A couple of week ago I had the honor and pleasure of teaching at the Tropical Bonsai Symposium, sponsored by Bonsai Shohin Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The previous two blog entries have photos from that beautiful exhibition of unique tropical species trained for bonsai. The group arranged for me a couple of unique garden visits.
Gustavo A. Bures
In the morning of the first day, I visited the home and gardens of Gustavo Bures filled with Asian art antiques and of course tropical bonsai. He is a prominent architect with exquisite taste.
Both his home and gardens are an eclectic treasure. Every room was filled with superb Asian art, even the bathrooms and bedroom. If this were not enough of surprise Gustavo has a large collection of bonsai, both large and small. Mostly perfectly matched in Chinese containers. Every inch of his expansive garden was full of bonsai, even a small garden outside his bathroom.
While looking around trying to appreciate the beauty I looked up to the second-floor bonsai garden on his roof. Against recommendations I made it up (and down) safely with assistance. The rooftop collection of bonsai was worth the danger of the stairs.
Pedro A. Morales
On another visit we stopped by Pedro Morales’ Futago Bonsai School. His garden feature exquisite bonsai artistically displayed throughout the garden. It’s been several years since I’ve visited Pedro and he has expanded quite a bit. He recently designed and constructed a large classroom for his classes, air-conditioned of course. It was 98F during my visit. Each student has a six-foot metal table that rolls. A large television was permanently mounted on the front wall so he could show images during his classes. Many of his bonsai are quite large needing an army of strong men, or fork-lift to move. Like many seasoned bonsai artists, he is selling many of his large bonsai.
Joel Morales
After visiting Pedro’s bonsai school, we walked a few houses down the street to see his son’s bonsai collection. Joel Morales is Pedro’s first son. Since birth he has been exposed and has practiced bonsai. His father taught him well as his bonsai collection, while not as large as his father’s was outstanding.
Every tree was carefully groomed and well cared for. Professionally he is an architect and sometimes works with Gustavo’s bonsai collection. Joel also collects middle east and Asian art and has an excellent eye for quality and taste.
Jarden Selecto– Carlos A. Morales
I spent considerable time with Carlos, who is Pedro’s cousin. His family runs a long-established popular garden center which has a huge selection of tropical bonsai, ornamental tropical trees, orchids and of course associated supplies.
He had a unique hanging four shelf hanging display connected with chains for displaying orchids. Everything necessary for bonsai creation, care and appreciation could be found in his garden center. He even has an air-conditioned classroom, did I mention it was 98F during my three-day visit?
He teaches many students. And the garden center was always busy with paying customers for ornamental material. Like other tropical bonsai collections many of his bonsai are huge, but not quite as large of those found in Pedro’s garden. Big bonsai require big pots, and he sells a wide selection of containers of all quality and sizes up to four feet. As I was looking at his containers one caught my eye. While I was not looking for specific pot for a tree, I found the perfect pot for a tree I was going to look for in Japan in a couple of weeks but found just what I was looking for here thanks to Carlos. So, a few friends helped me pack the pot for the trip home. This story continues with the next blog entry, but the pot came home in one piece!
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