Bonsai nurserys near Anaheim CA?

Joanie

I'll be up in Anaheim on Sat. May 21st (this Sat.) dropping my son and his friend off at an RC Car convention at the Convention Center. (VRRRRROOOM) Are there any good bonsai nurserys nearby? Suggestions

Thank you, anyone who might know!

Joanie

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TreeBay

There are several nurseries in the greater Los Angeles area Search on "Nursery Tour" posts by bonsaial1 (there are at least three parts)

Here you go for the first part, which I think is L.A region:

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...s=&threadid=813

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Joanie

Thank you! I forgot about Bonsaial's thread!

That's EXACTLY what I wanted!

Joanie

Bonsainut

That will be fun for you Joanie. Except for Marumiya , they have gone out of business, bummer.

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Keep growing,---'Nut



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Joanie

So it looks like House of Bonsai, and Chikugo-En. Thanks for the heads up, Nut. I was going to call them all tomorrow to make sure they still existed and would be open Saturday. Do you have any more suggestions?

Joanie

Joanie

Well, I dropped off the boy-child and his friend at the RC Car convention and went on down the road to the two nurseries listed above, House of Bonsai and Chikugo-En.

First was House of Bonsai, in Lakewood. It's a very large nursery, long and narrow under the tall steel electrical power lines. They have a fantastic collection of conifers and pines, from largest to smallest. But I love the flowering and fruiting trees, mostly shohin sized, and I wasn't disappointed. Just walking in the heat, along the dusty, gravelly paths was an adventure. Each species or cultivar had a large selection....instead of a dozen or two, there were often more like fifty trees! And it was serissa heaven, even though they were sitting out on black landscape cloth and in the bright sun. Not as green and vibrant as they would have been in the shade, and full of snails, nevertheless the 1 gal. varigated serissas often had a trunk as thick as my finger, with nice gnarly bark. Ten dollars. They also had snow rose serissas, same deal. And there were at least fifty of each! It was just heaven, going through and choosing a couple, with the sun beating down relentlessly on my neck. Then, corokia cotoneaster...with nice trunks and a good size. Very appealing, with their contorted branches! Rather sparse on foliage, these seem to be. Fifteen dollars each for the one gallons. Pomegranates.....love them! They had a ton, from dwarf to regular sized flowers. Nice, heavy, gnarly trunks for little 4" liner pots. Can't remember how much, but pretty reasonable. They had grafted Blue Atlas Cedar in 1 gallon as well, fifteen dollars each I think. Their prices seemed pretty high on the books, tools, wire etc. however. Maybe I'm spoiled...they had the Naka #2 book for $44.00. They did have a good supply of soils, including Akadama and Kanuma. (sp?) They give classes as well. Nice pots, lots of them. But I was a little put off by the health of some of the trees, many were in full sun that should have been in shade or part shade, and the black cloth didn't help. Lots of roots growing out of pots and into the ground, in some cases down into the landscape cloth. The other big negative was....no prices and very few tags giving species names. People were confused, and asking each other (oh, that's a lot of help!) what things were and how much they cost. You had to carry the tree waaaaaaaay up to the front to find out how much it was. Then if you wanted another one you had to go waaaaaaaay back and get it. The greenhouse or shadehouse containing the nicest material was full to the brim with Korean Hornbeam, collected trees, etc. but again very few prices. And many were pretty darned expensive. However, in the end, it was quite fun to browse and I spent about $80.

Went on down the road to Chikugo-En, in Gardena, about twenty minutes away. I fell in love with the place! Just the opposite of House of Bonsai....super tiny, shoehorned in between a Korean BBQ and a gas station. The lady and man (her son?) were very friendly and available to answer questions. The plants were in obviously better health, much brighter and better tended. They had nice little olives in 4" pots for six dollars, very nice little Kingsville boxwoods for between $6 and $14 I believe, and a LOT of collected Calif. Junipers, whose prices I didn't ask! Their prices on tools and pots seemed better, although without a head to head comparison I couldn't say for sure.(Although I believe that their Naka #2 book was $38 but I didn't write it down so can't be sure) Maybe I just felt more...at home... and more welcomed there. A fantastic selection, lots of shohin sized trees in all stages of training, and everywhere you looked there was something intriguing. How about a wisteria that is already flowering for $18!! Their semi-trained trees seemed less expensive but were generally smaller. Again, spent $80 give or take a buck.

Every bonsai nursery has it's own personality, it seems. Unlike the big chain nurseries, the little bonsai places have an individual flavor. It was really neat to be able to pick through so many serissas, pomegranates, New Zealand Tea Trees, azaleas, maples, Korean Hornbeams, etc. at the big sprawling House of Bonsai, and it was the finish to a great day being crowded in at every turn by the wonderful trees at Chikugo-En. I would visit both again, and plan to in the near future.

Joanie, trying to fit twelve more potensai into the collection!