Eccentric or Just Twisted?

Doing the Twist. This tree belongs to Mauro Stemberger (Italian Bonsai Dream). Mauro has one of the most dramatic bonsai collections in the West, and though this one certainly qualifies, is there a line between dramatic and eccentric? Continuing with ‘Eccentric Bonsai’ from two days ago, here’s another one from our archives (November, 2016). Two of the trees in this post are naturally twisted and the other two were twisted by the hands of man. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble telling which is which. SITE WIDE SALE ENDS TOMORROW Everything Is At Least 20% off DOUBLE DISCOUNTS – SALE … Continue reading Eccentric or Just Twisted?

Godzilla Refines a Monster Bonsai – Before & After

Before and after Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) by Todd Schlafer. The tree belongs to Mike Andrews. For the Godzilla reference, scroll down to the bottom of the post Continuing with another before and after transformation by Todd Schlafer (see Oct 19th). Here’s a quote by Mike Andrews (facebook)… “Progression of collected Rocky Mountain Juniper. Collected by Randy Knight, delivered to my house September 2016. Initial design and structure setting with Mauro in April 2017. Fertilized heavily and full sun 2017 and 2018 growing seasons resulted in very nice dense foliage. Finally detail wired and pad formation by Todd yesterday. … Continue reading Godzilla Refines a Monster Bonsai – Before & After

Hanging off a Cliff Somewhere in the Alps

This very distinctive bonsai belongs to Mauro Stemberger. The rock was made by Erik Križovenský, a master of unique pots and other creative vessels for planting bonsai. No mention is made of the type tree, but it looks like some type of Juniper. I cropped Mauro’s original photo (below) to get a closer look and to eliminate some background noise It’s past due time to revisit Mauro Stemberger, an old favorite here on Bark. If you’d like to see more of what Mauro is up to you can visit him on facebook and on his Italian Bonsai Dream website. You can also visit … Continue reading Hanging off a Cliff Somewhere in the Alps

California Bonsai Beast

The beast. Here’s Mauro Stemberger’s caption… “California Juniper called ‘the Beast’ after one more step – this time we worked to make it more compact; bending down 15 inches the top and removing the lower branch. Pictures show the evolution in the last 3 years. Collection: Hank Fawcett” We’ll just show a few photos of this magnificent old California juniper and encourage you to visit Mauro Stemberger and Hank Fawcett for more on the evolution of this aptly named Beast. Speaking of Beasts Our Site Wide Sale Includes ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS & TOOL KITS 30% to 40% off Numerous other tools & bonsai items also deeply discounted 30% … Continue reading California Bonsai Beast

Photographing Bonsai – Change Your Viewing Angle

This shot looking up into the tree accentuates the dynamic flow of the trunk and allows for a clear look at all its texture and other details. The artist, Mauro Stemberger doesn’t identify any of the trees shown here, but it’s safe to say Juniper with this one, though we won’t guess the species. All the photos shown here were posted by Mauro Stemberger under the title Change your viewing angle… In this case, the change involves a lower camera placement than what we are accustomed to. A placement that allows you to lookup into the tree in much the … Continue reading Photographing Bonsai – Change Your Viewing Angle

Spring Bonsai Power

Norway spruce spring power is Mauro Stemberger’s title for this series of photos. What caught me about this tree is how natural it looks. As in the case of most of the best bonsai, you know that it has been styled, but styled in a way that you might call just so. Or just enough. Welcome to another Bonsai Europe post (six of our last ten posts have featured European bonsai). It’s not that we don’t appreciate what’s going on in the rest of the world… it’s just that from where we sit it seems like the center of Bonsai … Continue reading Spring Bonsai Power

It’s Taxus Time

This old Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) belongs to Mauro Stemberger. The color coordinated pot is by Petra Hahn (even the moss has reddish spots). I found the photo on The Art of Bonsai Project. Just for the fun of it, I searched our archives for the word Easter today. As you might suspect, all the posts with Cotoneaster came up. No surprise there. But so did several others, including this one (from December, 2015). My humble apologies… I didn’t realize that it’s tax time until after I dug up this old ‘Taxus’ post. Once I did realize, I couldn’t resist … Continue reading It’s Taxus Time

Bonsai Art, Circles & Curves

Zen pine. In some types of art shapes are often suggested rather than completed. The mind of the viewer does the rest. In the case of this pine, it’s a circle (or maybe a fishhook). The tree and the photo belong to Mauro Stemberger. You can see more of Mauro’s bonsai here, here and here. Today themes are circles, semi circles and curves, as well as another bonsai by Mauro Stemberger (see above and our last two posts). This post originally appeared here just over a year ago. I’ve taken the liberty to edit my own writing. Continued below… Bonsai … Continue reading Bonsai Art, Circles & Curves

Rock Island Bonsai

One of three impressive rock plantings from Mauro Stemberger’s recent bonsai sojourn in India. The trees in all three plantings are Procumbens juinipers. The natural sandstone river rocks were put together with cement. I don’t know anything about the pot, except that it’s a monster. Yesterday I wrote that I wanted to feature these three Juniper forests on rock islands by Mauro Stemberger and friends but needed more time to do a little research. We’ll, I couldn’t find the time, but if you’d like, you can do your own research. Here and here are two facebook links. You might also … Continue reading Rock Island Bonsai

A Dancer, a Famous Snake & Other Impressive Bonsai

The Dancer by Mauro Stemberger. Mauro’s caption reads: Never give up!!!! Swedish Scots pine “The Dancer.” You can see that Mauro is planning a new planting angle and most likely a new pot. You might imagine a bunjin type pot; shallow, round, maybe a little rough… Today I set out to put together a post on some rock plantings that were created during Mauro Stemberger’s recent (on-going?) trip to India. However, time wasn’t on my side, so I decided to wait until I could do a little more research. Meanwhile, to set the tone we’ll borrow this one from our … Continue reading A Dancer, a Famous Snake & Other Impressive Bonsai