Bark

Bonsai Art

The day has barely started and I’m already running out of superlatives. I guess ‘spectacular’ will do in this case. It’s a Korean hornbeam (Carpinus turczaninowii) by Ian Stewartson. The photo is from Bonsai Art’s website. Bonsai Art magazine is very well named. As bonsai magazines go, it is as well-done, beautiful and professional as they come (taking nothing nothing away from International Bonsai Magazine and several other good ones). The problem, for most of us at least, is that it’s in German. But really, the photos and overall presentation are so good that maybe the language isn’t as important … Continue reading Bonsai Art

Three Famous Sargents

Everything about this famous Sargent juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii) seems to be flowing, with its shari that looks like melting wax and its gracefully descending foliage. The tree resides at Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum in Tokyo. It won the Prime Minister Award at the 1998 Taikan-ten. Its height is 26″ (66 cm) and its estimated age is 200 years. The photo is from Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature. Every morning before getting started with my recent bonsai lessons with Michael Hagedorn, we would spend a little time looking through Kokufu albums. The exercise was illuminating and I wanted … Continue reading Three Famous Sargents

Still the Best

When I first saw this tree I thought it might be a Yew. But, the bark isn’t right, and even the foliage, though close, isn’t quite right either. Fortunately, Peter Tea solved the problem in his 2011 Taikan-ten Exhibition post. Peter’s caption reads: “This Yew Hemlock caught many peoples attention. It made sense that it took the prize for medium conifer. We don’t have any Yews here at Aichien because they don’t do well in the hot weather that we have in Nagoya.” As for the species, it turns out that there are two Hemlocks that are native to Japan … Continue reading Still the Best

Bonsai Events, Dirty Pick Ups and a Few Loose Ends

This pine (looks like a Japanese white; Pinus parviflora) is from the 2011 Taikan-ten bonsai exhibition in Japan. The photo was borrowed from Empire Bonsai. You don’t see that many great multiple-trunk bonsai (here’s another one we posted recently) and I think this one qualifies. It’s hard to tell from this angle if all the trunks are sharing a single root-system. It could be a twin-trunk tree and a triple-trunk clump combined. Upcoming events. It’s time to catch up on some upcoming bonsai events and some other loose ends. Which reminds me, if you’d like to promote an event, just … Continue reading Bonsai Events, Dirty Pick Ups and a Few Loose Ends

An Inexplicable Oversight

I’m going to guess that this peerless pine, with its strong sinuous trunk is a Japanese black pine, rather than a Japanese red. However, there’s no need to guess about the quality of the tree or where we found it (world-class quality and Bjorn Bjorholm’s website). I don’t know exactly how this inexplicable oversight happened, but suffice it to say that I’m amazed and a little befuddled that we haven’t yet featured the truly remarkable bonsai on Bjorn Bjorholm’s website (Bjorvala Bonsai Studio) or the story of Bjorn’s apprenticeship in Japan. Especially given that Bjorn is practically from our own … Continue reading An Inexplicable Oversight

Big Show, Small Trees

This pine by Mark and Rita Cooper was part of their second place Shohin display at the Noelanders Trophy. Mark and Rita also won the first place Shohin display (see below). All the trees in this post belong to Mark and Rita. All the photos are borrowed from Bonsai Eejit. In our last post we showed a small Chinese elm (see below) by Mark and Rita Cooper that was part of their first place Shohin display at the 2013 Noelanders Trophy. It was unattributed because I didn’t know who it belonged to. Now, thanks to Bonsai Eejit we know, and, … Continue reading Big Show, Small Trees

A Stately Elegance

This Japanese Stewartia (S. pseudocamellia) from Bonsai Today issue 68, is a study in color, harmony and balance. Its stands as a reminder of an earlier day in the evolution of bonsai, before chainsaws. Even before wire. Great pot too. This is another post in our or series of species specific bonsai, or genus specific in this case. The genus is called Stewartia. It consist of a dozen or so flowering small trees and shrubs. You don’t see that many Stewartia bonsai in the West, but if you go through old issues of Bonsai Today, you’ll see plenty that reside … Continue reading A Stately Elegance

Winter Sale Last Day & New Pots

Bonsai Pots. You may or may not know this, but we are now offering a very large selection of Yixing bonsai pots. I think Yixing pots are among the very best pots in the world. Especially when you consider the prices. Winter Sale. Today (January 31st) is the last day of our Winter Sale. Right now we have hundreds of items that are reduced below our normal low prices, and our usual volume discounts also apply. It’s not that we won’t keep some items on sale after this (we’ll always have deep discounts), but just not so many at once. … Continue reading Winter Sale Last Day & New Pots

Scots & Scotch

Great tree, great pot. This powerful old Scot’s pine by Enrico Savini was an overall winner in a contest that was held at the Art of Bonsai Project way back in 2005. The pot is by Isabelia. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is another in our bonsai species series. I used to think they were Scotch pine (some people say Scotch pine is incorrect and others say it’s an acceptable variation) and had the notion that you could enjoy a sip of Scotch while working on you Scotch pine (oh well…). No matter what you call them, Scots pine make excellent … Continue reading Scots & Scotch

Still Sleeping at the Switch

Do you recognize this award winning Shimpaku juniper? It appears in Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature (and older version is in the gallery of our Masters Series Juniper book). It belongs to Masahiko Kimura. The photo is by Jonathan Singer, as are all three photos in this post and all of the photos in Fine Bonsai. The three trees shown here are all from a review of the book Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature, that appears at Smithsonian.com. We were alerted to the review by Matt Calcavecchia in the comments on a recent post (scroll down to the last tree … Continue reading Still Sleeping at the Switch