Another Hawthorn & Harry’s Timely Reply

Another Hawthorn that belongs to Harry Harrington. It isn’t as advanced as the one we featured yesterday, but it’s full of promise Yesterday we featured a freshly repotted Hawthorn by Harry Harrington. Here’s the rub… the tree hadn’t been repotted for 15 years! As you might imagine this provoked some questions by several readers. So last night I emailed Harry and this morning I woke up to his reply (before you read on, I suggest you take a look at yesterday’s post). So here’s your answer, in Harry’s own words… “Ive been asked this quite a few times since Saturday! … Continue reading Another Hawthorn & Harry’s Timely Reply

Harry’s Famous Hawthorn

Harry Harrington’s Hawthorn just before repotting Here’s what Harry Harrington wrote about repotting his old Hawthorn…. “For the first time in 15 years, this afternoon I’m repotting this Hawthorn bonsai (some will know as the Informal Broom). And I can’t remember seeing quite so many white fleshy roots circling the bottom of a rootball……..I mean, it’s nice when you repot a tree and they are present, but this has hundreds!” In case you’re wondering why Harry is repotting so early, spring came to England ahead of schedule this year. You can visit Harry at Bonsai4me or on his fb timeline … Continue reading Harry’s Famous Hawthorn

Defying Bonsai Convention Without Even Blinking – Site Wide Sale Ends Tomorrow

Defying convention and coming out with flying colors. Walter Pall repotted this maple during the heat of mid-summer and it didn’t even blink So why are we talking about mid-summer when it’s freezing outside? Well, really there’s no good reason except today I’m flying and driving from the Rockies home to Vermont, so we’ll keep it short and simple. Besides I like the tree, and though I’m not surprised, I also like that it didn’t blink. Here’s you link to Walter’s fb post As long as we’re on Walter and Japanese maples, here one of my favorites from a post we did back … Continue reading Defying Bonsai Convention Without Even Blinking – Site Wide Sale Ends Tomorrow

Bonsai, It’s About the Soil – An Informed Approach

This Japanese maple belongs to Mariusz Folda. I don’t know if Mariusz also made the pot, but based on what I’ve seen of his ceramics, I wouldn’t be surprised. Yesterday’s post on Mariusz Folda’s Shimpaku serves as lead in for today’s comments by Mariusz on his soil mix, and more specifically on the uses and limitations of Akadama, the most famous and widely used imported Japanese soil. Here’s Mariusz’s quote on Akadama in its entirety… “I look after some bonsai that are very old, like a very old Fagus crenata (Japanese beech) or an old Carpinus koreana (Korean hornbeam). I … Continue reading Bonsai, It’s About the Soil – An Informed Approach

Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing). Vacation ended around midnight last night. Still, in light of a whole slew of post vacation demands, I’m going to indulge in one more journey into our archives. This one is from August, 2009, which in the life of this blog, qualifies as ancient. We’ll stick with our current topic, fall transplanting. With one caveat: opinions abound on how to do most anything, and fall transplanting (really almost any bonsai task) is … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Coming Soon to Your Back Yard

As long as we’re on the topic of choosing, I chose this one as the lead photo because it’s the only one with clean pot. A distinct advantage. All the photos in this post are from Boon Manakitivipart’s facebook postings. I took the liberty of cropping all the photos in this post and combining some separate photos into single images. Still on vacation, so still digging into our archives. This one is fairly recent (December last year) but seems particularly appropriate as the fall potting season is closing in fast. For those of us in inhospitable northern climes it starts … Continue reading Coming Soon to Your Back Yard

Transplanting: The Happy Zone

Here’s Michael Hagedorn’s caption: “This maple in Shinji Suzuki’s tokonoma is in a pot typical of this kind of tree. It works better aesthetically, in two ways. A shallow pot will make the nebari continue spreading, and the delicacy of the trunks is enhanced by a shallower pot. But a maple is also a tree that appreciates water. And a shallow pot will retain more moisture than a deeper one, in a soil-to-soil relative way. It’s a wetter pot.” All the photos in this post are from Crataegus Bonsai. We’ve been talking about basics a lot lately. Specifically watering, fertilizing … Continue reading Transplanting: The Happy Zone

Boon Again & Again

Shohin cork bark Chinese elm in its new pot. From Boon Manakitivipart’s facebook feed. Boon is repotting once again. On facebook of all places. Just in case you don’t know who Boon is, well, among other things he’s a famous bonsai artist and teacher who resides in the SF Bay Area. Here’s his home page on facebook, here’s his website and here’s Boon Again, one of many Bark posts where he is featured. There are differing opinions about the practice of washing the roots clean when repotting, but that’s for another time.

Some Silly Blog’s Tips for Repotting

A Camellia from a transplanting article in Bonsai Today issue 96. Some silly blog? Okay, it’s not really a silly blog. In fact Michael Hagedorns’ Crataegus Bonsai is one of the best blogs around. It’s just that Michael referred to it as a silly blog and it struck me as a catchy title for this post (after four years of posting 3-4 times a week, desperation sets in). Anyway, Michael’s Crataegus’ post on repotting is definitely worth a look. To peak your interest, here are two of Michael’s seven repotting tips: “2. As a general rule, don’t bare-root your trees. … Continue reading Some Silly Blog’s Tips for Repotting

Defoliating, Repotting & Other Tricks

Trident Maple (Kaede) at the Kokufu-ten in 1972. It now lives in Washington D.C. at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. The photo is from Capital Bonsai. Back to square one I’m still trying to get back to square one after the 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition, so I won’t say too much except that I’ve recently come across two excellent posts about Trident maples. The first is at Capital Bonsai and shows the repotting of a famous old Trident that now resides at the U.S. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, and the second, which is about defoliation (and more), … Continue reading Defoliating, Repotting & Other Tricks