This stone speaks of Death Valley or some remote spot on the edge of the North African desert. It”s from the California Suiseki Society’s 15th Annual Show, via Bonsai Tonight. A great debate? I don’t think we’ve ever featured suiseki (viewing stones) on this blog. We used to feature them regularly in Bonsai Today, with [...]
The sky blue pot is the perfect compliment to the light pink flowers on this powerful Satsuki Azalea that resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. There are a multitude of cultivars in the Satsuki group of azaleas. This one is a ‘Nikko.’ It was donated to the museum by Masayuki [...]
What a strange and compelling tree! The trunk is massive from left to right, but looks like it might be somewhat flat from front to back, though it’s hard to tell from this angle. The branching is undefined (partially caused by the way the foliage and flowers are growing in the crotches) and unbalanced in [...]
Azalea flowers from the cover of Satsuki Azaleas for Bonsai & Azalea Entusiasts. Satsuki shears are used to shape azaleas after the spring bloom and before the new buds set in the late summer/early fall. Not only does this technique keep azaleas in shape, it can also increase next years flower crop (be careful though, [...]
This old Satsuki azalea, with its massive trunk and wild display of mixed up flowers, is from our Satuski Azalea book by Robert Z. Callaham (Stone Lantern Publishing). Ramification Ramification just means branching. More specifically in bonsai (and other places) it is sometimes used to mean branch development or branch refining. The language of ramification [...]
