Before & After – Antes y Despues

Before and after Itoigawa juniper (Juniperus chinesis ‘itoigawa’) by David Benavente. It helps to start with a magnificent tree. Still, this takes nothing away from the considerable skills of an artist like David Benavente. In fact, bringing a great tree back to shape and taking it to the next level is one of the things that defines a highly accomplished bonsai artist. Sticking with our reoccurant Before & After theme, today’s Itoigawa juniper is one of several remarkable Before & Afters (Antes y Despues) that David Benavente posted several years ago. By the way, if you’re confused about the difference between Shimpaku, Kishu and Itoigawa, here’s something from … Continue reading Before & After – Antes y Despues

Floating Clouds

Here’s an unusual tree for your enjoyment. Or, for your criticism if you feel the profusion of small foliage pads (floating clouds) is unnatural. Personally I don’t have a problem with it. It’s rich and full of energy, with all those intriguing little pieces that hang together so well. The kind of tree you could look at for a long time and still see some feature that you missed. It belongs to Hsiu Yang, one of Taiwan’s many great bonsai artists. It’s obviously a Juniper, but no species is given. Just one tree today. I borrowed the photo above from a post we did in September, … Continue reading Floating Clouds

Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Root-over-rock Japanese black pine by Suthin Sukosolvisit. No major restyling, but what a striking improvement. Sutin’s caption reads simply… “Japanese black pine 2011-2013” The original before and after photos are from Suthin’s timeline A big part of learning about bonsai involves transforming rough stock into beautiful, or at least passable bonsai. However, it’s equally important to do the periodic work necessary to keep a bonsai beautiful, or soon enough it will return to its rough state (or worse). Allowing a tree to just grow on its own for a while is essential to its health, and bringing it back into shape after this period of unrestrained growth is also … Continue reading Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

A Second Look

Fluidity and power. If you’re not into the highly styled look, then you’re probably not crazy about this tree. But it might be possible to take a second look with some effort to relax any notion of what a bonsai should look like. When I do this I see an impressive work of art (in this case at least), though admittedly you’d never see a tree in nature that looks quite like this one. It’s was posted on facebook by Minoru Akiyama, one of Japan’s many outstanding bonsai artists. No species is given, but Shimpaku juniper is probably a safe … Continue reading A Second Look

Two More Reasons to Visit the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

This has to one of the most perfectly conceived and executed Kingsville boxwoods you’ll see anywhere. It belongs to Rodney Clemons. We first featured it and Rodney’s Winged Elm (below)just over a year ago in a post titled There’s No Better Time… The other two bonsai shown here are new to us. The other day I rediscovered the Kingsville above (facebook of course) along with this quote by Rodney Clemons… “I am feeling honored I received word this week that two of my trees have been accepted for the 2018 US National Exhibition. I think they just really love to travel. Photo by Joe Noga, … Continue reading Two More Reasons to Visit the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

The Best Bonsai Deserve the Best Pots

I found this Kumquat on Ryan Bell’s Japanese Bonsai Pot blog. My apologies for the fuzzy photo. It’s cropped from a larger photo that originally came from Bonsai Tonight. The full photo and Ryan’s caption are below. It has been a while since we borrowed from Ryan Bell’s Japanese Bonsai Pot blog. As you might expect, it’s a great photo source for some of the best bonsai pots in the world. We’ll offer a glimpse of a few here, with and without trees. If you’d like to enjoy a whole lot more, I suggest you pay Ryan a visit. Continue.d … Continue reading The Best Bonsai Deserve the Best Pots

Beautiful Bonsai – Before & After Scots Pine

It takes a lot of experience and strong sense of design to effect a transformation as good as this one. The tree is a Scot’s pine (Pinus sylvestris) and the artist is Martin Bonsai Kolacia. I don’t read a word of Czech, so aside from figuring out that Martin Bonsai Kolacia lives in The Czech Republic (it’s the cz at the end of his url that gave him away) and that he has inserted Bonsai into the middle of his name, there’s not too much more I can say about him. If you’d like do your own research here’s your link to his fb page and here’s … Continue reading Beautiful Bonsai – Before & After Scots Pine

More Bonsai Berries & a New Year’s Resolution

Pyracanthas are prolific bearers of berries and this one is no exception. It’s from a post we did in 2012. I don’t know who the artist or owner is, but my guess is the tree is in Japan (more about this just below) Continuing our berry theme from yesterday… But first, my New Year’s Resolution. NO MORE UNATTRIBUTED TREES on this blog (uh… except for the one just above).* Bonsai Aesthetics Tool Special 30% to 50% off our list prices this applies to all our Aesthetics tools including kits & sets a small sampling of your large selection of Bonsai Aesthetics … Continue reading More Bonsai Berries & a New Year’s Resolution

Bonsai Berries and Other Winter Delights

Nothing like brilliant little berries to brighten things up in this white winter deep freeze we’ve been ‘enjoying’ lately (it’s 11am and my thermometer says -9F). The translation of Katsumi Komiya’s caption for this tree says simply… “Plum” I did quick online search and didn’t come up with a match for a plum with fruit this small, but if you really want to know, my guess is you might find it with a little perseverance. And it might help not to take plum too literally. Today’s bonsai all belong to Katsumi Komiya and there’s plenty more where these came from (you guessed it… facebook) OUR BRILLIANT SITE WIDE … Continue reading Bonsai Berries and Other Winter Delights

An Impressively Massive Japanese Maple Bonsai & an Equally Impressive Japanese Garden

This impressively massive Momiji (Japanese maple), perched on its Green T Turntable, belongs to Jean-Paul Polmans. Today’s post is mostly about Jean Paul Polmans‘ extraordinary blending of powerful bonsai and beautiful gardens, and just a bit about our powerful and beautiful Green T Professional Turntables. Continued below… Extended One Day OUR BRILLIANT SITE WIDE SALE has been extended until 11:59pm EST January 1st Almost Everything Discounted Some Items as much as 70% off List Prices SALE ENDS AT 11:59pm EST, TOMORROW, JANUARY 1st The entryway into Jean Paul Polmans’ Japanese style garden and bonsai collection. I borrowed this photo and the one below from Andys Shohin … Continue reading An Impressively Massive Japanese Maple Bonsai & an Equally Impressive Japanese Garden