The Behr Bonsai Scholarship

Passing along information about a good cause for bonsai and for education.  Behr Appleby passed away in May of this year and contributed a lot of knowledge to the bonsai community.

Bonsai Vault has established a scholarship fund in the memory of Behr (Grampz) Appleby (1948-2009) to skilled students / enthusiasts of bonsai seeking a education to improve their art and the bonsai community as a whole. The scholarship will be awarded to an individual(s) for the purpose of achieving a more advanced level of bonsai.

The concept of this scholarship is to encourage and support budding bonsai artists in the fashion Behr showed and demonstrated through his commitment to the art over many, many years. In turn, any individual(s) receiving this scholarship must, with in one year of the award, demonstrate to the Behr Bonsai Scholarship Fund the knowledge that they have acquired. This demonstration of knowledge must be displayed in four distinct different ways.

Here’s more information and a button to donate:  The Behr Bonsai Scholarship

Here’s the forum thread showing the balance of the fund:  Scholarship Balance and Contributions

bonsai scholarship

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Indian Hawthorn

As a groomsmen’s gift for my best man, I had bought this tree in hopes of giving it to him to grow eventually into a bonsai. Fortunately, I found a great bald cypress at a good price instead. The bald cypress will be much easier to take care of for a beginner bonsai artist because it’s so tough. This indian hawthorn will have to just stay in my collection while I explore the possibilities of where it should go and it lets me know where it wants to go. Some have very large leaves and multiple trunks, but this one has a nice single trunk and smaller leaves than many of the other varieties. Should stand up to the summer heat and be easy to take care of. It’ll either be a great bonsai specimen one day, or an excellent addition to my garden 🙂

Indian Hawthorn

I give you…the bonsai lineup

Finally got moved to a new house with a lot more room inside and out.  The yard is a blank slate of possibilities for planting and I’m really trying to ramp up my landscaping skills.  Hopefully, this will translate into a better yard, and some better collected bonsai specimens in the future.  My bonsai are not in the best of spots, but it will do for now.  After over 4 weeks of high temperatures being between 98-100 degrees, several are showing signs of severe stress.  The southern climate can be a tough one, but I’ve chosen trees that have proven themselves to be winners in this area.  It hasn’t been fun watering every single day without fail for over a month, but it will hopefully pay off with some prized bonsai specimens.  Here’s the lineup: