Win Our $50 Japanese Red Pine Bonsai Contest & Wire All the Way Out to the Tips

A mystery tree and a little contest (below). This is the second time for this Japanese red pine, even though we still don’t know who the artist is. The photo turned up on Michael Bonsai back in 2012. I’m guessing it lives in Japan, but I’ve searched Japanese red pine bonsai high and low and can’t find it. The contest: the first person to email me valid information on this tree that is not from Bonsai Bark or Michael Bonsai with a link as proof, will win a 25.00 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. If you include the name of … Continue reading Win Our $50 Japanese Red Pine Bonsai Contest & Wire All the Way Out to the Tips

Judging Bonsai – Just for the Fun of It

These seven bonsai were part of a recent contest. They are in no particular order here, just my attempt to randomize. The challenge for you is to come up with your five best in order. Explanations with each pick are welcome, though not necessary. The honor system. There is no reward for winning. In fact, we won’t choose winners. The reason for this is; the contest and results have been published elsewhere with some detailed explanations. We’ll post this information later, but for now it would be more fun to see your results, before you go looking for the original … Continue reading Judging Bonsai – Just for the Fun of It

Extreme Bonsai Beauty & Thank You for Your Patience

Once again Extreme Beauty is back and once again we could only get ten copies (don’t ask). If you’d like to know more about this remarkable book, here’s something from last year. We’ll make this short and sweet (lot’s of traveling these days so it’s hard to keep up with everything).   Speaking of keeping up… we haven’t forgotten about our Bonsai Detective Contest. I promise we’ll have the results soon. Thank you for your patience. Bad news, good news. Our wire sale ended last night and our tool sale began this morning. 20% off all Bonsai tools and Garden … Continue reading Extreme Bonsai Beauty & Thank You for Your Patience

Bonsai Detectives – Win a $100 Gift Certificate

(A) I found this spectacular olive online with no attribution or identification of any sort. I know I’ve seen before, but don’t remember where. Maybe you can help me. We’ll call it tree A. The contest. If you want to skip directly to the contest, scroll down to the bottom of the post. European olives are not a traditional bonsai variety. If you were to surmise that this is because they don’t occur in Japan or China, I think you’d be correct. However, as is the case with many Western native trees, all this is changing (actually, it has been … Continue reading Bonsai Detectives – Win a $100 Gift Certificate

Raw Energy & Backwards Bonsai

This powerful Nea buxifolia by Nelson Hernandez won 3rd place in the 2013 World Bonsai Federation Bonsai Photo Contest. You don’t see too many Nea bonsai outside the tropics, though they do pop up from time to time. Buxifolia means ‘box leaf ‘or ‘boxwood leaf’ which seems suitable for a variety with such tiny leaves. This one is resides in Puerto Rico. This and the other two photos in this post are from the North American Bonsai Federation. Third first? I’m not trying to make a statement by showing the 2013 WBFF photo contest third place tree first and the … Continue reading Raw Energy & Backwards Bonsai

Shed Some Light & Win a 25.00 Gift

Cropped photo of an amazing Sabina juniper (uncropped version below). It’s from KINGII blogspot. Here’s the Spanish caption Nombre de esta sabina rastrera de Luis, se le puso tras el primer modelado, ya que la primera rama era tan amplia que parecía una bandeja. Nunca había salido en ningún lado, asñiq ue se puede considerar una presentación en sociedad,  a pesar de que lleva unos 5 años en casa. Here’s how you can win a 25.00 Stone Lantern gift certificate Be the first person to send a sensible translation of the Spanish above (in perfect or near perfect English). Don’t … Continue reading Shed Some Light & Win a 25.00 Gift

$100 Contest: Choosing the Right Pot

The idea for choosing the best pot for this tree belongs to Boon Manakitivipart, as do all the photos in this post. The idea for turning this into a contest belongs to me. This is our second post on Choosing the Right Pot in the last few weeks (December 14. 2013). The tree is a Chinese cork bark elm. All the photos were borrowed from Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon). The Contest: To to eligible to win the $100 Stone Lantern gift certificate you must do the following three things. 1. Choose your favorite pot & tree combination from the … Continue reading $100 Contest: Choosing the Right Pot

Not Shimpaku part 2

Maybe it’s not perfect, but given the limits of the variety (Jun procumbens ‘nana’), it’s pretty good. In fact, it’s one of the very best pro-nana I’ve seen. It belongs to Thomas J. Mozden, as do all but the last tree in this post. It’s from a 2009 contest that was held on The Art of Bonsai Project. I was going to call this post Lone Star and feature the bonsai of Thomas Mozden who lives in Texas, but I got distracted along the way by the whole Juniper procumbens ‘nana’ question  (see our ‘Not Shimpaku’ post and comments from … Continue reading Not Shimpaku part 2

Weekly Wire, Bonsai Comic, Shohin Maffia & A Colorful Bonsai Celebration

Look familiar? You may have seen this most excellent Mario Komsta pine before. In fact, it’s possible that we’ve already featured it right here, though I can’t find when or where. Anyway, if we did already show it; it was good then and it’s still good now.   Do you recognize this tree? If so, It’s not too late to enter our Bonsai Detectives $250 Mystery Contest.   Shohin Maffia? I guess you know what shohin means and you probably have a pretty good grasp of maffia too (even with the double f). Now you can see what happens when … Continue reading Weekly Wire, Bonsai Comic, Shohin Maffia & A Colorful Bonsai Celebration

Mystery Bonsai Contest

Tree number 1. This one’s a mystery to me. Win a $100 gift certificate The first person to identify the artist and the species of all 6 trees will win a $100 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. If no one identifies all six, then the first person to identify five of the six will win an $80 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. If the winner identifies only 4, then the prize is a $60 gift certificate to Stone Lantern (and so forth). Email you answers to me! wayne@stonelantern.com. Answers posted in comments below WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED! Contest end September … Continue reading Mystery Bonsai Contest