Powerful Bonsai with Brilliant Deadwood

A great tree for a study in deadwood. It’s a Juniper procumben from Luis Vallejo’s website. I cropped the photo a bit, but you can see the full size original just below. I just spent the last digital hour or so wandering around Luis Vallejo’s Bonsai Studio (Estudio de Bonsai) and his Bonsai Museum (Museo del Bonsai). Sometimes it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Without raving too much about what Luis has been up to, we’ll just encourage you to pay him a visit (his website and his fb photos). Given just how prolific Luis … Continue reading Powerful Bonsai with Brilliant Deadwood

Pedro’s Bonsai (con su primo Carlos)

Sweet tree, sweet pot. Pedro Morales says that it’s a shohin size bonsai from his cousin Carlos C. Morales. The pot is Japanese. Glen Lord suggested that the tree is a type of Ixora. We originally featured it back in 2011. For those of you who don’t know Pedro Morales, he’s a well known bonsai artist, teacher and author from Puerto Rico. It’s been a while since we featured Pedro’s bonsai. All but the tree at the top are his (cousin is close enough) and all are new to Bonsai Bark. Enjoy! I like this Nea buxifolia’s natural feel and … Continue reading Pedro’s Bonsai (con su primo Carlos)

Straight Up & Tightly Bunched

Is this one of the best Ginkgo bonsai photos you’ve ever seen? A couple things that stand out for me (in addition to the overall quality of the tree and the photo) are the brilliance of the new leaves and how that brilliance is reinforced by the green moss, the green pot and even the little green buds all over the trunk. I borrowed the photo from Bill Valavanis’ blog, Welcome to My Bonsai World. You don’t see that many Ginkgo bonsai. My guess is that this is because they are limited in terms of what you can do with them. … Continue reading Straight Up & Tightly Bunched

What’s Wrong – A Follow Up

I got a little feedback in the comments from this morning’s post. One reminded me that not everyone uses facebook. Making the links provided worthless to these non-facebook folks. So, I’ll fill in a bit… The three trees on the left (above) are tropicals that are shaped like conifers. To Robert Steven and to many others, this a mistake. A common mistake to be sure, but still a mistake. The three trees on the right have more rounded and therefore natural looking tropical tree crowns. This more or less rounded look is also generally found on deciduous (see below) and … Continue reading What’s Wrong – A Follow Up

What’s Wrong with these Trees (or not)?

This sturdy little Ficus may (or may not) have a problem. Is there anything wrong with the trees shown here? Robert Steven, world famous bonsai artist, teacher and author thinks so. In his own words: “Have you ever made the same mistake I did on my deciduous/broad leaf/ tropical bonsai? …..and what are they? (Don’t be ashamed, they are common mistakes being taught all over the world).” Take a look at the trees shown here. Start at the top and look at the first four photos. Is there something wrong? If you can’t find what’s wrong (according to Robert at … Continue reading What’s Wrong with these Trees (or not)?

No Watering, No Fertilizing, No Trimming, No Weeding…

Looks a lot like a Shohin bonsai display (this and the other photos in this post belong to Ken To). We’ve shown Ken To’s magnificent little wire sculpture bonsai before. Most people love them, but we have gotten at least one complaint in the ‘they’re not bonsai‘ vein. But that’s okay, Ken’s skill and feel for what makes a bonsai beautiful is impressive. Right down to the finest detail. There are some are real advantages, especially for our brown thumb friends… No water necessary. Indoors year round, no problem. Low light no problem. No fertilizers, no insects, no temperature issues, … Continue reading No Watering, No Fertilizing, No Trimming, No Weeding…

Sheer Beauty – More Flowering Bonsai

The black background provides a perfect contrast to the sheer beauty of the white flowers. This spectacular Hawthorn bonsai belongs to Hans Van Meer. He doesn’t say what the the variety is but the flower looks like a Common hawthorn* (Crataegus monogyna). The pot is by Brian Albright. We’ve been featuring flowering bonsai lately so thought we’d keep going in that direction. It’s the right time of year and our facebook likes tend to explode whenever we put flowers up (facebook likes and click-through-rate are related). Of course the trick is to find worthy bonsai that happen to be in … Continue reading Sheer Beauty – More Flowering Bonsai

Crème de la Bonsai

2012 Kokufu Prize winning Informal upright Shimpaku juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. shimpaku). This and the other images in this post are from Phoenix Bonsai. Just back and trying to dig out (no good vacation goes unpunished), so once again we’ll dip back into our archives. This one is from 2013. It’s titled Kokufu: More of the Very Best Bonsai. Just in case you haven’t heard of Kokufu, it is generally regarded as the Crème de la Crème when it comes to Bonsai Exhibitons. As long as we’re stealing images from Phoenix Bonsai Society we might as well pillage their text: … Continue reading Crème de la Bonsai

Robert’s Super Mini Bonsai

Several super mini Premna microphylla arranged on an impressive stone. This planting and the rest of the mini bonsai shown here are by Robert Steven. All good things… Today is packing up and leaving day. The end of an excellent vacation. I’ve been trying to post every day,* even if it means dipping into our archives. This one originally appeared in 2010. I’ve made a few changes, but it’s still about the same amazingly small bonsai (all Premna microphylla). The smaller the more difficult… Robert Steven sent us these incredibly tiny bonsai a few days ago. Here’s what he has … Continue reading Robert’s Super Mini Bonsai

The Biggest Challenge with the Smallest Trees

I won’t guess the species this time (crabapple?), I’m not good at it anyway. What I will guess is that these are fairly normal human fingers, which means this is a very small bonsai. This and two other photos in this post are from Eric Sin’s facebook page. Last two days of vacation. Rather than actually work at putting together a new post, we’ll dive back into our archives. This one appeared just over three years ago (Tiny Bonsai). We’ve done some essential editing, enlarged the photos and added one tree. The biggest challenge with the smallest trees Mini bonsai … Continue reading The Biggest Challenge with the Smallest Trees