I have heard of Steve's name pop-up from different people and conventions. So I had to figure who this guy is in the bonsai world.
So through the interweb I found this photo of Steve with Ryan Neil. So if Steve is good enough for Ryan, I should meet this with this Steve DaSilva while, we were in the Fresno area.
So after several FaceBook messages and couple of texts we finally meet in person. I did not know Steve has been in the bonsai circles for many years, and been presenting his knowledge at Fresno City College every Friday for the past several years. Its also welcoming that he is also a fellow educator.
The greatest part of visiting other artist home or nursery is you get a sense of their likes and dislikes. What they specialize in and how they cultivate their trees in his or her's micro climate.
Looking through Steve's collection he has a large shohin collection. Not to the degree of Peter Macasieb but still a depth of a collection. He also has many species that do well in the hot dry climate of California's Central Valley.
I'm a collector of quince species and it was nice to see a large leaf chojubai and white chojubai quince in his collection.
It always amazes me how people proprograte their stock and how they keep a stream of material coming into the bonsai community. Steve has an advantage verse all of us. He lives on an active farm!
Some of his growing material and how he grows plants in the ground. Again, I wished I had land to also do this at my home.
Steve is one well connected guy; pretty much everybody we saw in the central valley area he knew. Then, again bonsai community is only separated by a degree or two from each other.
What you normally do not see everyday. A shohin ivy bonsai. Sometimes you just have to think outside of the box and Steve does.
As we leave that day, Steve shows us one of his student's project and outdoor shohin display stand! Btw, Steve is sitting on an outdoor tokonama he built several weeks ago so he can show and practice displaying on a weekly bases. Again a really cool idea! Please, if you see this guy area at conventions or shows walk up and say hello! He really knowledgable and down right an awesome guy. Thanks Steve for hosting Big Joe and I thank day! I see you at the show in a couple of weeks!