead show so by now we were really getting into the swing of things. I suppose you could say we now knew what we were doing so it should be easier but then again…….each show had to be better than the one before, each show had to be different, a new display garden, different and better trees.

You could say it just got harder and harder……but each time we managed to pull it off……thanks to all my dedicated helpers, and to the many exhibitors who somehow just managed to keep finding different and better trees for the enjoyment of our many visitors.

I have to say 2008 was a good year for pines. We had some very big pines and some tiny ones. We had White Pines, Black Pines, Red Pines, Scots Pines and even a Shore Pine.

We had some pines new to the show bench vying for glory amongst their more illustrious experienced neighbours…….and some of their neighbours really were quite famous….

We had a pine that had been shown at the prestigious Kokufu exhibition in Japan, another pine had come from the nursery of Shinji Suzuki’s father, whilst another had once been with Daizo Iwasaki in Japan.

One impressive pine had been created by Dan Barton whilst another from Craig Coussin’s  collection had a very notable history.

Some of our pines had a very natural style, some were on or clinging to rocks, some came with a very strong Japanese style. each pine had a striking beauty in it’s own right and was proudly there for all to see and admire.

So I have given you all the information you need now all you have to do is try and guess which pine is which!!!

Don’t worry if you are not sure, just enjoy the memory and the bonsai artist’s expertise…..forget everything else that was there over the weekend the pines alone were well worth the visit!