Memory Lane – Kokufu White Pine visits Newstead

It is always nice to have a distinguished visitor on the nursery and this time the guest in question was a little bit special.

This first picture was taken shortly after the tree arrived in Europe from Japan in February 2007. The tree was on the nursery of my good friend Danny Use in Belgium.

If first impressions are anything to go by this tree was very impressive right from the start…….

………but how different he looks now? Almost exactly to the day 5 years earlier in February 2002 this tree was gracing the display bench of perhaps the finest bonsai event in the world…..”The Kokufu”, a prestigious bonsai exhibition held annually in Japan.

The style, the planting angle, the pot, all have changed quite dramatically in the intervening years.

In September 2008 we held our 3rd Newstead Bonsai Extravaganza and Danny was to help our guest demonstrator from Japan, Mr Nobutaka Sakuma. I was over in Belgium prior to the event and asked Danny if I could have one of his trees to take part in the exhibition and honour is presence. To my amazement he offered me two trees, a superb Ittogawa Juniper and the above pine.

The only proviso was that as I was in a position to transport the trees immediately I would have to prune, refine and generally prepare them for the exhibition. You can imagine this task was not so much a burden but for me a great honour and privilege to be entrusted with making sure these trees would look their best over the big weekend.

The pictures show the tree in the studio during the preparation work and finally his studio/ display bench pictures at the exhibition itself.

Probably most visitors to the exhibition did not appreciate that they were in the presence of such an important guest with a remarkable history. I was thrilled to have him and happy to return him home safely……..but I think he knows he is welcome here anytime!