Nothing will get me out of bed early on Saturday if it does not involve a sale of some sort. Big Joe and I planned on heading to Kimura Nursery as early as they open. So I made an effort to get out to the valley early enough to miss all the morning traffic and get breakfast before heading to Kimura Bonsai Nursery. After picking up Big Joe and a huge breakfast at Galpin Ford, we head off to the nursery with 20minutes before the sale beginning. To my horror the doors were open before 9:00am!!! I'm one of those that love to get to a sale first so I can get a good selection of stuff.
By judging at the amount of cars and the number of bodies in the nursery I can safely say 2-3 parties got into the nursery before the official opening time. After a quick look around I found 1-2 trees that caught my eye; Big Joe also had several trees he liked but we wanted to say our greetings to Bob Pressler before we got in any further.
Bob was hiding in this workshop working on a rather nice California Juniper. I was laughing because where Bob was sitting, he could see everybody that walked in but no one would know if he was there if you did not walk into the workshop; kinda like a one way mirror of sorts. I almost died and fell to the floor because with Bob's new hair cut; I found my long lost bonsai brother. Check out the photo below. I thought i was the only nut to get a crew cut at my age.
Sorry for the backlit photo, was trying to get a selfie with Bob.
Kimura Bonsai Nursery had a ton of material for everybody. You really had to search around if you were looking for particular prebonsai tree. Bob had an impressive cork oak from a 20" container for $275.00. I was eyeing this tree for a bit but, it was way to large for me to handle. He also had some really good chinese hackberry shohin for around $100-$150. Willow Leaf Ficus in 5gallon for a killer $45! If you been wanting to make a forest this sale is for you he had enough material on hand to make all sorts of forests. I think the deal of the day came down to Big Joe. He found several 5 gallon Silverberry tree for just $15!!! Now you are wondering after getting up early what did I get? Well, I have been eyeing a Yaupon Holly for awhile, after asking Bob he said there were 3 Yaupon Holly some where on the floor for sale. After requesting Jorge "Bob's right hand man" where are the Yaupon Hollies; two where found! Another shopper had the 3rd one on her cart. I selected this one because of the nice trunk and wide nebari. I think this tree will make a nice multi trunk shohin one day!
After several hours hanging out with Bob and talking to other shoppers at the nursery. I was rather surprised to see people from all over the state of California. It was almost like a Mini GSBF convention. He had people coming from as far away as the Central Coast, Fresno, and to the south as San Diego.
I have to say the sale really give the bosnai community a reason to come out and support our local bonsai nursery. I hope Bob had some impressive numbers to show, that a sale once in while is great for busines! If you missed last weekend's sale do not dispair! Bob is continue the sale this weekend (Saturday 9/5). He still has a ton of material on the floor and he even said he might throw in some pots for sale for this weekend's sale! (I might have to go back to see what pots he might have...) Thank you Bob for giving me an excuse to buy another tree!