Forever Young? How Not to Fertilize

You can bet that this Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) was fertilized with a master’s touch. Speaking of masters, this photo is from our Masters’ Series Pine Book. An American bonsai pro on fertilizing. Whenever Michael Hagedorn writes, I read, and though I am a little reluctant to tell others what to do, you might want to consider it too. Here’s a part of Michael’s latest post on his famous Crataegus Bonsai blog: “For fertilizing bonsai, we can make this one basic distinction: Begin fertilizing a young, unrefined tree when it begins growing early in the spring Wait a bit … Continue reading Forever Young? How Not to Fertilize

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.

Dealing with Stress: A Minor Miracle – part 1

Uh oh. Looks like a goner. This photo is from an article in Bonsai Today issue 9 (long out of print). The artist and author is K. Onishi. The tree is a Japanese Black pine (Pinus thunbergii). The cause of the stress is a late freeze, though dessication (drying out) might produce the same effect.

Energy Balancing

This powerful old cascading Japanese Black Pine (Pinus thunbergii) is a masterful example of how energy can be directed downward in a tree that naturally wants to grow upward. The photo is from Bonsai Today Master Series; Pines. Whenever you prune, trim or pinch, you are redirecting energy. If you remove a branch the energy (primarily water, gases and nutrients) that would have flown into that branch goes somewhere else. Some of it goes to forming a callous where the branch was, the rest goes elsewhere. Basically energy flows two ways in plants; up from the roots, and back down … Continue reading Energy Balancing