Bark

Celebrating Our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

This brilliant Japanese Maple was donated to our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum by Ryutaro Azuma. It has been in training since 1906. The photo is from Capital Bonsai. 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 always make new plans. You won’t be disappointed. SITE WIDE SALE UP TO 60% OFF SOME ITEMS EVERYTHING DISCOUNTED MOST ITEMS 30% TO 60% OFF* This and other specials apply only to … Continue reading Celebrating Our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

American Bonsai Silhouettes

This snowy American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) forest by Gary Clark won the American Bonsai Society Award for Native Species at this year’s Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Our thanks to Bill Valavanis for this and the other photos shown here. It’s a busy time around here, so with the exception of a few words of my own, this post about the recent Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo is borrowed from Bill Valavanis (though what you see here is only a small piece of what Bill presented). I strongly urge you to visit Bill’s blog to enjoy his captivating first hand stories and insights … Continue reading American Bonsai Silhouettes

Setting the Record Straight

If you think you’ve seen this tree before, it might be because we featured it a couple weeks ago. However, this photo is not identical to the one we used then, but is rather a photo we just received from Bill Valavanis. See if you can tell the difference (to make it easy for you, the two photos are together just below). Bill Valavanis (our recent Hall of Fame inductee) just sent me the photo above (along with some comments – see below). The photo original photo that we used a couple weeks ago was borrowed from Micheal Bonsai (it’s the one on … Continue reading Setting the Record Straight

The Ultimate Bonsai Gift – Beauty, Power & Ergonomic Design

Heavy Duty Masters Shears designed by Robert Steven of the highest quality stainless steel each in its own in Bamboo Box These beautiful Heavy Duty Stainless Steel Bonsai Shears were designed by Robert Steven and produced to create a handsome and superior ergonomic tool for the connoisseur of the finest tools for the best bonsai results. Every curve and detail on this powerful tool ensures comfort and durability as well as artistic beauty. To see it is to be delighted and to hold it and use it is to be doubly delighted. The material used is highest quality 5Cr1MoV steel processed to hardness … Continue reading The Ultimate Bonsai Gift – Beauty, Power & Ergonomic Design

Brilliant Bonsai Colors by Haruyosi

You don’t see that many bright yellow pots. The glaze is expensive and hard to come by and the brilliance of the color can be overwhelming. But in this case the little tree holds its own. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a better choice of pots to set off the the richly hued Trident maple leaves. Yesterday one of the trees we featured was by Haruyosi, which reminded me how much I like his seemingly endless collection of Shohin bonsai. This post originally appeared November 2014. It’s one of my all time favorites I think you could spend a lifetime browsing … Continue reading Brilliant Bonsai Colors by Haruyosi

Small Is Beautiful

  This little deciduous tree with its profusion of small orange fruit isn’t identified, so we can only guess. Based on the fruit and the bark we’ll try Crab apple. If we’re wrong and you know what it is (or think you do) you can put it in the comments on our timeline. It’s Shohin time today. All the photos shown here are from a facebook page, called, of all things… Shohin. Continued below… Bonsai Books all discounted, some up to 60% off Chose from our large selection of quality Bonsai Books Japanese Garden & related Books too We don’t have to guess this time. Here’s the … Continue reading Small Is Beautiful

Multi Headed Monster & Other Brilliant Bonsai

There’s no identification with this masterful multi headed monster, but a safe guess might be a sinuous root Japanese white pine. I took the liberty of cropping a bit. The original shot is below All the bonsai featured here are Japanese imports that now reside at Bonsai Plaza in Delft Netherlands. The trees are high quality and as you can see, the photos are excellent. The only thing missing are the names. 30% to 40% off ROSHI TOOLS & TOOL KITS  30% TO 40% OFF LIST PRICES ALL ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS & TOOL KITS plus an extra 5% off all orders … Continue reading Multi Headed Monster & Other Brilliant Bonsai

Classic Beauty – Flowering Bonsai from Japan

Tomentosa cherry (Prunus tomentosa: Japanese Yasura-ume). The Japanese love of flowering cherries is evident in this gnarled old shohin size (5″) bonsai. Lots to do today, so we’ll make it short and sweet. All three photos are from Classic Bonsai of Japan (Nippon Bonsai Association), one of the best bonsai books we’ve seen. Unfortunately, it has been out of print for several years 30% to 40% off ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS  30% TO 40% OFF LIST PRICES ALL roshi BONSAI TOOLS & TOOL KITS plus an extra 5% off all orders 150.00 or more – Japanese apricot (Prunus mume: Japanese Ume). My apologies for cutting off … Continue reading Classic Beauty – Flowering Bonsai from Japan

Before, During & After – Seven Years & Some Serious Wiring

Here’s Mariusz Komsta’s captiion for this tree… “Momiji Polmans & Bonsaimotorworld bonsai school is finally paying off, great job by Jean-Pierre Reitz , Pinus nigra” (Austrian black pine). I found these photos of Jean-Pierre Reitz’ superb before and after bonsai on Mariusz Komsta’s timeline. If you’ve been following Bonsai Bark for a while, you’ll know that Mariusz is one of our favorites. Jean-Pierre however, is new to us. Looks like a good discovery SITE WIDE SPECIAL Up TO 60% OFF Some items 20% TO 60% OFF LIST PRICes* *there are 4 individual items we cannot discount – see below This and other … Continue reading Before, During & After – Seven Years & Some Serious Wiring

Winter Bonsai Berries

This sturdy Japanese fine tooth holly (Ilex serrata) originally appeared on our 2010 Bonsai calendar (speaking of, our 2018 Calendars are now discounted as part of our New Site Wide Sale).  This post started out to about Cotoneaster berries. That is until Bill Valavanis gently let me know that the tree above is an Ilex, even though I would have bet that it’s a Cotoneaster. But then I’ll never bet against Bill when it comes to bonsai. The photos and some of the text in this post are from our archives (June, 2015) NEW SITE WIDE SPECIAL 20% TO 60% OFF LIST PRICES ON EVERYTHING* *there are 4 … Continue reading Winter Bonsai Berries