Rocky Mountain bliss. The dates are June 17-20 21-24. Here’s the ABS link, and here’s the BCI link.

Our Stone Lantern warehouse will be closed the week of  April 16th
All orders received that week will be charged and shipped the following week on a first-come, first-served basis.

Overrun by spam
If you didn’t see your comment on a recent Bonsai Bark post it’s because our spam filter gave up on us and we were overwhelmed by spam for a few crazy days. We’ve got a new filter now and it seems to be up to the task, so things should be back to normal.

Suthin Sukosolvisit will be at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum for the Potomac Bonsai Festival, May 4 – May 6
Here’s the whole scoop, straight from the National Bonsai Foundation’s website: Co-sponsored by the Potomac Bonsai Association (PBA), the National Bonsai Foundation, and the U.S. National Arboretum, this unique festival features a show of PBA member trees, a new-talent competition and a vendor tent filled with bonsai trees and supplies. A juried exhibit of bonsai will be on view in the Special Exhibits Wing of the museum. Free demonstrations will be given by PBA members and bonsai master Suthin Sukosolvisit. There will also be fee-based workshops.

Smiling Suthin. We don’t usually feature photos of people in this blog, but I couldn’t resist. Suthin will be at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in May (see directly above).

Ficus review. I stumbled upon this Columbus Bonsai Societies review of the book, Ficus, the Exotic Bonsai while I was looking for the Society’s  reviews of our pine and juniper books (the good people of Columbus assure me that these reviews are coming soon).

Another masterpiece by Isao Omachi. Two distinctive features jump out at first glance: that strange round whirl at the top of the trunk, and the luscious crown. If you linger for a moment, you might also notice the web of small branches that support the crown and the negative space created by the trunk’s split shari.

Save the date! June 9th and 10th. The world bonsai community will be again enriched by the display of bonsai gathered from across the United States for the 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. See you there!

World class bonsai books. Soon there will be three (and then four, and so forth). We have a limited number of these beautiful collectors’ books left. When they’re gone, they be gone; they won’t be reprinted.

Viva Brasil! This one looks good and there’s plenty of time to plan.

Bonsai Slovakia. This one also looks good, but you better hurry.

Delicious, delicate color. From the New Korea Bonsai Museum.

Capital Bonsai, Ryan Neil & Nature’s Way Nursery. We featured a post from the Capital Bonsai blog not too long ago. We’ve also featured Ryan Neil’s bonsai several times, but I don’t think we’ve ever featured Nature’s Way Nursery. Now, with a simple click, you can enjoy all three in one place.

Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by It? Jakuch? (1716–1800) at the US National Gallery of Art until April 29th.

Speaking of Bonsai Masters: We almost never use the term here on Bonsai Bark or at Stone Lantern. In fact, I think we’ve used it only for Masahiko Kimura and Kunio Kobayashi. This is not to say there aren’t others in their league, it just that it’s such a tricky term that’s so often misused, that it’s easier to just avoid it and stick with Bonsai Artist.

Joy of Bonsai. Kawa Bonsai (member of Bonsai Societies of Florida) is hosting the 10th Annual Joy of Bonsai in January. Our favorite shohin artist Suthin Sukosolvisit (Royal Bonsai) will be there. This is not to say that Suthin does shohin exclusively. His skill with larger bonsai, like his skill with Shohin bonsai, place him among the elite bonsai artists.

The best Holiday gift just might be a Okatsune hand tool.
I think Okatsune tools are the best garden tools in world (barring individually hand crafted tools). We’ve got them at Stone Lantern, and they are all discounted. Take a look for yourself. You’ll like what you see.

This world class Okatsune hand pruner is discounted from 79.00 to only 59.00 at Stone Lantern.

Bonsai from Scratch results. We are waiting for the results for one more of our illustrious judges. Don’t worry, as soon as we have them all, we’ll post them here and we’ll send out a newsletter.

More fuel for the fire. A couple posts ago we broached the subject of highly sculpted more abstract bonsai and naturalistic bonsai (it’s an old topic on Bonsai Bark). Here’s an excellent example of the former. It’s a Juniper procumbens by Marco Invernizzi, who is, among other things a student of Masahiko Kimura.

Shohin 2012. The famous California Shohin Seminar is scheduled for February 4-6. As usual, it will take place in Santa Nella.

One big bad Poderosa pine. That’s Ryan Neil of International Bonsai Mirai tackling an almost incomprehensibly massive Ponderosa that was collected by Randy Knight. The photo is from a slideshow on International Bonsai Mirai. BTW: Ryan is, like Marco (above), a student of Masahiko Kimura.

Bonsai in Chile. Exposición y Concurso Achibo 2011 takes place Saturday Nov 26th en el centro cultural de la reina, más información…

Bonsai Art magazine. Got our copy of Bonsai Art recently. It’s still one of our favorite bonsai mags. The quality of the trees, photography and overall production is the best. I can’t say much about the text (my German is primitive, to say the least), but my guess is that it’s not bad either.

Sound and sight. A sweet mix of music, dance, bonsai and suiseki from the 2nd Japanese Culture Festival and 6th International Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition that took place this year in Vilnius (Lithuania).

Top dressing. Bonsai Tonight has study of top dressings from the East Bay Bonsai Society’s 50th Anniversary Show.

The Amador Bonsai Society is located in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains (in the Heart of the Mother Lode). Their website won the Gold State Bonsai Federation Website of the Year Award for 2011.

End of the line for Bonsaiautumn. In our last post we featured a remarkable hornbeam by Andy Doerfliger. Andy is a key player in Europe’s Bonsaiautumn show. This year featured the 7th, and unfortunately, last show in the series.

Jerry Meislik, author of Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai, presents a wealth of information on Tropical/Indoor bonsai culture and care on his website.

Iowa Bonsai Association‘s meetings are held at the Des Moines Botanical Center.

Green Mountain Bonsai Society‘s next meeting is November 20th.

This powerfully built gem is from Ficus, the Exotic Bonsai by Jerry Meislik. It looks like a Benjamina cultivar, though I can’t be sure because my copy of the book is in Vermont and I’m not.

On the road number three
Still on the road and just have time to put together a little ficus gallery for your enjoyment. Two are from Jerry Meislik’s book, and the other two are from the web.

Big ficus fan
If you want to grow bonsai indoors (winter or year round), you’ll be hard pressed to find subjects better suited than ficus, though some varieties are better suited than others. A couple that I’ve had luck with are the Green Island (F. microcarpa) and the Too Little (F. benjamina ‘Too Little’). I’ve also had some luck with the Willow Leaf ficus (F neriifolia – there is some disagreement about the botanical name – here’s a discussion by Robert Kempinski, author of Introduction to Bonsai). If you have any experience with other varieties (successful or otherwise), let us know.

A large Willow leaf ficus with some impressive aerial roots from Ficus, the Exotic Bonsai.

A large Benjamina with a well developed nebari by Bradley Barlow, from The Art of Bonsai.

This simple Willow leaf planting is from a bonsai exhibit on Morikami’s website. Though it’s far from a masterpiece, it does have some charm and is the type of project that almost any beginner might attempt.

Robert Kempinski (author of Introduction to Bonsai) has an excellent article at Knowledge of Bonsai on Shohin Willow Leaf Ficus (the photo above was borrowed from the article). Check it and a slew of other good stuff out, including a revealing exposé on nasty (but beautifully photographed) little aphids by Heather Hartman.

While you are at it, take a look at two related books we offer: Shohin Bonsai by Morten Albek (Stone Lantern Publishing), and Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai by Jerry Meislik (Devonshire Gardens Ltd.).