Next up we visited Akiyama San, followed by Shunkaen and Kobayashi San. Both were great visits! Akiyama San was Peter’s Sempai at Shunkaen, so trips to both nurseries were comfortable and relaxed. I’m sure many of you got to meet and work with Akiyama San at his during his visit to the Mid Atlantic earlier this year.
Akiyama San

The entrance to the Nursery

Super nice, award winning Shimpaku. Fantastic pot match and highly refined.

Ume

Momiji

A massive Momiji

Various, Beeches, Ginko, and Zelcova

A massive yamadori juniper in development with foliage grafts. The deadwood on this is simply amazing!

Elegant, but powerful, White pine

White pines. Note the foliage differences.

Various bonsai stretching away into the distance.

Super nice chuhin Tosho

Japanese Yew, Taxus Cuspidata

Japanese Yew, Taxus Cuspidata

Yew? I’m not sure, but I think some of these may be Hemlock.

More Yew!

Ezo Spruce.

Large and fantastic Yamadori

Nice Shohin Shimpaku

Really great Shishigashira maple in an Ikkou pot.

The back of Akayama Sans famous Shimpaku

Some really spectacular deadwood Shimpaku

Large Osteomeles.

Some great deadwood on a Yew.

Seas of world class Shimpaku

Yamadori Shimpaku in development.

Pines in development

A sea of Ume.

The rooftop garden, with row after Row of beeches in development in styrofoam boxes.

Ume

Massive maple in old Canton pot.

A bunch of Chojubai Ishizuke in development.

Chojubai Ishizuke

Tall elegant upright Kaede

Shohin!

Incredible Deadwood!!!

And, we’ll finish up our visit to Akiyama San with this simple Hosta in a very nice Kutani pot
Shunkaen
Of course, I couldn’t wait to see Shunkaen, and Kobayashi San is known the world over. Peter was very gracious in giving us the Deshi tour, explanation of Display and formality, and being an all around good bloke.

The Entrance to the Shunkaen garden and museum(and that’s Neil Dellinger you can see walking in).

Rows upon rows of Momiji. As I understand it, most of these were added to the nursery in the last year.

Huge Momiji in development

Awesome Kaede on Stone, Large Chojubai, and Satsuki

Elegant, and massive, multi trunk Momiji

Famous Chojubai Root over Rock

Elegant Momiji. You’ll not the hanging bags. These are to keep away the dreaded Asian Long Horned Beetle, a borer whose larvae can cause significant damage, and is the #1 reason it’s so difficult to bring bonsai home. They’ve been a problem at the nursery in the past, and small areas of cut paste at the base of many maples is remaining evidence of their past destructive presence.

Big Root over Rock Kaede

Massive Kaede

Big Satsuki with stone

A few more shots of great Maples. The massive Arakawa and Shishigashira are personal favorites.

Some Root over Kaede.

Massive and very refined Karin(Chinese Quince). The exfoliating bark on this species is one of of my favorite features of any species.

A large old Broom Zelcova

Big Shimpaku, an the back exit. If you look to the right, I’ve mysteriously appeared in my own photo. That’s me in the Black Flag shirt 😉

Fascinating Jin on collected pine

Cascade Ume

Satsuki

Big boy Eleagnus

The Back Garden

The back garden from the side

Some more views of the rear garden

Mr. Saruyama explains principles of display formality and style.

The new pond.

From the opposite side, the new pond.

Kobayashi San gives us a show with the koi. They are trained to respond to Mr. Kobayashi clapping, and swim up for food. I’ve rarely seen anyone so joyous feeding fish! Mr. Kobayashi’s enthusiasm for many things is infectious!

Osteomeles.

Massive Satsuki with a towel to protect the roots an lower trunk from direct sun.

Excellent Hawthorn.
Pines
While Mr. Kobayashi is famous for many things(Satsuki, Pottery Collecting, Suiseki), he is perhaps most famous in the west for his pines.

The center Garden with massive Pines in a ring.

Massive Pines.

Slanting Kuromatsu

More big boy pines.

Elegant Cascade Pine

Root over rock black pine. If you look close, you can see gaps between the stone and roots have been filled with cement.

Bark!!!

Bark and natural appearing Jin on a large pine.

Massive Black Pines.

We’ll return to Shunkaen, in the last two posts, for a closer look at a couple of those big pines, and some detail shots of a few species, and, then, of course, to look at the Pottery at the museum.

Thanks for reading! Up next, we visit Mr. Kimura, Stay Tuned!