Evening the Bonsai Odds

How many trunk does this spectacular Trident maple (Acer buergerianum) grove have? It’s from an award winning display at the 2013 Taikan Bonsai Exhibition. The artist is Kenji Oshima. The photo is from Bill Valavanis Bonsai blog. The odd rule. Almost anyone who plays with bonsai for a while will incorporate the odd number of trees rule into their storehouse of bonsai wisdom. It goes something like this: In any group planting (with more than two trunks), you should use an odd number of trees. This applies at least up to eleven trunks. After eleven, it doesn’t matter because who … Continue reading Evening the Bonsai Odds

Another Forest, But Mixed This Time

This mixed forest is from Spain. The Museo del Bonsai Marbella, to be exact (from Bonsais del Sur). It’s too bad the pot is chopped off and the whole photo is cramped, but that’s the way we found it. Still, from what we can see, it looks pretty good. Mixing it up Forests with mixed species can be a little tricky; not only does the planting have to make sense aesthetically (particularly when it comes to questions of scale), but the various types of trees should make sense growing together (would you find them growing together in nature?) Not that … Continue reading Another Forest, But Mixed This Time