A Magnificent Bonsai with a Strange & Wonderful Shari

Hanging out. Or just hanging in? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a shari quite like this one; it seems to be floating in the opening of the sabamiki (trunk’s hollow). Still, I think this would be a wonderful tree even without the shari; the sabamiki, the nebari and the superbly textured bark all create a powerful sense of age and character. I found both photos shown here at Michael Bonsai. They are originally from Bonsai Tonight. Does the shari draw your attention to, or distract from, an otherwise magnificent trunk? What would happen if you removed the shari … Continue reading A Magnificent Bonsai with a Strange & Wonderful Shari

Cut Paste Versus Natural Healing

One of Peter Tea’s freshly worked-on Trident maples. You’ll have to use your imagination to get a feel for what this tree will look like when it fills out. But if your imagination fails you, it still looks pretty good, just as it is. Borrowing from Peter… Once again, we are borrowing from Peter Tea’s excellent bonsai blog. This time it’s a story of two Trident maples. We’ll just whet your appetite here; for a whole series of instructive photos and insightful text, you can visit Peter’s blog. Cut paste versus the natural way Here is the West some people … Continue reading Cut Paste Versus Natural Healing

Medi, but Most Def Not Mediocre

Five or six brilliant bonsai The first five trees in this post are from MediBonsai’s web gallery. The last one is from Germán Gómez’ facebook photos. MediBonsai belongs to Germán. Rather than bore you with my comments this time, we’ll just show you six brilliant bonsai (well, maybe just five are brilliant) and leave the comments to you.

The Twist & Other Bonsai Eccentricities

Doing the twist. We’ve featured a few of these corkscrew types lately (all Shimpaku junipers), but this one takes the cake. Even though there’s something unnatural about many of these twisted bonsai, some work better than others and I’d put this one in that category. BTW: nature sometimes does twist trees in this manner, but I’m not so sure you’d find ones with this many twists growing naturally. Photo by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight. Pines and junipers at Meifu-ten All of the photos in this post have been lifted from a post on Bonsai Tonight titled Pines and junipers … Continue reading The Twist & Other Bonsai Eccentricities

Weeky Wire: Dynamic Movement, Great Bonsai Events, Depth of Field

Dynamic movement. There’s something compelling about the shape and sense of movement expressed by this Carlos van der Vaart tree, even though the trunk’s somewhat uniform corkscrew effect gives me pause. I originally found this image on facebook, where the caption reads Carlos van der Vaart with Van Tuan Nguyen. It also appears in the gallery on Carlos’ website. Our Stone Lantern warehouse is closed this week. Orders received this week will be shipped next week (the week of the 23rd) on a first-come, first-serve basis. Speaking of orders; don’t forget to fertilize your bonsai! Under-feeding leads to weak trees. … Continue reading Weeky Wire: Dynamic Movement, Great Bonsai Events, Depth of Field

Tiny Bonsai

I won’t guess the species this time (crabapple?), I’m that not good at it anyway (if you don’t believe me, check out the last post). What I will guess is that these are fairly normal human fingers, which means this is a very small bonsai. This and the other two photos in this post are from Eric Sin’s facebook page. The biggest challenge with the smallest trees Mini bonsai provide challenges that you don’t find with larger trees. Basically, it’s about showing something that’s compelling with a very limited number of branches to work with (you can almost always forget … Continue reading Tiny Bonsai

Growing Better Roots & Trunks

In addition a one of the most perfectly developed crowns you’ll ever see, with its amazing profusion of tiny leaves; this Trident maple (I must’ve been drunk, any fool can see that this is a Zelkova) provides one of the best examples of trunk and surface root (nebari) development you’ll see anywhere. Neither are overstated; providing a welcome relief from overdeveloped trunk taper and nebari that you sometimes see in Trident maples. But then, you might expect perfection from this tree, it’s from the Grand Master Saburo Kato’s collection (Kato-sama’s most excellent book, Forest, Rock Plantings and Ezo Spruce Bonsai … Continue reading Growing Better Roots & Trunks

Weekly Wire: Bonsai Surperstar, FREE Fertilizer, Making Uro, Spring!

Goyo-matsu (Japanese white pine) from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. FREE FERTILIZER! We are giving away our favorite fertilizer over on Stone Lantern. Just for the fun of it (and to encourage you to place an order and to feed your bonsai!) Happy white Easter from Walter Pall. This morning Walter posted a whole bunch of photos a lot like this. There’s even some scary photos that shows fully and partially leafed out maples covered with snow. Here’s the good news from Walter: “While I am posting these photographs it has stopped snowing and even the sun is … Continue reading Weekly Wire: Bonsai Surperstar, FREE Fertilizer, Making Uro, Spring!

Eccentric Bonsai: Pushing Invisible Boundaries

Unusual, yes. Eccentric, somewhat. Sweet, definitely! The compressed quality (like a very large foot stepped on it) and the way the foliage sort of clings to the trunk, make for an unusual bonsai. Even the pot and the reddish brown ground cover are different. But aside from its more eccentric qualities, there’s that wonderful trunk. The image is from Joko Sulistianto’s facebook photos, as are all the images in this post. I don’t know who the tree belongs too (ditto on the others). Pushing invisible boundaries Way back in the recesses of time (2009 & 2010) we featured a whole … Continue reading Eccentric Bonsai: Pushing Invisible Boundaries

A Levitated Bonsai Platform

After. A twin trunk Mountain hemlock that was collected, styled and placed on a very thin piece of plastic by Michael Hagedorn and friends. It’s been a while… …since we featured Michael Hagedorn (Crataegus Bonsai). This is partly because lately we’ve been focusing more on international bonsai than North American bonsai; and partly because if we do too much Michael, you might suspect there are kickbacks involved (Michael is way too clean for that; as for me…). Mountain hemlock on levitated nylon board I won’t say too much about the nylon board or the steps that were necessary to cause … Continue reading A Levitated Bonsai Platform