Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

This photo is from our first Bonsai Bark post. January 26th, 2009. We finally threw the switch and now you can visit our Brand New Stone Lantern Website. It’s a huge improvement and I’m sure you’ll like it As an encouragement to get you over there, we added some bonuses… every single item is on special. Some for as much as 50% off. And we’ve got several new items that weren’t on our old site And if that’s not enough, we’re offering an additional 10% off on everything for orders 50.00 or more, provided you put the sale code LAUNCH … Continue reading Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

Bonsai Tie Pots – NEW Deeper Discounts!

We just started offering our remarkable New Tie Pots last September and already we’re closing in on 1,000 sold (during the off season, no less!). Now we’ve sharpened our pencil to make them available to more people. I think you’ll be happy with the results. NEW TIE POT SPECIAL 1-2 TIE POTS 16.00 each 3-7 TIE POTS 15.00 each 8 or more 14.00 each Discounts are applied at checkout Tie Pots have the potential to revolutionize bonsai growing The tie knobs are only part of the story the interior is ingeniously designed for optimal development of fine feeder roots … Continue reading Bonsai Tie Pots – NEW Deeper Discounts!

That Rugged Yamadori Look in a Tropical Bonsai World

An an ancient sinuous root stand in Robert Steven’s tropical bonsai world Continuing with Robert Steven (see day before yesterday) with some of my favorites he has posted over the years. There are many more to be sure, but these provide some powerful glimpses. They are all from his fb timeline TWO NEW SPECIALS 25% OFF BONSAI WIRE FOR 3 OR MORE ROLLS 35% OFF ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS Specials include items already discounted – This and the other trees shown here all have that rugged collected-from-the-wild (yamadori) look A simple tree with its gnarled time-twisted trunk, leans into the … Continue reading That Rugged Yamadori Look in a Tropical Bonsai World

Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest

This elegant composition is a small piece of a mixed media show that Robert Steven put together (with a little help from his friends) at the Pasar Seni Art Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. If you are near Jakarta, there’s still time to catch it before it closes (March 7th is the last day) I originally found this mixed media bonsai event on Robert Steven’s fb timeline. Most of the text is in Malay and rather than rely on machine translation, I ask Robert if he could write something for this post. Here it is, in his own words… “This was … Continue reading Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest

Hanging Loose

Good full cascade bonsai aren’t all that common. Especially ones with such a relaxed feel (maybe it’s the way the foliage hangs so loose). It’s a Pemphis acidula. A common plant in Indonesia Continuing with Gede Merta from yesterday. This one is from our archives (April, 2015), with some changes today. All the trees shown here are from Gede Merta’s Bonsai Bali timeline THREE SPECIALS 25% – 30% OFF all BOOKS 20% OFF BONSAI CLOTHING 30% TO 40% OFF BONSAI AESTHETICS TOOLS Specials include items already discounted Another extraordinary Pemphis acidula – And yet another. Gede Merta’s caption says … Continue reading Hanging Loose

Bonsai Artist, Connoisseur & All Around Interesting Fellow

This Pemphis acidula with its distinctive curlycue jin (dead branch) and its even more distinctive carved shari (deadwood on the trunk), was collected in the wilds of Indonesia by Wayan Arthana. The tree is 77cm (30″) top to bottom and the pot is 12.5cm (5″) high and 63cm (almost 25″) across. The artist and owner is Gede Merta of Bonsai Bali It’s been a long time since we visited Gede Merta. Too long in fact, considering his accomplishments as a bonsai artist , bonsai connoisseur and all around interesting fellow. All the photo shown here are from his Gede Merta … Continue reading Bonsai Artist, Connoisseur & All Around Interesting Fellow

Juniper Bonsai & Other Kokufu Treats

A loop the loop Juniper at this year’s Kokufu Exhibition. I took the liberty of cropping* Boon Manakitivipart’s original for a closer look at the deadwood and living vein, as well as the unusual loop. Even with this closeup, it’s not easy to tell exactly what’s going on. But we’ll leave that to you We’ve been featuring some of Bill Valavanis’ photos from this year’s Kokufu Exhibition. If you’ve been following Bark for a while, you’ll know that Bill is one of our favorites. Today it’s Bonsai Boon, another of our favorites We’ll just show you some junipers this time, with more to … Continue reading Juniper Bonsai & Other Kokufu Treats

Bonsai Before & After – Three Year Progression

A three year progression on a Himalayan juniper (Juniperus squamata) by Josef Burschi We’ve got new Before & After for you. This time with an intermediate stage between the before and after. There is a small caveat however. The tree is a Tanuki* (Phoenix graft). I think most Japanese bonsai artists frown on Tanuki, or at least they don’t value them as much as other bonsai. But the tree looks good, so I don’t think it’s a big deal. You can see this tree and some other good ones on Josef Burschi’s fb timeling NEW SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF … Continue reading Bonsai Before & After – Three Year Progression

Bonsai Forest Rock Plantings

That’s Ryan Neil’s hand (Bonsai Mirai) posing for a professional photo with a very large root-on-rock planting. Here’s his caption: “In the studio today with @hornbecker shooting for the Artisans Cup promotional material” (from 2015). He doesn’t say what the tree’s are. If you’d like to see the uncropped original, it’s here We’re on a bonsai forest binge these days, so let’s keep going. Though it’s questionable if you’d call these rock plantings forests, they do share the multiple tree and some of the landscape features you’ll find with more conventional bonsai forests BONSAI TURNTABLE SPECIAL TURNTABLES ARE ALL INDIVIDUALLY … Continue reading Bonsai Forest Rock Plantings

The Magician’s Ezo Spruce Bonsai Forest

Before and after,three years later. Masahiko Kimura ‘The Magician’ styled this Ezo spruce (Picea Glehnii) planting with a high mountain stand of conifers in mind Continuing with bonsai forests from the last two days… Looking at the after forest above, you might notice how the trees on the outside lean out in search of sunlight, which is what you would expect in a natural stand of trees (more on this below) You may also notice how Kimura enhanced the feeling of age by removing or jinning about half of the limbs (this is most evident in the intermediate to after photos … Continue reading The Magician’s Ezo Spruce Bonsai Forest