This magnificent juniper appears on Bonsai Boon in a section on Bay Island Bonsai’s 2011 Exhibit. I’ll assume it belongs to Boon (his name accompanies the photo, though it doesn’t state unequivocally that it’s his tree and I’ve been fooled before). I dug around for a little while but couldn’t find the species or anything else on this tree. No doubt the info is out there somewhere.
Bonsai is primarily a technical endeavor
The following quote is by Michael Hagedorn. It’s from an article titled ‘A Student’s Report’ that appears in the Bonsai Intensive section of Boon Manakitivipart’s (Bonsai Boon) website.
“Since taking part in the Bonsai Intensive I have come to view bonsai as a highly technical activity. It is grounded in technical knowledge, like architecture or medicine. The better we know these fundamentals, the better we can use them to do something creative. I started in bonsai with the notion that it is primarily a creative endeavor. It is not. It is primarily technical. The longer we retain the notion it is firstly creative, the greater the chances we will neglect to study its details. When that happens, we are using crooked arrows to shoot at moving targets.” Here’s the whole article.
Michael Hagedorn at one of Boon’s intensives. Among other things, Michael is the author of Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk (discounted at Stone Lantern). For more on what Micheal is up to, you can visit his excellent website, Crataegus Bonsai.
Boon Manakitivipart. The master teacher at work.
Engelmann spruce by Michael Hagedorn.
Really liking the photos on this blog! The bonsai are so well kept!! And I like that you have photos of people pruning as this gives others ideas of how proper pruning is done.
Peter Tea is the most recent owner of that California Juniper up top. Before Peter owned it the opposite side was the front and he turned it around, I like the new front. There are some pics of the old front on his facebook account.