A Fascinating Mix of Insight & Opinion

Unfinished, but wild and wonderful. I wonder what this Scot’s pine bunjin beauty looked like before it was collected somewhere in the wilds of Sweden. It belongs to Muaro Stemberger. It’s from his facebook page. Mauro also has a website. It’s called Italian Bonsai Dream. Traveling once again, so we’ll resume our archival explorations. This one, originally titled Bunjin Bonsai Bliss is from October, 2011 (with some current editing and elaboration), though any Bark discussion of Bunjin warrants a mention of Moving Out of the Bonsai Mainstream with a Deft and Delicate Touch (from December 2012), whose comments are the longest … Continue reading A Fascinating Mix of Insight & Opinion

Nothing Compares to Shin-Boku

Shin-Boku Nursery from the air. You can’t tell, but almost every one of the plants in this photo are specimen quality Japanese garden trees. Some are ten or fifteen feet tall, others are potential bonsai. All are old and range from excellent to amazing. Doug doesn’t mince his words Here’s what Doug Roth, the publisher and editor of the Journal of Japanese Gardening has to say: “Shin-Boku Nursery is the finest Japanese garden tree nursery in North America.” Ditto! Yesterday I visited Baker Valley Nursery (see below) for the forth or fifth time. Both Shin-Boku and Baker Valley are owned … Continue reading Nothing Compares to Shin-Boku

François Jeker Coming to Rosade Bonsai Studio

This soulful tree is exceptionally clean, fluid and well balanced; especially considering how far to the right it is leaning. I lifted it from François’ website. It looks like a very small needled pine, maybe a dwarf Scot’s of some kind, though I can’t really tell. Dead-on deadwood artist François Jeker does some of the most outrageous deadwood carving anywhere. If you don’t believe me, check this out. Or go to his site. Or buy his excellent book (en Espanol tambien). Or best of all, go see him at Rosade Bonsai Studio on May 15th. These illustrations by François give … Continue reading François Jeker Coming to Rosade Bonsai Studio

The Great Debate part 2: You Be the Judge

This Scot’s pine (Pinus sylvestris) by Walter Pall is from the cover of Bonsai Today issue 104. It was presented by Walter as an example of a naturalistic bonsai. “… too many of these bonsai look like they are made of plastic…” The whole quote, which was written by Walter Pall, and appears in Bonsai Today issue 104, goes like this: “I have seen that the trend in styling is toward more and more refinement, which often takes away all the naturalness. I find that too many of these bonsai look like they are made of plastic and are not … Continue reading The Great Debate part 2: You Be the Judge