A Bonsai Festival to Get Excited About – We Hope to See You There

Marc Noelanders posted this composition during last year’s Bonsai Namaste Convention in Pune India. I don’t know any details, but you might assume he and perhaps others put it together during the convention Continuing with yesterday’s post on the Mid Atlantic Bonsai Spring Festival (April 12th – 14th) and Marc Noelanders who is one of the headliners at the Festival. We’ll be there and we’re already laying the groundwork to offer items that you’ll never see on our website . We look forward to seeing you there Continued below…  Meanwhile You Can Visit Stone Lantern for Our Current Site Wide Sale… … Continue reading A Bonsai Festival to Get Excited About – We Hope to See You There

More Kokufu Bonsai, but Still Just Scratching the Surface

Full cascade Shimpaku (Juniperus chinensis Sargentii) at this year’s Kokufu Exhibition. I like the meandering play of the deadwood with the living vein. Something that works especially well with Shimpaku bonsai. This and the other photos in this post are courtesy of Bill Valavanis We’ve got some more of Bill Valavanis’ photos from this year’s Kokufu Exhibition. We’ll just scratch the surface and encourage you to visit Bill’s blog for more great shots Here’s a quote from Bill about the omnipresent Masahiko Kimura (The Magician) and his influence on Kokufu… “I saw Mr.  Kimura and asked him how many bonsai … Continue reading More Kokufu Bonsai, but Still Just Scratching the Surface

For Every Highly Stylized Bonsai, There’s One that Breaks the Mold

For every highly stylized Japanese bonsai, there’s one like this that breaks the mold. It’s a Japanese red pine from Japan’s 80th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition (2006) Yesterday we featured several trees from this year’s Kokufu Exhibition, including a couple Japanese pines (Black and White). Today we’ve got some Japanese Red pines (Pinus densiflora) from the 2006 Kokufu Exhibition. All the photos are courtesy of Michael Bonsai NEW INCREASED SITE WIDE SALE 25% OFF all orders 25.00 or more INCLUDING ITEMS ALREADY DISCOUNTED PLUS AN EXTRA 10% OFF ROSHI TOOLS & TOOL KITS Discounts Are Applied at Checkout STONELANTERN.COM   Closer up … Continue reading For Every Highly Stylized Bonsai, There’s One that Breaks the Mold

Kokufu Bonsai! It’s that Time of Year Again

Dwarf Kumquat. Even though there are more dramatic trees to choose from, I picked this one to start with in part because of the pot. The tree isn’t so bad either with its muscular little trunk and profusion of tiny Kumquats. This photo and the rest shown here are from Bill Valavanis’s Bonsai blog It’s Kokufu time! and Bill Valavanis is back in Japan shooting photos for all of us who can’t make the trip. I’ve grabbed just a few that I like. There’s more where these came from at  Bill’s Welcome to My World Bonsai blog   NEW SITE WIDE SALE … Continue reading Kokufu Bonsai! It’s that Time of Year Again

A Muscular Monster, Before and After

I found this Picea abies (Norway spruce, aka European spruce) before and after at Mandala Bonsai Ilona. Though it would be great to know just how large this tree is, nothing more than just the type tree and before and after is offered on the timeline This magnificent, muscular monster (sorry!) is from Mandala Bonsai Ilona’s timeline. In this case, the before and after process mostly involves bringing an already well established bonsai back into shape. With one new design element added; the first branch is now a jin (the bark was stripped and the resulting dead branch is left on the tree as an intentional feature). Otherwise, … Continue reading A Muscular Monster, Before and After

Another Mid Winter Tease

The new growth on Spruce is often a brilliant yellow. Almost like yellow flowers. In this case the spruce is an Ezo (Picea jezoensis). This one resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum as do the other trees in this post. Continuing with our long trek  home from vacation, I found just enough time to sneak another one in from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. Like yesterday it’s also from our archives (June, 2015). SITE WIDE SALE ENDS SOON 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS   For a lot … Continue reading Another Mid Winter Tease

Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Root-over-rock Japanese black pine by Suthin Sukosolvisit. No major restyling, but still a striking improvement. Sutin’s caption reads simply… “Japanese black pine 2011-2013” The original before and after photos are from Suthin’s timeline Still on vacation, so we’ll simplify by borrowing from our archives. This one first appeared here almost exactly one year ago Continuing with before and after bonsai from two days ago… A big part of bonsai involves transforming rough stock into beautiful, or at least passable bonsai. However, it’s equally important to do the periodic work necessary to keep a bonsai beautiful, or soon enough it will lose its shape and start to look like … Continue reading Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Quality Bonsai Deserves Quality Stands

Closeup of a Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) that was exhibited by John Kirby at the 2018 National Bonsai Exhibition. The display table was built by David Knittle (details are below with the uncropped photo) Flashing back to the 2018 6th National Bonsai Exhibition, here are a couple trees from the Exhibition that we haven’t shown yet, and one other tree that was shown at the 2018 Mid Atlantic Bonsai Festival. All three are on display tables that were built by David Knittle 20% OFF BONSAI WIRE SPECIAL ENDS tonight Choose from our vast array of sizes & types of … Continue reading Quality Bonsai Deserves Quality Stands

New Year New Day New Bonsai Essentials

There’s something about Quince flowers… Here’s Bill Valavanis’ caption: “A small size Toyo Nishiki Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Toyo Nishiki’ with multiple colored flowers. Although red, pink and white blossoms are common for this great cultivar, I’ve often seen red branches grafted onto specimens to improve color distribution.” Welcome to 2019. My other New Year’s resolution (see yesterday) is to avoid recycling these same trees for a forth time next year. Stay posted to see how we do.  I guess a passable excuse is just how good these trees are. They’re from the 2015 Kokufu Bonsai Exhibiton and were lifted directly from … Continue reading New Year New Day New Bonsai Essentials

Happy Root-Over-Rock Bonsai Holidays

Suthin’s “Happy Holidays to all” tree. It’s a Trident maple root-over-rock (root devouring rock). Staying close to home today, it’s our old friend Suthin Sukosolvisit offering some  bonsai wizardry just in time for the New Year Bonsai Pot & Soil Specials End Tonight Friday, Dec 28th at 11:59pm EST Plus Two New Specials at Stone Lantern see below – Cropped for a closer look at how the trunk is slowly devouring the rock Suthin’s caption says simply… “New home” You might recognize this as the tree that won Best Bonsai at the 6th U.S. National. It’s a Japanese black pine   Cropped for … Continue reading Happy Root-Over-Rock Bonsai Holidays