Author Archives: wayne

Stunning Satsuki & No Slouches

This Nikko Satsuku Azalea is from the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Japanese collection. It was donated by Masayuki Nakamura. See May 25 – June 2 below for an important upcoming event at the Museum.   May 25-26: If you’re anywhere near Slovakia next weekend and you like the name ‘Tea House of Good People’ [...]

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Wire: What’s the Difference?

Like most bonsai, this one has been wired. In fact, there’s visible wire on it right now. It’s a Shimpaku that’s from a chapter in our Masters’ Series Juniper book, titled Keiko Tamaki’s Deft Touch. Most bonsai are wired at some stage in their development. In fact, bonsai that have been around for a long [...]

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Bonsai Conspiracies

This strange and wonderful monster resides at Ryan Neil’s International Bonsai Mirai, but the photo is from Aarin Packard’s Capital Bonsai blog. Most of Aarin’s posts are from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, but this one is from a recent visit to Bonsai Mirai. Conspiracies? I probably should have titled this ‘what happens when [...]

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Forever Young? How Not to Fertilize

You can bet that this Japanese black pineĀ  (Pinus thunbergii) was fertilized with a master’s touch. Speaking of masters, this photo is from our Masters’ Series Pine Book. An American bonsai pro on fertilizing. Whenever Michael Hagedorn writes, I read, and though I am a little reluctant to tell others what to do, you might [...]

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Keeping It Close to Home – Upcoming Bonsai Events

This Shimpaku is from the home page of the Suthin Bonsai Studio website. Though magnificent Shimpaku are pretty common (especially in Japan), still, this one is distinctive in at least a couple ways: the lush crown that reaches all way down to the right gives the tree a dynamic flowing movement that adds interest, but [...]

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A Magical Land Where Almost Every House Has a Bonsai

We know this tree is very large, but exactly how large is difficult to tell (the uncropped photo immediately below might help a bit). In addition to its great size, it shows an excellent base and nebari, as well as some gnarly bumps that look a bit like melting wax. I think I can say [...]

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Dragon 3

Highly distinctive, exceptionally powerful and almost grotesque. When I first glanced at this tree, there was just a massive trunk with great taper and one of the largest sabamiki (the hollow in the trunk) ever. Then the face appeared (purely a mental projection by the way). I think the solution to this dilemma is to [...]

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Artisans Cup Postponed

This Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) belongs to Ryan Neil. The photo is from Ryan’s International Bonsai Mirai website. A guest’s guest post. The following is from Michael Hagedorns Crataegus Bonsai blog. Artisans Cup postponed until SeptemberĀ 2015 This is a guest post by Ryan Neil. I am in full support of his words here: Over [...]

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Dragon Ascending

What appear to be roots growing out of a long hollow on the side of trunk, creates a very unusual and fascinating effect. The rest of the tree isn’t half bad either and the flute player adds a playful human quality and contributes to a sense of vastness. The photo, which is courtesy of Robert [...]

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Trim, Wire, Feed, Transplant, Enjoy

Trident maple forest from Bonsai Today issue 14. Back issues of Bonsai Today are 75% off. We don’t often use Bonsai Bark to advertise our products, but in this case, because so many of you have been waiting for our Bonsai Aesthetics wire, we’re making a somewhat rare exception. Our famous and enormously popular Bonsai [...]

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