Three Before & After Bonsai – Two Junipers & a Pine

Before and after bonsai styling by Juan Andrade. The trees are from top to bottom: Shimpaku juniper, Japanese black pine and a Needle juniper trunk with Shimpaku juniper foliage grafted on. Juan Andrade was a long term apprentice at Bonsai Aichien nursery in Japan. We’ve been following Juan’s progress for a long time (here’s a Bark post from 2012 that features a tree of his). Juan posts regularly on facebook, which is where we found these photos. MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS and AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS … Continue reading Three Before & After Bonsai – Two Junipers & a Pine

Before & After Bonsai – Rediscovering a Juniper’s Natural Beauty

Here’s Tyler Sherrod’s caption for a job well done…. “Just wired up this juniper for Joe Noga. He has owned this tree for about 30 years. It was grafted with kishu foilage by Mr. Mas Ishii of California. Another cool piece of history of bonsai in America.” Monday morning and we’re already behind, so we’ll let the photos do the talking…. except to say that Tyler Sherrod is one of several Americans (and other Westerners) who has gone through the rigors of a Bonsai apprenticeship in Japan and has brought back his impressive knowledge and skills. Here’s you link to Tyler on fb. 30% off Bonsai … Continue reading Before & After Bonsai – Rediscovering a Juniper’s Natural Beauty

An Old Bonsai New Year

This brilliant penjing by Robert Steven appeared in one of our earliest posts (way back in 2009). It’s from Robert’s book Mission of Transformation (now out of print) In three days we’ll turn the digital page on another year of brilliant bonsai and occasionally intelligent comment. On behalf or my two hard working compatriots; Ric Walter (the heart and soul of our warehouse) & Barbara Patitucci (our all-accomplishing jack of all trades) and all the other good people who are part of the Stone Lantern family -Fedex drivers, postal workers, our vendors and countless others who keep our gears oiled – I would like to wish you a Cheerful, … Continue reading An Old Bonsai New Year

Pinch! Don’t Pinch! Part 2

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured this famous bonsai that originally appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today 63 and later in our Juniper book. I think it’s appropriate here for a couple reasons: it’s by Shinji Suzuki, Michael Hagedorn’s bonsai sensei (Michael provided the fuel for this post and our previous post) and it’s a needle type juniper, which provides a contrast to scale type junipers when it comes to controlling new growth. We can assume that Mr. Suzuki trimmed rather than pinched in creating such a profusion of dense foliage pads. Continuing where we left off Rather … Continue reading Pinch! Don’t Pinch! Part 2