Shooting The Magician at Night

Black pine in the black of night. From the collection of Masahiko Kimura (The Magician). All the photos in this post are from an El Tim Bonsai facebook photo album title KIMURA. It’s still mid-summer vacation time and we’re still digging deep into our archives. This post is from September 2012. Our last post featured The Magician (Masahiko Kimura), so it looks like we’ve got a theme, at least for the moment. To amuse myself I changed the title from simply The Magician at Night to what you see above. Shooting in the dark It’s not too often you see … Continue reading Shooting The Magician at Night

Kimura on the Rocks

The mature look. It helps to start with well developed trees. I think most of us would be happy to have trees like these Shimpaku as single bonsai, let alone as parts of group plantings. Time for another summer rerun. Today I’m embarking on a trip to the other coast, so it seems like a good idea to continue our summer vacation series of resurrected oldies but goodies. This one is from last December. Kimura’s rock plantings. These photos are all from a facebook posting by Alejandro Sartori that he took during a recent visit to Masahiko Kimura’s nursery. I’ve … Continue reading Kimura on the Rocks

Summer Book & DVD Sale

Our Summer Book Sale even includes our already discounted sets like this recently back in print SET OF 3 HASKILL CREEK BONSAI BOOKS SUMMER BOOKS SALE 20% TO 25% OFF ALL BOOKS & DVDs (off of our already discounted prices) sets count as 1 book final discounts will show up when you check out Sale includes all of our books including our most popular book MASTERS’ SERIES JUNIPER BOOK list price 29.95, our regular discounted price only 19.95 with our 20% discount YOU PAY ONLY 15.96 only 14.96 if you buy 6 books (sets count as 1 book) … Continue reading Summer Book & DVD Sale

Fall Transplanting: Pros & Cons

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). This post originally appeared in August 2009 (Bonsai Bark’s first year, which means we are now in year 4 going on year 5). I’m still in the midst of mid-summer semi vacation time, so we’ll continue to dig through some old posts to see if we can find anything useful. In this case, fall is just around the corner for some of us (sadly), so why not discuss fall transplanting? BTW: I’ve … Continue reading Fall Transplanting: Pros & Cons

Great Bonsai Events & Only 2 More Days for Your FREE Bonsai Items

This remarkable old pine is from Exhibitons and Awards on Bjorn Bjorholm’s Bjorvala Bonsai Studio website. Bjorn is the headliner at the 36th Annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibit (see below). FREE! Only two more days (today and tomorrow) for your FREE Bonsai Items FREE! Three of the seven FREE items that we are offering. All you have to do is place an order with Stone Lantern for at least 25.00 AND put FREE in the comments box when you check out. Details are here. FREE ADVERTISING! Would you like to see your bonsai event featured here? If so, just send … Continue reading Great Bonsai Events & Only 2 More Days for Your FREE Bonsai Items

A Penjing Pioneer

Windswept Japanese white pine tray planting by Zhao Qingquan. I think the wind in this case, is a gentle but persistent on shore breeze. I think the two best known Penjing artists in the world are Zhao Qingquan and Robert Steven (Robert refers to what he does as bonsai rather than penjing, but to my eye many, if not most, of his bonsai show strong penjing qualities and he is certainly one of the world’s authorities on the art and history of penjing). We’ve featured Robert numerous times here on Bark (his critiques are quite famous by now) but we’ve … Continue reading A Penjing Pioneer

Hot Bonsai – Mid Summer Year Round

I like the fluidity of two main trunks and the contrast and depth that the third trunk provides. I also like the way the deadwood (shari) has been darkened to contrast with the light colored live wood. My only question is; why such a deep pot? We’ve shown this tree before, but for some reason I can’t find it right now. I looks a lot like a tree that Lam Ngoc Vinh would do. Here’s another rerun (from August 2011) for your enjoyment. There are two good reasons for this; first, it’s about tropical bonsai and so far this summer … Continue reading Hot Bonsai – Mid Summer Year Round

FREE Items, but only if…

Three of the seven FREE items that we are offering. All you have to do is place an order with Stone Lantern for at least 25.00 AND put FREE in the comments box when you check out. A little craziness every now and then… It has been a while since we gave away a bunch of FREE items when you order from Stone Lantern so we thought maybe it’s time to venture into that craziness again. Warning: read below carefully to assure you get your FREE items. Here’s the deal: You must put FREE in the comments box at check … Continue reading FREE Items, but only if…

Summer Relief for Your Bonsai

Deciduous Award at the 2012 U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition for the Finest Deciduous Bonsai. It’s a Japanese Maple by Suthin Sukolosovisit of Royal Bonsai. It has nothing to do with the topic of this post, at least directly, but the 3rd (2012) U.S. National Bonsai Exhibiton is now on special at Stone Lantern. The following very useful piece of advice is by Michael Hagedorn from his website Crataegus Bonsai. It originally appeared here on Bark almost exactly three years ago. “Last summer I mentioned the practice of ‘hamisu’ which is the misting of bonsai during hot summer days. This light … Continue reading Summer Relief for Your Bonsai

Extreme Beauty Is Back & Last Day of Our Big Tool Sale

This may be the the best Camellia bonsai you’ll ever see. Not that there are that many good camellia bonsai, at least not in my experience. No matter, the strong trunk, great display of flowers, the brilliant emerald foliage and excellent pot, make for an exceptional tree. All the photos in this post are from Extreme Beauty. A truly remarkable and unique book is back. It’s called Extreme Beauty, A Life Devoted to Bonsai and the Extreme Beauty part is spot on. Back in March we received 25 copies that, at the time, we thought would be all that we … Continue reading Extreme Beauty Is Back & Last Day of Our Big Tool Sale