The Japanese maple that Walter Pall uses to illustrate his ‘hedge-cutting method.’ This photo was taken four years after Walter started working with this tree. The before photo is below. Walter Pall’s hedge-cutting method. Our last post presented a radical approach to soil and feeding by Walter Pall, the great bonsai innovator. This post features [...]
The following review of Bill Valavanis’ new Classical Bonsai Art is borrowed from Andy Rutledge’s Bonsai Journal. Andy has a knack for digging into books and bringing out nuggets of gold. In this vein (sorry bout that) Andy’s reviews include good and bad (his own words) sections, though the latter doesn’t really apply in this [...]
These three popular Haskill Creek bonsai books are back in print after being gone for about a year. One of the great things about these books is that each topic is completely unique. You simply won’t find the subjects covered in any other bonsai books. To thank you for your patience, we are offering these [...]
Japanese beech forest on a curved slab. From Bonsai Today issue 24. Artist unknown. Japanese beech (Fagus crenata), with their striking white bark, strong trunks (often with excellent nebari) and beautiful smallish leaves, are a favorite of many bonsai artists, especially in Japan. Unfortunately, they aren’t that easy to find her in North America and [...]
We’ve featured this tree before, but now I can’t find it (read, just back from vacation, too much to do and don’t want to be bothered). It looks kinda Ilex like, but neither my guessing skills nor my memory are up to much. Anyway, it’s a great little tree (if you can take your eyes [...]
It’s all about the deadwood (and the crown). Deadwood is sometimes overplayed, especially on Shimpaku. But even though the deadwood is dominant on this tree, the powerful and well constructed crown offers a good sense of balance. All three photos in this post are from Marco Invernizzi’s website. I’m still on vacation, so we’ll make [...]
You’ll never guess what happened to this tree (unless you’ve seen our Masters’ Series Juniper book or Bonsai Today issue 21). Here’s a hint: it was flipped upside down somewhere along the way from where it started (below) to where it ended (above). The artist is Masahiko Kimura, aka The Magician. Bonsai Today back issues [...]
This is what can happen when you have a great rock and excellent plant material to work with (a little skill doesn’t hurt either). It’s by Norboru Kaneko, from our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Last post we featured the development of a root-on-rock planting by Norboru Kaneko from our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Here are [...]
The result. It’s a Needle juniper (with secondary plants and moss) root-on-rock planting by Noboru Kaneko. All the photos in this post are from our Masters’ Series Juniper Bonsai book. Something I’ve noticed in my countless hours of internet bonsai journeys, is how seldom you see good root-on-rock bonsai (or root-over-rock bonsai for that matter). [...]
What a great photo. It helps to have such an excellent subject for sure (Japanese black pine). It’s from post titled ‘The Dark Horse’ on the Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog. The full tree and pot are shown below. There’s really not much of theme going on with this post, other than a digital tour of [...]
The idea is to promote and expand the bonsai universe by offering pithy commentary and occasional barking on its art, science and culture; with an emphasis on how-to projects.