Admiring the 50-year-old Bougainvillea, 42-year-old Hibiscus

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Nearly 400 varieties of bonsai trees are on display at the Bonsai and Aesthetics of Gardening exhibition that attracted garden lovers at the Kushabhau Thackeray Convention Center in the city on Saturday. The trees displayed include bougainvillea, banyan, jade, premana and prakhar.

Mayor Malti Rai inaugurated the two-day exhibition on Saturday. Forty members of Green Waves Foundation have displayed 200 varieties of bonsai trees in six categories including Informal, Root Over Rock, Forest, Sohin, Landscape and Windswept in the exhibition cum competition.

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Twenty-year-old Bougainvillea, eight-year-old Ficus Forest, three-year-old Premna, seven-year-old Gamelina, four-year-old Bodhi Peepal and two-year-old Moonscaping won the first position in the competition. Foundation chairperson and bonsai artist Mamta Mishra displayed over 100 bonsai trees grown by her over the last 35 years.

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These include more than 50 years old Bougainvillea, 42 years old Hibiscus, 24 years old Banyan and 20 years old Sweet Neem. The 50-year-old bougainvillea was gifted to her by her mentor, late Jyoti Pandya, to take care of. They also demonstrated penjing bonsai, the ancient Chinese art of artfully depicting trees, other plants and landscapes in miniature form.

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Mamta, who is the founding faculty of the Digital Bonsai School launched by the South Asia Bonsai Federation, has spent over three decades nurturing the passion for the art of Bonsai. Anita Bajpai, secretary of the foundation, has displayed more than 50 bonsai trees, mostly in the landscape and broken pot categories.

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Anita inherited her father's love for plants, rocks, animals and every creation of nature. Lecture on rose cultivation and its maintenance by Sushil Prakash, former President of Rose Society and Ikebana demo and workshop by Sujatha Bhatt were also conducted.