Two Legged Juniper – Before & After

Sierra juniper (Juniperus occidentalis), before and after by Bonsai Mike. You can see the potential peeking out underneath the foliage in the before shot. Still, an impressive transformation Today’s tree belongs to Bonsai Mike, a first timer here on Bark (as distinguished from Michael Bonsai, who has appeared here numerous times). Here’s what Mike wrote about this old yamadori juniper… “One of my best trees. I collected this Sierra in 2011. It has gone through 3 stylings since then and keeps improving. The foliage is getting a little heavy now. In order to show greater age, some branches must be removed in … Continue reading Two Legged Juniper – Before & After

Nature’s Wild Bonsai

A Sierra juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) sculpted by wind and snow. It lives near Granite Lake at 8,500 feet in the Emmigrant Wilderness (near Yosemite in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains). This photo and the next two are borrowed from Bonsai Society San Francisco. Thanks to Terry Davis of Mullet Wrapper fame for the suggestion Tomorrow and Sunday are travel days, so today is our last full day of vacation. To save time I decided to resurrect this post from April of this year. It relates to what we’ve been up the last five days (Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce and environs), though we didn’t see any trees quite as dramatic as … Continue reading Nature’s Wild Bonsai

Two More Award Winning Bonsai Favorites

I like the undulating parallel living veins on Jeremiah Lee’s ABS award winning Sierra juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). I cropped the original (see below) for a closer look Continuing with the prize winning bonsai from the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition, today we’ve got Oscar Jonker’s photos of the winning ABS Award Bonsai and the Finest Tropical Bonsai POTTING SPECIAL ENDS SUNDAY 30% OFF LIST ON OUR HIGH IMPACT PLASTIC BONSAI POTS 30% OFF LIST ON BONSAI SOIL & SOIL INGREDIENTS special ends tomorrow, Sunday Sept 16th at 11:59pm EDT – This one of my favorites. For starters its sheer size is a mind stopper. I don’t know the … Continue reading Two More Award Winning Bonsai Favorites

A Dramatic Before & After Bonsai

An impressive Sierra juniper(Juniperus occidentalis) transformation by Valentín Cruz. It was originally dug by Ned Lycett Before we start, we’ve got an update on yesterday’s post, thanks to Bill Valvanis (see below). Here we go again with another exceptional before and after bonsai. I found it on the artist’s timeline. His name is Valentín Cruz and a couple hours ago I had no idea he existed. My guess is you didn’t either, but if you spend some time looking him up you most likely won’t forget him. By the way Valentín’s bonsai teacher is Jim Gremel, an artist we’ve featured several times over the years. Roshi Tool Special … Continue reading A Dramatic Before & After Bonsai

Drifting…

What a great photo. The tree is a Japanese black pine from post titled ‘The Dark Horse’ on the Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog. The full tree and pot are shown below. Busy day today, so it’s a good time to dig back into our archives. This one originally appeared in 2013. It was titled ‘Drifting a Little Farther Afield.’ There’s really not much theme with this post, other than a digital tour of some bonsai blogs/websites. So we’ll leave it at that… except to say that we’re drifting a little farther afield than we usually do. Continued below… Yoshiaki Japanese … Continue reading Drifting…

An Eight Year Bonsai Journey

Boon Manakitivipart’s transformed Sierra juniper. If you go to Styling on Bonsai Boon you can see how Boon took this tree through an eight year bonsai journey. Yesterday’s post was about a magnificent old California juniper, so we’ll just stay right there in the Golden State and take a look at another native, a Sierra juniper, a very close cousin to the California juniper. I borrowed the photos and some of the text from way back in the first year of Bonsai Bark. We’ve featured Boon Manakitivipart on this blog before, and for good reason. He’s a highly accomplished bonsai … Continue reading An Eight Year Bonsai Journey

Picasso’s Bonsai Garden

The natural look (or who needs manicured bonsai?). This photo captures two things I love about Eladan Gardens. The first is the rugged uncontrived look that characterizes Dan Robinson’s bonsai, and the second is the perfect setting. The tree is a Sierra juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). Earlier this month I finally visited Dan and Diane Robinson’s magnificent Elandan Gardens. It was a quick visit and all I had to shoot with was my cell. So the photos aren’t nearly as good as most of the borrowed Elandan photos from previous posts. But some shots are unique and hopefully capture something of … Continue reading Picasso’s Bonsai Garden

Powerful Jaw Dropping Bonsai Six Months Later

The second place tree at last fall’s Artisans Cup. It’s a Sierra Juniper that belongs to Tim Priest. The other winners are below (if you’re wondering why we’re leading with the second place tree… we’ll we’ve already lead a post with the winner and I’m not so sure I care that much about winners (and by extension losers) anyway. Which begs the question… It has been a few days short of six months since the Artisans Cup; a ground breaking event at the Portland Art Museum that featured more powerful jaw dropping bonsai than most people will ever see in … Continue reading Powerful Jaw Dropping Bonsai Six Months Later

A Collection of Famous Bonsai in a Lovely Outdoor Setting

Atlas cedar with shadows at the Pacific Bonsai Museum WHOOPS Let’s make that the National Bonsai Museum in Wash DC. From the John Naka collection. Photo by Jonas Dupuich (Bonsai Tonight). By now most of you have been flooded with great photos from the Artisans Cup (with more to come). What you may not have seen are photos from Cup sponsored tours to the Pacific Bonsai Museum with its collection of famous bonsai in a lovely outdoor setting. All the photos below (with the exception of the 5 styles) were taken by my childhood friend Michael Wells. The photos of … Continue reading A Collection of Famous Bonsai in a Lovely Outdoor Setting

The Winners & the Wonderful & Well-Organized Chaos & Delights of the Artisans Cup

The winner (captured by my cellphone camera amidst the push and pull of ten thousand museum visitors). It’s a Rocky mountain juniper that belongs to Randy Knight. Up early to catch a plane and still reeling from the wonderful and well organized chaos and delights of the Cup. The people, the venue, Portland, old friends. And of course the truly amazing bonsai. I’ll apologize up front for any mistakes in attribution and failures to link. I haven’t had time to begin to sort through the hundreds of photos of trees people and places, but we have start somewhere and that … Continue reading The Winners & the Wonderful & Well-Organized Chaos & Delights of the Artisans Cup