A Mid Winter Spring Color Tease

Today we begin the long two day journey from sea and sun back to waist high snow and sub zero temps. So no time to put together anything new for you, though this one is old enough (June, 2015) where it will be new to most of you anyway. They are all Azaleas (Satsuki, I think) from the Omiya Bonsai Museum. One of our favorites. Enjoy. SITE WIDE SALE ENDS SOON 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS 20% off Site Wide Sale YOU CAN ENJOY EXTRA DISCOUNTS IN … Continue reading A Mid Winter Spring Color Tease

Exceptional Before & After Bonsai

This has to be one of the most compelling bonsai I’ve seen in a while. It has that wild, not overly refined look and though the deadwood is prominent, it’s not dominated by deadwood like so many trees. But perhaps the best of all are are the brilliant living veins and the way they stand out against the deadwood Island hopping today, so to save precious time, we’re going to rerun a post on one of my favorite trees. This before and after is more about refinement than styling rough stock. Less daunting perhaps, but only someone skilled in the … Continue reading Exceptional Before & After Bonsai

Defoliating Grandfather Bonsai

Here’s Juan Adrade’s English caption for this magnificent old Trident maple. “Partial defolation on one of the grandfather trees. Close to 100 yrs old.” Here’s his Spanish: “Defoliación de las ramas exteriores en uno de los tridentes del abuelo de mi maestro. Este arbol posiblemente se acerca a los 100 años.” You might notice the part about exterior branches in the Spanish. This would indicate that Juan is redirecting energy away from the outer tips and down closer to the center of the tree. This photo is from Juan’s facebook feed. Defoliation is an important technique for redirecting energy, maintaining … Continue reading Defoliating Grandfather Bonsai

Three Before & After Bonsai – Two Junipers & a Pine

Before and after bonsai styling by Juan Andrade. The trees are from top to bottom: Shimpaku juniper, Japanese black pine and a Needle juniper trunk with Shimpaku juniper foliage grafted on. Juan Andrade was a long term apprentice at Bonsai Aichien nursery in Japan. We’ve been following Juan’s progress for a long time (here’s a Bark post from 2012 that features a tree of his). Juan posts regularly on facebook, which is where we found these photos. MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS and AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS … Continue reading Three Before & After Bonsai – Two Junipers & a Pine

Two Before & After Bonsai – Juniper & Pine

We found these two photos at Bonsai Shikoku. All the text is Japanese and there are no intermediate photos, so what you see is what you get. At a glance you can see that the foliage has been thinned in order to expose most of the trunk and some of the branching. This allows for an unobstructed view of the deadwood and the lower sections of the living veins. Another obvious change is the result of meticulous cleaning and brightening of the deadwood and living veins. Continuing with our recent Before and After theme, we’ve got couple good ones for you. Both … Continue reading Two Before & After Bonsai – Juniper & Pine

A Steady Stream of High Quality Shohin Bonsai

There are few things more delicate than fresh spring Maple leaves (Trident maple in this case). This and the other bonsai in this post are by Haruyosi Still on vacation so we’ll keep borrowing from our past. This time it’s Haruyoshi’s little trees. Haruyosi has been making and photographing a steady stream of high quality shohin bonsai (including the pots) for a long time MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS and AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS – Red on red. In a previous Haruyosi post (Very Red and Very Rare), we mentioned that red glazes … Continue reading A Steady Stream of High Quality Shohin Bonsai

Four Shohin Bonsai & a Strange Translation

Miyazato Rintaro posted these four small trees last month. Here’s a strange machine translation for you… “For Sale. I’m going to give it to the net in the afternoon. This time, from mini bonsai to small pieces, We have a tree with sights. Please contact us” Shohin means a small thing in Japanese and all four of these trees qualify. They were posted by Miyazato Rintaro . The translations are machine generated, and though they generally tend to be better than they were a couple years ago, they still have a ways to go MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS … Continue reading Four Shohin Bonsai & a Strange Translation

Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Root-over-rock Japanese black pine by Suthin Sukosolvisit. No major restyling, but still a striking improvement. Sutin’s caption reads simply… “Japanese black pine 2011-2013” The original before and after photos are from Suthin’s timeline Still on vacation, so we’ll simplify by borrowing from our archives. This one first appeared here almost exactly one year ago Continuing with before and after bonsai from two days ago… A big part of 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 lose its shape and start to look like … Continue reading Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Juniper Bonsai – Before & After

Before and after on an already established Juniper procumbens. By Naoki Maeoka Traveling today, so we’ll make this sort and sweet. It’s what you might call a maintenance before and after. The tree is already well developed and just needs and expert’s touch to bring it back to it former glory and perhaps elevate that glory some. The expert is Naoki Maeoka. Beyond that, we’ll let you fill in the blanks MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS see below – Before After ROSHI TOOL SPECIAL EXTRA 10% OFF 1 – 2 … Continue reading Juniper Bonsai – Before & After

The Cutting Edge of Bonsai Innovation

The play of light and shadow… This photo is from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. Here’s part of the machine translation… “Japanese yew, Autumn Special Exhibition: Contemporary Bonsai Masters: Masahiko Kimura; Playing with Bonsai, the Origin of His Works” You can read more and see other masterpiece bonsai photos here Even though I think he’s fallen a little out of favor in some circles, I’m still a fan of Masahiko Kimura’s bonsai. For years his wildly innovative techniques and his visionary’s eye, combined with a healthy does of daring, produced results at the cutting edge (so to speak) of bonsai innovation. Now, forty some … Continue reading The Cutting Edge of Bonsai Innovation