Once More, This Time with Better Photos

Joe Noga sent me this official photo of his Ho Yoku Award Japanese Maple (see our last post for the unofficial photo). I didn’t mention this before, but, in addition to appreciating the strikingly unusual effect of the upside-down tree, you might linger for a moment on the exquisitely rendered wooden stand In our last post we showed three winners from the 2012 U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Problem was, the photos were not the best ones available. The best photos are the official photos, the ones in the Exhibition Album. Now, thanks to Joseph Noga taking the trouble to send … Continue reading Once More, This Time with Better Photos

Time to Come Back Home

The National Award for the Finest Bonsai Masterpiece. Japanese Black Pine, by Scott Elser of Portland, Oregon. It’s vacation time so we’ll resort to borrowing from our archives. I picked this one from January 2013 for a couple reasons: it’s time to come back home after six straight post featuring European and Asian bonsai and our the 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is coming soon, so I’m hoping that this will provide a little encouragement to those of you who are on the fence. BTW: I was at the last National Exhibition, and even though Bill and his crew took … Continue reading Time to Come Back Home

Generalizations Can Also Be Odious

I am struck with the open and relaxed elegance that this pine displays. I wonder what would happen if the relatively heavy first branch was removed. Would it enhance the open elegance or would it rob the tree of its uniqueness? Like all of the photos in this post and the previous two posts, this was taken by Sandor Papp at the 2014 Noelanders Trophy (I cropped most of them to emphasize the individual trees rather than the displays). There was no caption with this tree, so we don’t know who it belongs to, nor do we know the species. … Continue reading Generalizations Can Also Be Odious

Bonsai Stock & Increasingly Severe Restrictions

This impressive and rather massive Mugo pine belongs to Walter Pall. Like the other photos in this post (and the last post) it was taken at the 2014 Noelanders Trophy by Sandor Papp. Continued from our last post… One reasons European bonsai is more developed than North American bonsai is more relaxed import regulations. Much of the high quality stock that has appeared in Europe over the last fifty years or so originally came from Asia. Though some high quality stock has been imported into North America, the U.S.has always had more restrictive plant import laws and over the last … Continue reading Bonsai Stock & Increasingly Severe Restrictions

Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…

European black pine (Pinus nigra) by Mauro Stemberger. I took the liberty to crop this photo (the uncropped version is below) and to brighten it up a bit (the other photos in this post too). All of the photos here are from The Bonsai Blog of Sandor Papp. The bonsai shown here all appeared at the 2014 Noelanders Trophy in Belgium. The photos were taken from The Bonsai Blog of Sandor Papp. They represent a small sampling of Sandor’s Noelander’s photos. Whenever I see photos of the some of the best European bonsai I can’t help but compare them with … Continue reading Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…

A Dilemma We’d All Like To Have

These two views of the same tree and the question posed (below) are from Tony Tickle’s website. The tree shown here belongs to Tony Tickle. It’s a Yew (the species isn’t mentioned, but I’m guessing English). You can find it on Tony’s Bonsai & Yamadori site under the heading Please choose your favorite ‘Front’ for this Yew. If you visit Bonsai & Yamadori you can vote for your favorite front (aka best view), and, if you’re really ambitious, you can explain yourself in the comments (you can do the same in our comments below). Meanwhile, I’ll keep my opinion to myself. … Continue reading A Dilemma We’d All Like To Have

Daring & Over-the-Top Brilliant

Daring and brilliant. I think the daring part is combining such a strong and unique pot with such a brilliant little flowering tree. Each could stand on its own, no problem. But together the brilliance is multiplied. This photo and the other photos in this post are from Machiko Koide’s timeline on facebook. I don’t know much about Michiko Koide and google didn’t help. All I could find is her facebook timeline. Turns out, based on the photos, that’s plenty These pots are most excellent, with or without little trees. The two handed approach (see our last post). Contrast … Continue reading Daring & Over-the-Top Brilliant

The 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Is Fast Approaching

The tree is nice, but it’s really about the flowers. As you can see, there are three distinct flower colors on this tree. Though quince are known for the brilliance of their flowers and multiple hues are not uncommon, still, you don’t see many with three distinctly different flowers on one tree. This and the rest of the photos in this post belong to Bill Valavanis. You can find them and others on his Bonsai Blog. Bill Valavanis’ 4th U.S National Bonsai Exhibition is fast approaching, so this seems like a good time to remind you of just how important … Continue reading The 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Is Fast Approaching

Heavy Crowns & Wordy Captions

Based on the photos from Sandor Papp’s blog, this, or the tree just below, might be my exhibition winner (the actual winner is at the bottom of the post). It’s unusual to see this much deadwood on a deciduous or other broad-leafed bonsai, but then Privets are tough trees (Ligustrum vulgaris in this case). Speaking of deadwood you might notice the impressive sabamiki (Japanese for hollow trunk – plural in this case). The unique, well-chosen pot is also worth a mention. The trees shown here appear on the Bonsai Blog of Sandor Papp. The occasion is the recent bonsai exhibition … Continue reading Heavy Crowns & Wordy Captions

A Happy Accident

The original caption from Milan Karpíšek reads “Sabina of my friend ready for a show.” He doesn’t say who the friend is. We might assume that the tree belongs to a friend and was styled by Milan, but we know about assumptions. Maybe someone can clue us in. The three trees shown here are from Milan Karpíšek’s facebook photos (Milan is from the Czech Republic). Like many of the bonsai featured here, these were discovered by accident (aka stumbled upon). A very happy accident indeed. I decided to show all three photos just the way Milan presents them on facebook … Continue reading A Happy Accident