Iowa State Fair Bonsai Show

nickbachman

Here are some pics I took at the Iowa State Fair Bonsai Show. Some of the pictures are low quality, but they were taken with a disposable camera. This year, everyone was out to beat Ron Heinen (who luckily is the person that's been giving me trees and helping me as a bonsai master/teacher), as he has won the title of Best in Show every year since the beginning of the State Fair shows, I believe. But no one succeeded in that goal, as Ron yet again took the Best in Show title, with his Ficus Nerifolia forest, pictured here:

And here is a Trident Maple, that was bought as a $1500 finished tree (not Ron's)


If I were to critique the Trident, I would say that it needs to exhibit the trunkline more in the front, and get rid of the ground suckers that were at the base of the tree (yuck.)

Attached Images

	nerifolia1.jpg (47.8 KB, 15 views)
	trident1.jpg (47.3 KB, 17 views)

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nickbachman

Ron's Seiju Elm. Notice the tiny leaf size.


Ron's MASSIVE Boxwood. This thing is HUGE. The best Boxwood I've seen.

nickbachman

Ron's Mulberry.


Ron's Chinese Elm in lacerock.

nickbachman

Ron's American Elm.


A big Ficus retusa i think. My friend's hand, which is there for some sense of scale, incidentally is blocking some nice aerial roots.

nickbachman

An interesting sakei. The trees are mediocre, but the cool thing about it is the little pond area with the little floating aquatic plant in it, found towards the bottom right.


A cool banyan Schefflera. Very large and cool up close.

nickbachman

Another boxwood.


And last but not least, a very large deadwood style, what I think was a Chinese Elm.

dbz12fan

Some good pictures. From looking at the ones you took, I don't think that the salicifolia that won best of show deserved it. I think that the scheffelera or maple seemed higher quality.

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Charles Bevan
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pdbbonsai

It seems to me, the odds are in Ron's favor with so many submissions to the show..... They are all deserving tho.. nice show.


Paul

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nickbachman

thanks for the replies gentlemen. the odds seem stacked in ron's favor because i took pictures of ron's and some others. there were easily 40 or 50 trees in the show, ron had 6 or so. about the nerifolia winning, i think it was deserved. had you seen the maple in real life, you would've noticed that it had no "real" front. it was sort of a poodle, with rings of foliage all the way around the trunk. it also had many ground suckers around the trunk....you'd think one would remove those for a show. indeed the schefflera is a nice tree, but it's presentation was not the best, as it seem to have been slapped together the week before, mostly because of all the 2x2 inch clumps of moss for ground cover that gave it a ratty look. all in all, the nerifolia forest was presented much better and looks more finished and professional than the scheff.