2022 NEW TALENT CONTEST AND SHIMPAKU JUNIPER - 2ND PLACE

In May of 2022 I participated in the national Joshua Roth/ABS New Talent Contest in Mississippi where I was fortunate enough to have taken 2nd place (in a very narrow margin off 1st place - I won the common vote by a Mississipi Mile, but missed the judges full support by 1 vote). Regardless, a very special time and I met so many great people... That whole show is a forever memory having been such a rad time.

Here is some before and after pics of my entry, as provided by Brussels Bonsai, Shimpaku Juniper





Funny aside... In the very last 20-30 minutes of the contest allotted time, I ran outside and gathered moss, to cover the future repotting angle hump... The other contestants noticed it either right before or after the clock struck and so they ran out of time (after all of us having ALL DAY to have thought of it sooner)... AND YET, most all of them had added moss to their trees AFTER the contest ended but before the judging... for shame for shame... hahahah mostly joking but not totally. 

And here is how the tree looks as of late 2025 comfortably housed in a piece of beautiful crockery by Eli Watkins.  



Below are the pics I submitted in order to be considered for the contest... I'm including them here in order to give a perspective of my work I thought was worthy of submitting as of the late 2021 application.



















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