Tag Archives: Japanese black pine bonsai

BCI: Bonsai Strong

Bonsai strong. One of many spectacular trees displayed at the recent BCI convention in China. This and all the photos in this post are courtesy of Robert Steven. Pines now, the rest later. Robert Steven just sent us a whole host of great photos from the recent BCI convention in China. We’ll start with some [...]

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Bonsai Island Paradise

Though it’s not really a bonsai if it’s in the ground, this one is a very close cousin. This photo and all the photos in this post are from Stone Garden. Our last post was our first ever on Korean bonsai, and, as one thing leads to another, here’s our second post on Korean bonsai. [...]

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World Famous Masterpiece Bonsai

I like this tree. It has great movement and wild, wonderful deadwood that runs all the way up the trunk, plays peekaboo in the crown and then finishes with a flourish at the top. If you removed the hanging branch that reaches down almost to the base of the trunk, it would still be an [...]

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An Inexplicable Oversight

I’m going to guess that this peerless pine, with its strong sinuous trunk is a Japanese black pine, rather than a Japanese red. However, there’s no need to guess about the quality of the tree or where we found it (world-class quality and Bjorn Bjorholm’s website). I don’t know exactly how this inexplicable oversight happened, [...]

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Rim Shots

This has got to be one of the most magnificent Chinese hackberry (Celtis sinensis) bonsai anywhere. Though the distinctive split trunk needs no comment, you might also notice the highly developed ramification (fine branching). The tree was donated to the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection by Ben Oki. We’ve featured it before, but it’s certainly worth [...]

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Small Is Still Beautiful

Kishu shimpaku juniper by John Brocklehurst. Mark Cooper took the photo at the 2012 Noelanders Trophy. I like the natural, fragile looking deadwood twigs and a whole lot more about this tree. Shohin again. We’ve been featuring shohin bonsai (small bonsai) a lot lately. Maybe it has to do with fact that we’re all aging [...]

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Monster Bonsai

A Halloween monster (trunk, that is). It’s not that often you see a tree with such a powerfully thick trunk, especially when you consider its size relative to the rest of the tree. According to Mareta Marrtell (facebook), it’s a 50 year old Kuromatsu (Japanese black pine ) that was grown from seed. Mareta says [...]

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The Magician At Night

Black pine in the black of night. From the collection of Masahiko Kimura (The Magician). All the photos in this post are from an El Tim Bonsai facebook photo album title KIMURA. Shooting in the dark It’s not too often you see bonsai photographed in the dark. In this case the effects are rather magical [...]

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Cutting Corners & Other Transplanting Tips

A freshly transplanted Black pine. The photo is from our Masters’ Series Pine book. Fall transplanting It’s fall transplanting season here in the north country. One advantage to transplanting in the fall is that the tree is fully recovered when the spring season starts, so no top-growth time is lost. The reason this works is [...]

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The Other Cascade: Before & After

After by Kimura (aka the Magician). This photo is from a chapter in our Masters’ Series Pine Book titled Masahiko Kimura Transforms A Semi-Cascade. The tree is a Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora). The other cascade Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seem to me that, with the exception of Junipers (especially the ever [...]

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