Luminous Leaves, Glowing Glazes & Contrasting Colors

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. The photo, like all the rest in this post, is from Haruyosi’s facebook timeline. I didn’t set off to talk about pot-tree color combinations, but that’s what happened anyway. I guess it’s pretty easy to tell why. I think you could spend a … Continue reading Luminous Leaves, Glowing Glazes & Contrasting Colors

A Propensity for Understatement

This powerful kuromatsu (Japanese black pine) won the Culture Minister’s Prize at the 20th Green Festa Kokubunji bonsai fair. It is 19″ (48cm) high and about 55 years old. It is owned by Toyoyuki Hamabata from Takamatsu’s Mure town in Shikoku. It appears at Bonsai World, an English language website from Shikoku Japan. It’s the long Thanksgiving holiday here in the States so we’ll take the easy way out today and dig into our archives. The tree above is from a 2009 post titled Japanese Bonsai, Small is Powerful. The one below is from a January 2014 post titled Old … Continue reading A Propensity for Understatement

Showing Off Its Inner Charm

This slender delight is showing off its inner charm. It’s late winter and the new buds are swelling. Without the leaves you can better see the subtle beauty of the bark and the delicate fine branching. The nebari is quite strong (but still in keeping with the delicacy of the tree). Much of its size and strength comes from having two trunks. This provides a good tip for creating nebari: leave smaller second and third trunks, at least for a while, if a strong nebari and lower trunk is your objective. Photo is from Bonsai Today issue 6. Going back … Continue reading Showing Off Its Inner Charm

Artisans Cup – Two Years Late & Right on Time

Good news! The Cup is coming. Those of us who kept the faith when the Artisans Cup was postponed are officially vindicated. You may remember that the Artisans Cup was originally scheduled for October 2013. Until events conspired to cause it to be postponed until 2015. Now that 2015 is preparing its arrival, the excitement that we all experienced two years ago is coming back. Time to start making plans. Michael Hagedorn, an indispensable half of the Artisans Cup original brain trust and major American bonsai artist, teacher and author, just posted this on Crateagus Bonsai.“One of the major events … Continue reading Artisans Cup – Two Years Late & Right on Time

Out of the Bonsai Mainstream

This stately distinctive Hinoki is from Michael Pollock’s blog Bonsai Shinshei as are the other two bonsai shown here. Here’s Michael’s caption: “One of my lone Hinoli cypress after a quick fall cleanup. Falling deeper in love with this pot that Ron Lang and I collaborated on.” I was going to feature the tree above in our last post until I got interested in the pot and one thing led to another. So, we’ll pick up where we left off. There was a time not too long ago when most of the bonsai you saw conformed to Japanese standards. True, … Continue reading Out of the Bonsai Mainstream

Experimental Forms & Other Ingenious Bonsai Ceramics

This highly textural pot is but one of a whole range of ingenious and original bonsai pots and sculptures at Lang Bonsai Containers (no one pays for content on Bonsai Bark – it’s just an accident due to time pressure or maybe lack of imagination, that this post read like an ad). Today and tomorrow have been set aside to move bonsai into winter storage and to finish wrapping some deliciously edible landscape plants with deer netting. So we’ll try to keep this short and to the point. I was a little miffed to discover that we have never featured … Continue reading Experimental Forms & Other Ingenious Bonsai Ceramics

A Remarkable Bonsai, Two Questions & the Boreal Forest

The inspiration for this post arouse when I stumbled upon this remarkable tree on facebook. It belongs to Colin Lewis. Here’s his caption: “Colorado blue spruce, acquired 2008 from Harold Sasaki. Styled 2011-2012. Pot custom made by my old friend Dan Barton, 2013. I’m letting it grow this year to refresh some old congested areas. Maybe I’ll show it in 2016…” Le raison d’être for this post is the tree above. More accurately, the tree and the pot. Both are delightful and together, even more delightful. However, and in spite of the magic of the bonsai above, two questions arise. … Continue reading A Remarkable Bonsai, Two Questions & the Boreal Forest

A Beautiful New Bonsai Book

Ginkgo. A close up of the cover tree from the new Crespi Bonsai Museum gallery book. We only occasionally devote a whole post to advertising and then only when we think what we are selling is newsworthy or warrants some special attention. It has been a long time since we’ve seen such an exceptional new bonsai book. Quality photography, materials and production combine with fifty blue chip bonsai that have been shot over time and from different perspectives in a way that makes for a thoroughly enjoyable bonsai experience. This excellent new book allows you a taste of the world … Continue reading A Beautiful New Bonsai Book

Majesty in Miniature

Winter or early spring (it looks like there might be some leaves starting to push, but it’s hard to tell). Two things that jumped out when I first saw this photo are, the rather unusual shape of the stand and the shear number of trees in the display. No companions, no figurines, no stones (well, maybe one small one in the middle) and not much internal space either (though there is plenty of space around the whole display). Just nine mini bonsai and one very well chosen larger tree. The photos shown here were taken by Morten Albek at the … Continue reading Majesty in Miniature

Bonsai Art: Running Out of Superlatives

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. Getting ready for another cross country hop (west to east this time), so to save time we’ll pull something out of our archival hat once again. This one originally appeared March 2013. Bonsai Art magazine is very well named. As bonsai magazines go, it is as well-done, beautiful and professional as they come (taking nothing away from International Bonsai Magazine and several other good … Continue reading Bonsai Art: Running Out of Superlatives