Bark

Time to Celebrate…

The sky blue pot is the perfect compliment to the light pink flowers on this powerful Satsuki Azalea that resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. There are a multitude of cultivars in the Satsuki group of azaleas. This one is a ‘Nikko.’ It was donated to the museum by Masayuki Nakamura. It’s time to celebrate our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum once again. If you are anywhere near our nation’s capital, or plan on being anywhere near, don’t miss this phenomenal display. Even if you have no plans on being near Washington DC, you can … Continue reading Time to Celebrate…

Bonsai in Hand (Worth Two on the Bench)

Perfectly small and just perfect. The artist (Haruyosi) doesn’t mention the variety, but the leaves look a bit like Nothofagus gunnii. This is our second Bonsai in Hand post this summer. Without belaboring the point, one of the bests ways to show size is to provide something for contrast. In the case of small trees, nothing works quite as well as the human hand. All the bonsai shown here belong to Haruyosi. We’ve featured his trees in the past and will no doubt feature them in the future. Japanese wax tree (Toxicodendron succedaneum). The red and green leaves contrast well … Continue reading Bonsai in Hand (Worth Two on the Bench)

Bonsai Wire Sale: Kilo Rolls for as low as 12.95

Don’t let yourself run out of Bonsai Wire. It’s great to have exactly the right wire at hand when you need it. Up to 30% off Kilo Rolls of Bonsai Wire 1-2 Rolls 10% off = 16.65 each 3-9 Rolls 20% off = 14.80 each 10+ Rolls 30% off = 12.95 each plus an added 5% off on orders of 100.00 +

Crazy Color from High on the Bonsai Pantheon

Though it’s usually considered bad form to lop off part of the pot, in this case it’s all about the color (and the wildly expressive trunk). The variety is listed as Issho-no-haru. This and the rest of the photos in this post are from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum A few posts back we launched a discussion about the relative merits of  bonsai in North America and Europe (Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…). The discussion was continued in two subsequent posts (here and here) I expected my remarks might get me into a little hot water, but there was really … Continue reading Crazy Color from High on the Bonsai Pantheon

Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing). Vacation ended around midnight last night. Still, in light of a whole slew of post vacation demands, I’m going to indulge in one more journey into our archives. This one is from August, 2009, which in the life of this blog, qualifies as ancient. We’ll stick with our current topic, fall transplanting. With one caveat: opinions abound on how to do most anything, and fall transplanting (really almost any bonsai task) is … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Taking Full Advantage of Next Year’s Growing Season

Coming Soon to Your Back Yard

As long as we’re on the topic of choosing, I chose this one as the lead photo because it’s the only one with clean pot. A distinct advantage. All the photos in this post are from Boon Manakitivipart’s facebook postings. I took the liberty of cropping all the photos in this post and combining some separate photos into single images. Still on vacation, so still digging into our archives. This one is fairly recent (December last year) but seems particularly appropriate as the fall potting season is closing in fast. For those of us in inhospitable northern climes it starts … Continue reading Coming Soon to Your Back Yard

Once More, This Time with Better Photos

Joe Noga sent me this official photo of his Ho Yoku Award Japanese Maple (see our last post for the unofficial photo). I didn’t mention this before, but, in addition to appreciating the strikingly unusual effect of the upside-down tree, you might linger for a moment on the exquisitely rendered wooden stand In our last post we showed three winners from the 2012 U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Problem was, the photos were not the best ones available. The best photos are the official photos, the ones in the Exhibition Album. Now, thanks to Joseph Noga taking the trouble to send … Continue reading Once More, This Time with Better Photos

Time to Come Back Home

The National Award for the Finest Bonsai Masterpiece. Japanese Black Pine, by Scott Elser of Portland, Oregon. It’s vacation time so we’ll resort to borrowing from our archives. I picked this one from January 2013 for a couple reasons: it’s time to come back home after six straight post featuring European and Asian bonsai and our the 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is coming soon, so I’m hoping that this will provide a little encouragement to those of you who are on the fence. BTW: I was at the last National Exhibition, and even though Bill and his crew took … Continue reading Time to Come Back Home

Roshi Bonsai Tool Sale Ends Tomorrow

Now is the right time to choose from our large selection of High Carbon Steel and Stainless Roshi Bonsai Tools 10% off for one Roshi Tool 20% off for 2-5 Roshi Tools 30% off for 6 or more sets count as 1 tool Roshi Bonsai Tools are known for their precision craftsmanship, beauty and excellent prices (even more excellent now) Sale Ends Tomorrow (July 18 at 11:59 pm U.S. EDT) so don’t wait

A Bonsai in Hand

It’s not unusual to see a photo of someone holding a small bonsai in one hand. However, you almost never see a photo with someone holding a bonsai with two hands. Until now that is. This two handed approach gives the feeling that the tree (a rather spectacular Shimpaku) is being offered. This photo and the others in this post are from Japan Shohin Bonsai. One of the problems with photographing bonsai is conveying size. The easiest and perhaps best way is to provide something familiar for contrast. It used to be fairly common to see bonsai with cigarette packs … Continue reading A Bonsai in Hand