Arts of the Earth & The Principles of Bonsai Design

Beech with vase. The tree is a Japanese beech ‘Fuji’ by Kazuhiro Ohashi. The photo is from Weyerhaeuser’s Pacific Rim Arts of the Earth Exhibit. This exhibit took place in 2006. In 2013 the Weyerhaeuser corporation gifted its entire bonsai collection to what is now know as the Pacific Bonsai Museum. You can read the whole story here. Continuing with our Japanese beech theme (see the tree above), we’re going to journey back to the early days of this century and revisit a unique bonsai and ceramic art exhibition from 2006. I think you’ll like the photos and the commentary by David DeGroot, who was the curator at the WeyerhaeuserPacific Rim Bonsai Collection (now … Continue reading Arts of the Earth & The Principles of Bonsai Design

Bare-Boned Beech

This tipsy planting in its curvy slab has to be one of the most distinctive deciduous forest bonsai anywhere. Like all the trees in this post it’s a Japanese beech (Fagus crenata), a species prized for its brilliant white bark. Japanese beech, with their striking white bark and strong trunks (often with excellent nebari) are a favorite of bonsai artists, especially in Japan. Unfortunately, they aren’t that easy to find here in North America and our native beech (Fagus grandifolia) is too rangy and large-leafed to make for very good bonsai (the European beech, Fagus sylvatica, which you can find here, is a … Continue reading Bare-Boned Beech

California Bonsai Beast

The beast. Here’s Mauro Stemberger’s caption… “California Juniper called ‘the Beast’ after one more step – this time we worked to make it more compact; bending down 15 inches the top and removing the lower branch. Pictures show the evolution in the last 3 years. Collection: Hank Fawcett” We’ll just show a few photos of this magnificent old California juniper and encourage you to visit Mauro Stemberger and Hank Fawcett for more on the evolution of this aptly named Beast. Speaking of Beasts Our Site Wide Sale Includes ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS & TOOL KITS 30% to 40% off Numerous other tools & bonsai items also deeply discounted 30% … Continue reading California Bonsai Beast

American Bonsai Silhouettes

This snowy American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) forest by Gary Clark won the American Bonsai Society Award for Native Species at this year’s Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Our thanks to Bill Valavanis for this and the other photos shown here. It’s a busy time around here, so with the exception of a few words of my own, this post about the recent Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo is borrowed from Bill Valavanis (though what you see here is only a small piece of what Bill presented). I strongly urge you to visit Bill’s blog to enjoy his captivating first hand stories and insights … Continue reading American Bonsai Silhouettes

Setting the Record Straight

If you think you’ve seen this tree before, it might be because we featured it a couple weeks ago. However, this photo is not identical to the one we used then, but is rather a photo we just received from Bill Valavanis. See if you can tell the difference (to make it easy for you, the two photos are together just below). Bill Valavanis (our recent Hall of Fame inductee) just sent me the photo above (along with some comments – see below). The photo original photo that we used a couple weeks ago was borrowed from Micheal Bonsai (it’s the one on … Continue reading Setting the Record Straight

Brilliant Bonsai Colors by Haruyosi

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. Yesterday one of the trees we featured was by Haruyosi, which reminded me how much I like his seemingly endless collection of Shohin bonsai. This post originally appeared November 2014. It’s one of my all time favorites I think you could spend a lifetime browsing … Continue reading Brilliant Bonsai Colors by Haruyosi

Small Is Beautiful

This little deciduous tree with its profusion of small orange fruit isn’t identified, so we can only guess. Based on the fruit and the bark we’ll try Crab apple. If we’re wrong and you know what it is (or think you do) you can put it in the comments on our timeline. It’s Shohin time today. All the photos shown here are from a facebook page, called, of all things… Shohin. Continued below… Bonsai Books all discounted, some up to 60% off Chose from our large selection of quality Bonsai Books Japanese Garden & related Books too We don’t have to guess this time. Here’s the … Continue reading Small Is Beautiful

Multi Headed Monster & Other Brilliant Bonsai

There’s no identification with this masterful multi headed monster, but a safe guess might be a sinuous root Japanese white pine. I took the liberty of cropping a bit. The original shot is below All the bonsai featured here are Japanese imports that now reside at Bonsai Plaza in Delft Netherlands. The trees are high quality and as you can see, the photos are excellent. The only thing missing are the names. 30% to 40% off ROSHI TOOLS & TOOL KITS 30% TO 40% OFF LIST PRICES ALL ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS & TOOL KITS plus an extra 5% off all orders … Continue reading Multi Headed Monster & Other Brilliant Bonsai

Before, During & After – Seven Years & Some Serious Wiring

Here’s Mariusz Komsta’s captiion for this tree… “Momiji Polmans & Bonsaimotorworld bonsai school is finally paying off, great job by Jean-Pierre Reitz , Pinus nigra” (Austrian black pine). I found these photos of Jean-Pierre Reitz’ superb before and after bonsai on Mariusz Komsta’s timeline. If you’ve been following Bonsai Bark for a while, you’ll know that Mariusz is one of our favorites. Jean-Pierre however, is new to us. Looks like a good discovery SITE WIDE SPECIAL Up TO 60% OFF Some items 20% TO 60% OFF LIST PRICes* *there are 4 individual items we cannot discount – see below This and other … Continue reading Before, During & After – Seven Years & Some Serious Wiring

Rocky Mountain Bonsai

I lifted this Rocky mountain juniper from Ryan Neil’s Bonsai Mirai. A photo of the entire tree is below So many thoughts zip through my mind when I see trees like this…. not the least of which is the objection that some people have to deadwood, especially lavish displays; even though if you’ve been to upper reaches of our Western mountains, you’ll see deadwood everywhere. In many cases trees with massive deadwood and only one or two living branches. Or, in some extreme cases just a few living twigs. Stories of long lives in harsh conditions told by deadwood. Continued below… NEW SITE WIDE SPECIAL … Continue reading Rocky Mountain Bonsai