Kaede Bonsai En
Before our flight out to Japan, I took advantage of the(extraordinarily rare for a Chef like me) time I forced off to spend a day at Kaede Bonsai-En, with the organizer of this little adventure, Matt Ouwinga. I’ve known Matt for a couple of years, but this was the first time we’ve met in person and the first time I’ve seen his wonderful garden. In addition to a whole load of Japanese and Trident Maples(Kaede Bonsai-En, duh), Matt has a very impressive collection of shohin and chuhin bonsai of various species: Shimpaku, Japanese Black and White Pine, Obai(winter jasmine), Chojubai, Stinky Maple, Ginko….et al. Et al.

Chojubai in a Gekkou pot, a great match. This one was plopped into this pot for this years’ rounds of National Shows…alas. Hopefully Matt will display something nice at the Chicago show instead. The smart money’s on him if he does…