Magician 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. Summers are short here in Vermont, it’s Sunday morning and the sun has decided to make an appearance. Time to dig into our archives and vacate this office before petrification sets in. We just mentioned Kimura (last post) so why not show some of his remarkable bonsai? This post originally appeared last summer. To shed a little more light, you might want to visit the … Continue reading Magician on the Rocks

A Remarkable Transformaton by a Bonsai Artist Not Named Kimura

We don’t usually feature such grainy shots for our lead photo, but this is the best we could find of this remarkable tree (plus we blew it up to fit our format). It’s an ‘after’ photo of a Kishu shimpaku juniper by Steve Tolley. When I first saw the before and after shots of this remarkable Kishu shimpaku, Master Kimura’s revolutionary transformations immediately came to mind (some examples of Kimura’s transformations are here, here and here). I won’t say much more; we’ll let the photos and Steve Tolley’s text (below) do the talking. Before. Here’s some of what Steve Tolley … Continue reading A Remarkable Transformaton by a Bonsai Artist Not Named Kimura

Technical Skills, Great Vision & An Unsolved Mystery

After. By Salatore Liporace. It’s not in a bonsai pot yet, but in this case, who cares? There are at least five things that struck me almost immediately about this tree. First, it’s a great example of a before and after bonsai. The before is full of challenges and promise (good stock is half the battle) and when you look at the after, it’s obvious that the artist (Salvatore Liporace) has done a masterful job of rising to the challenge. Second, there’s the exceptionally strong and vividly colored living vein and the way it wraps around and contrasts so well … Continue reading Technical Skills, Great Vision & An Unsolved Mystery

Bunjin Creds

Caption from 2012: I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bunjin style bonsai in such a deep pot. You almost always see them in shallow round or near-round pots. No problem though, this one works to perfection; a spectacular tree with a lustrous pot. I think the heavy foliage (unusual for a bunjin) helps balance the heavy pot (Message from 2014: I think it’s a stretch to call this tree a bunjin. Mostly because of the very robust foliage and the deep flashy pot. More below…). It’s time to dig into our archives. This is one of our earlier … Continue reading Bunjin Creds

The Time of Your Life (In Chicago)

Usually I don’t like distracting backgrounds, but the vertical lines in this display aren’t too bad. It doesn’t hurt that the tree is so powerful. It looks like a Yew, but there’s no verification with the photo. I found it at Michael Bonsai on facebook. Time to head to Chicago. Speaking of, you might be too young to know the song Chicago. It was written in 1922 and was recorded by a number of artists. The most famous version is by Frank Sinatra (1957). Anyway, whenever the I hear about Chicago the song immediately pops into my head. Fortunately, there … Continue reading The Time of Your Life (In Chicago)

Time and the Ravages of Nature

This after photo by Juan Andrade is a very good example of a field grown bonsai that is grown and styled to look like a yamadori (bonsai collected frm the wild). Though this is a very sweet little tree that might at a glance fool someone, still, there is something about true yamadori that is impossible (almost impossible?) to mimic. Even in the hands of someone as skilled as Juan (and whoever originally grew and styled this tree). This post picks up on Field Grown Bonsai that Look Like Yamadori from last week. Here’s the before photo. You don’t have … Continue reading Time and the Ravages of Nature

Time to Celebrate…

The sky blue pot is the perfect compliment to the light pink flowers on this powerful Satsuki Azalea that resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. There are a multitude of cultivars in the Satsuki group of azaleas. This one is a ‘Nikko.’ It was donated to the museum by Masayuki Nakamura. 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 … Continue reading Time to Celebrate…

Field Grown Bonsai that Look Like Yamadori

After. This sweet little Shimpaku and the one below were posted on facebook by Bjorn Bjorholm. The before photos for both trees are at the bottom of the post. Before I make another mistake and look foolish in the process, here’s my disclaimer for this post: I don’t know for a fact the origin of the bonsai shown here. Much of what I have to say below is simply conjecture. Lately I’ve been noticing field grown bonsai stock that look like yamadori (bonsai stock collected from the wild). More accurately, the best look almost like yamadori. I believe that’s the … Continue reading Field Grown Bonsai that Look Like Yamadori

Bonsai in Hand (Worth Two on the Bench)

Perfectly small and just perfect. The artist (Haruyosi) doesn’t mention the variety, but the leaves look a bit like Nothofagus gunnii. This is our second Bonsai in Hand post this summer. Without belaboring the point, one of the bests ways to show size is to provide something for contrast. In the case of small trees, nothing works quite as well as the human hand. All the bonsai shown here belong to Haruyosi. We’ve featured his trees in the past and will no doubt feature them in the future. Japanese wax tree (Toxicodendron succedaneum). The red and green leaves contrast well … Continue reading Bonsai in Hand (Worth Two on the Bench)

Crazy Color from High on the Bonsai Pantheon

Though it’s usually considered bad form to lop off part of the pot, in this case it’s all about the color (and the wildly expressive trunk). The variety is listed as Issho-no-haru. This and the rest of the photos in this post are from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum A few posts back we launched a discussion about the relative merits of bonsai in North America and Europe (Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…). The discussion was continued in two subsequent posts (here and here) I expected my remarks might get me into a little hot water, but there was really … Continue reading Crazy Color from High on the Bonsai Pantheon