This was a little bit of Fun done for Christmas by Tony Tickle and first seen on the Internet Bonsai club 12 months ago. Reproduced this year on facebook.
Thank you Tony Tickle.

Best wishes to you all

spruce #55

Looks surprisingly real.

more winter

Waiting for Christmas

Prunus #15

Wild cherry, Prunus mahaleb
The reindeer

winter finally

Japanese beech #2

Japanese beech, Fagus creanta.
Some may wonder why I make the tree so much uglier after it looked quite good already.
Well, most amateurs would never do this, I understand. They want their trees to look their best all the time. So their trees don't really improve a lot. I believe that I can still improve this beech and accept that it will look ugly with these guy wires for one to two years. If I have done the right thing now the tree will be clearly better then. Even award winning show ready trees can be improved and should be. The better is the enemy of the good.
Last image, the tree as of 2007 in spring.

Wild cherry #9

Wild cherry, Prunus mahaleb. Pot by John Pitt too small. Second image virtual with larger pot. This is already commissioned to John Pitt.

European beech #7

European beech, Fagus sylvatica, second image as of 1998

Japanese maple #5 wired

Japanese maple, Acer palmatum

More info about Willi Benz

Go to EBA:

EBA site

Back from America

See my reports with a couple hundred pictures here:

TRAVELOGUES

Willi Benz has left us

Willi Benz has left us yesterday. We will never forget him.

International Bonsai Academy in Croatia 2011

If you go to travelogues you get some insight into what kind of trees, numbers and quality the Croatians are working with. This is mind blowing for someone who is not prepared. I am sure we will see more of Croatian bonsai.

This was the last weekend of International Bonsai Academy in 2011 in Europe.

Coming weekend we will have similar quality and quantity, only conifers in Harrisburg, Pa. Just in case you want to be there, there may be a couple of openings left. Contact Jim Doyle.

Here some glimpses. For much more go to:

Travelogues

Two Japanese maples in winter