A Quieter Tree & a Smaller House

I’ve long appreciated the subtlety of Michael Hagedorn’s bonsai. Michael tends to avoid flash and overstatement, even in some of his crazy experimental stuff.* Here’s Michael’s caption for this understated bonsai… “Japanese Maple ‘Beni-Kawa’ with an unusual pot choice, an unglazed brown.” Here’s more in Michael’s own words (from his blog)… “The decision was to show off the reddish rose of the branches and trunks, to have that be the focus. Often a key tree color is balanced by the opposing color on the color wheel—in this case, the pot would have a green glaze. By NOT going that route … Continue reading A Quieter Tree & a Smaller House

Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

This photo is from our first Bonsai Bark post. January 26th, 2009. We finally threw the switch and now you can visit our Brand New Stone Lantern Website. It’s a huge improvement and I’m sure you’ll like it As an encouragement to get you over there, we added some bonuses… every single item is on special. Some for as much as 50% off. And we’ve got several new items that weren’t on our old site And if that’s not enough, we’re offering an additional 10% off on everything for orders 50.00 or more, provided you put the sale code LAUNCH … Continue reading Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

Just Another Before & After Bonsai?

Itoigawa juniper before and after by Gabriel Romero Aguade By now you may have seen dozens, if not hundreds of before and after bonsai posts. Some were done in a matter of hours and some took years to complete. When I first saw this one, my guess was it falls into the second group; bonsai transformations that take years. – But rather than settle on a guess, I decided to ask the artist, Gabriel Romero Aguade who posted it just a couple days ago. Here’s my question… “How many years was the process? ” And here’s Gabriel’s answer… “From the … Continue reading Just Another Before & After Bonsai?

When Can You Call It Bunjin?

Bunjin (aka Literati), a style you don’t see too much in the West. I think it’s difficult to do bunjin properly. It defies our tendency to fill up space. Adding rather than subtracting, where subtracting all the way down to bare bones seems to be one of the keys. There’s much more, but I’m not that versed in the topic, so we’ll leave it at that This is the third consecutive day of our virtual visit to Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai. Today it’s some pines in Michael’s portfolio that caught my eye. Though it started unintentionally, there’s a progression based … Continue reading When Can You Call It Bunjin?

Be Smart – Don’t Water Your Bonsai by Schedule!

This illustration by Kyosuke Gun is from our Masters’ Series Juniper book (due back in print in 3 or 4 weeks). It is a perfect fit for this post that is borrowed from Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai Continuing with Michael Hagedorn from yesterday, we’ll stick with watering tips. This one originally appeared here in June, 2009 Before the real summer heat hits, consider how you are watering your trees. Have you ever seen your trees grow through spring just fine, only to get fried leaves at the first onset of early summer? Ever wonder why that happens? Those trees just … Continue reading Be Smart – Don’t Water Your Bonsai by Schedule!

A Dramatic Juniper with a Slight List to the Left

This dramatic Juniper may be leaning just a tad too far to the left (or is it just me?) Either way, too far left or just right, to my eyes its almost unbalanced feel creates just enough tension to add interest Continuing with Luis Vallejo’s bonsai, here’s one from our archives (Novemeber, 2012). All the photos shown here are from Luis Vallejo’s Museo Bonsai de Alconbendas. I borrowed them from the Bonsai Center Sopelana in Spain’s Basque Country Continued below… THREE NEW SPECIALS 25% OFF BONSAI WIRE FOR 3 OR MORE ROLLS 35% OFF ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS 25% OFF BONSAI … Continue reading A Dramatic Juniper with a Slight List to the Left

Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest

This elegant composition is a small piece of a mixed media show that Robert Steven put together (with a little help from his friends) at the Pasar Seni Art Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. If you are near Jakarta, there’s still time to catch it before it closes (March 7th is the last day) I originally found this mixed media bonsai event on Robert Steven’s fb timeline. Most of the text is in Malay and rather than rely on machine translation, I ask Robert if he could write something for this post. Here it is, in his own words… “This was … Continue reading Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest

Putting the Art in the Art of Bonsai

Magical realism? Or putting the art in the art of bonsai? Or both? I’m trying not to indulge in too much hyperbole… still, this tree expresses something completely unique*… or at the very least, a break with conventional design. And it and it’s pot are to my eye at least, simply beautiful All three trees shown here are from Hong Kong Bonsai Pots on fb. No names or attribution are provided, but I couldn’t resist anyway. Especially the one above (with closeups just below) TWO NEW SPECIALS 25% – 30% OFF bonsai & other bookS 20% OFF BONSAI CLOTHING Specials apply to … Continue reading Putting the Art in the Art of Bonsai

Bonsai Before & After – a Six Week Transformation

Before and after. The tree is a Lawson’s cypress (Chaemacyparis Louïsiana ‘Elwoodii’). Here’s the caption copied directly from Michel Delen, our source for these photos… “Chaemacyparis Louïsiana ‘Elwoodii’ AFTER Grandioos Noelanders Marc.” Continuing with our recent Marc Noelanders posts. And not by coincidence, Marc’s a headliner at the 2019 Mid Atlantic Bonsai Spring Festival (we hope to see you there) – I’m impressed. The date on the before is Feb 8th and the date on the after is March 22nd (6 weeks later). Given just how little time elapsed, it’s an remarkable transformation. All the photos are from Michel Delen’s timeline Continued … Continue reading Bonsai Before & After – a Six Week Transformation

Still Some of the Best Bonsai in the World

This pitch perfect and powerful (sorry, too much coffee this morning) Japanese beech is from Bill Valavaanis’ photos at this year’s Kokufu Exhibiton. It’s a Japanese beech. Here’s Bill’s caption… “Look at the size of the leaf buds. It must have tiny leaves. I asked, it it not a special variety, only the location were it was grown and training techniques developed the small foliage and buds.” Back to Kokufu. Still just a tip of the iceberg. As before, all the photos are from Bill Valavanis, Bonsai blog. One of our regular haunts and always a click worth making Four … Continue reading Still Some of the Best Bonsai in the World