Circling Back to Needle Junipers

This luscious Needle juniper turned up on Juan Andrade’s latest facebook post. Juan is (or was?) an apprentice at Bonsai Aichien in Japan, where this tree resides. BTW, we featured a Before, During and After post by Juan exactly one month ago. Don’t be misled by the title; this is not another trip back into our archives, though the second tree in this post is from an earlier bark post. The rest of the photos are all originals for us. It has been over three years since we devoted a whole post to just Needle junipers (Juniperus rigida). This juniper … Continue reading Circling Back to Needle Junipers

A Couple Bonsai & A Point of Distinction

This gnarly old Japanese white pine (P. parviflora) is from a Japanese gallery that originally appeared in Bonsai Today issue 85. It looks a bit like something you might find on Point Lobos (more about that below). Artist unknown (to us, at least). Somewhere on the Monterey Peninsula in search of sun and trees of distinction Today a friend and I are going to visit Point Lobos. Hyperbole aside, it’s one of the most mind bendingly wildly beautiful places on this planet. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, here are couple trees plus a taste of what’s in store for the … Continue reading A Couple Bonsai & A Point of Distinction

Energy Balancing #8: Pinching for Ramification

Needle juniper pinching These drawings describe a ramification (branching) process for a Needle juniper. The techniques may be applied to other junipers and in some cases, to other types of trees. The drawings are from our Juniper book. In the top drawing there are only secondary branches. These are allowed to grow and strengthen (second from the top) and are then (third) pinched back and wired (while they are still quite flexible). The pinching back encourages new buds which become new shoots. Then these new shoots are allowed to grow and strengthen (forth) before they are pinched again and the … Continue reading Energy Balancing #8: Pinching for Ramification

Master’s Gallery #2: Group Displays

From left to right: unidentified grass, Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii), flowering ‘Nippon Bells’ (Shortia uniflora) companion plant, suiseki (viewing stone), another unidentified companion, and a very stately Needle juniper (Juniperus ridgida). By Masao Komatsu. Group displays Each group display in this post is by a single artist. Each display shows mastery in two art forms: bonsai and bonsai display. The photos come from an article by Saburo Kato in Bonsai Today issue 43.

Jin & Shari #3: The Three Types of Deadwood

This classic Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora) shows all three types of deadwood: sabamiki (hollow trunk), shari (deadwood on the trunk) and jin (dead branches or dead treetop; if you look closely you’ll see a few little dead branches sticking out). The tree is from our Pocket Bonsai Gallery (it originally appeared on the cover on Bonsai Today issue 43). Backing up and starting over Even though we’ve already posted a couple times on the topic, I’ve decided to go back to the beginning for those of you who don’t know much about deadwood on bonsai. If you’ve been around … Continue reading Jin & Shari #3: The Three Types of Deadwood