Omiya & Tiny Assassins

goyo Goyomatsu. Japanese white pine from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum’s gallery.

The photos shown here are from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, with the exception of one unrelated photo (can you guess which one?). I took the easy path today and borrowed the content shown here from a post we did back in May 2012.

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Elegance. I’ve never been to the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, but if the elegance of the display shown here is any indication, maybe I should start saving my yen.

Assassins. Bonsai Mary (aka Mary Miller) has a good article on beneficial insects. There’s one shown here about to eat these nasty little critters.

Can’t resist all this color. One more photo from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum.

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Japanese Black Pine – Rushing the Future

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A Japanese black pine after some serious trimming and cleaning up. If you look at the photo just below, you might notice that there has been some serious needle reduction too. The tree and the photos in this post belong to Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon).

The first two photos shown here provide a simple one day (or thereabouts) before and after on a Japanese black pine. As you can see it’s a remarkable tree. I was especially taken with the perfectly striated bark and the way it seamlessly flows into the nebari.

Another thing that struck me about this tree was how it represents just how far American bonsai has come. It wasn’t that long ago when a Black pine of this caliber could only be Japanese. But this one is home grown. At least I think it was (I guess it’s possible that it was originally imported, but judging by the photos, it was certainly developed and refined here).

If you want to see the entire progression you can visit Boon on facebook (here and here).

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Just before the serious trimming and cleaning up.

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This one is labeled August 2001, before. We’ll assume it’s right after Boon got the tree from Lone Pine Gardens (you’ll have to ask Boon for the details).

boon12005 Shaping up. This one is labeled January 2005. At the risk of stating the obvious, you might notice the two sacrifice branches. They are there to strengthen the apex by drawing energy up.

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May 2013. Almost there. It has been over eight years and one of the sacrifice branches is still there. I suspect it has done its job and is about to be removed.

boon2015 Back to the future. Boon labeled this August 2015. But upon cross examination he admitted that he was rushing the future.

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If you’d like to know a lot more about Pines, this is the book for you. This is a particularly good time too as all of our books are 25% off our already discounted prices. This sale ends tonight (Friday, June 27, at 11:59 pm EDT).

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Ezo Spruce by Any Other Name…

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One glance at this Ezo spruce and you know it belongs to Walter Pall. Walter sometimes refers to this natural looking untouched-by-human-hands style as ‘naturalistic bonsai,’ though if you go to Walter’s Bonsai Adventures blog where this photo is from, you’ll see just how touched-by-human-hands it actually was. And just how accomplished Walter is at turning pedestrian bonsai into naturalistic gems.

Ezo spruce are sometimes referred to as Jezo or Yezo spruce (Picea jezoensis or Picea yezoensis) and even Sakhalin spruce, though that’s a really a different species (Picea glenii). Most (or perhaps all) of the specimen quality Ezo bonsai in Japan and most likely in the world, were collected on Sakhalin, an island north of Japan. Prior to WWII the collecting of Ezo was promoted by the late Saburo Kato and his father Tomekichi of Mansei-en. After WWII the island was annexed to Russia and, as far as I know, no collecting has taken place there since then.

Though no doubt some people are now growing Ezo in the U.S., because they take so long to develop that prized old-age-look, finding good stock is difficult. This is compounded by the fact that importing from Asia is so tricky. Perhaps that’s why only one of the photos in this post is from here in the U.S.

ezobt This is not the first time we’ve shown this remarkable old Ezo spruce with it’s unusual shari. It’s a 2011 Kokufu winner. The photo was taken by Jonas at Bonsai Tonight at the 2011 Taikan-ten Exhibition.

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Captial Bonsai refers to this bonsai as the ‘Clinton Ezo.’ In 1998 Japanese Prime Minster Keizo Obuchi gave it to President Clinton during his visit to Japan. There’s more to the story on the Capital Bonsai blog.

ezowalt copy This photo shows the result of another radical Ezo transformation by Walter Pall. If you look at what Walter started with, you’ll see what I mean.

ezomh We’ve shown this now famous Michael Hagedorn Ezo spruce at least twice here on bark. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell that, rather than a slab (let alone a pot), the tree is growing on a board.

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This wonderful museum quality bonsai treasure by the true master of Ezo spruce bonsai is marked down from 34.95 to 22.00 at Stone Lantern. This comes to only 16.50 with our current (but soon to end) 25% off book sale.

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Imperial Pots Up Close

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All the photos shown here are from a post on Kigawa Bonsai Blog titled Imperial Palaces and ‘Bonsai Pots’ in Beijing. We’ve cropped some (including this one) to give you a closer look.

I just stumbled upon yet another excellent bonsai blog (I often wonder if, when we introduce you to a new blog, you’ll wander off and we’ll never see you again. I suppose it’s a chance worth taking; there such a wealth of good stuff out there and we’re all in this together anyway…).

The blog is called Kigawa Bonsai. The post is titled: Imperial Palaces and ‘Bonsai Pots’ in Beijing. All the photos shown here are borrowed from Kigawa. We cropped some for closer looks.

pots In Kigawa’s own words: “One aspect of interior décor there was common occurrence of fake plants. These fake plants were made of many different materials and always came in pairs. In fact, traditional Chinese interior design is very symmetrical and to accommodate that many furnishings must come in identical or almost identical pairs. Anyway, the containers housing those fake plants are the main topic of this post. Images below show some of the containers I spotted in various buildings.” Kigawa’s text continued below.

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“These containers were made of a wide range of materials. The materials included porcelain, metal with vitreous enamel, wood, red lacquer, jade and stone. It was difficult to take good photos of them because they often were in poorly lit areas behind one or two layers of glass. They were quite amazing nevertheless. As you can see they closely resemble bonsai pots.”

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For more photos and text visit Kigawa Bonsai Blog.

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Joan Miró, Paul Klee & Horst Heinzlreiter

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This unique example of ceramic art is by Horst Heinzlreiter as are all the pots in this post.

Just when I thought Horst Heinzlreiter’s pots couldn’t get any better, I discovered these wild and wonderful examples of art disguised as bonsai pots (that’s what I wanted to call this post until I discovered Ceramic Art Disguised as Bonsai Pots on some obscure bonsai blog).

I spent a year of my youth in Europe, with a sizable hunk of that time wandering around art museums (one of the best things I’ve ever done BTW). Two of the handful of artist who left indelible images on my otherwise faulty memory, are Joan Miró and Paul Klee. It’s not that these pots look exactly like their paintings, but nevertheless, both of these great artists come to mind when I look at them.

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A Pencil and Paper, and a Desire to Improve Your Eye for Bonsai Design

Rococo bonsai. If you decide to try your hand at drawing bonsai, my guess is that the results won’t look a lot like this. We’ve featured this illustration by Ruben Roig at least twice (here and here), but it’s been a long time and Ruben’s skills are exceptional, so it’s worth another look.

Consider this post an encouragement for you to try your hand at drawing bonsai (that’s three in row for those of you who love the English language). Or lacking that, you can simply enjoy these illustrations by people who excel at the art of drawing bonsai.

There are at least two overlapping motivations for drawing bonsai. One is for the pure pleasure of drawing (drawing bonsai as an art in itself) and the other is to explore what a bonsai might look like before you start styling. This second motivation doesn’t require much skill, just a pencil and paper, and a desire to improve your eye for bonsai design.

Elegance in sepia tones. This, and three other illustrations in this post are by Rudi Julianto. We’ve featured at least one of Rudi’s drawings here on bark (#4) and I just rediscovered him on facebook (where else?) and was struck by his subtle feel for the art of drawing bonsai. As you might expect, Rudi is also an accomplished bonsai artist.

Elegance in black and white by Rudi Julianto. It’s a simple drawing until you take a second look and notice just how much detail there is.

A little more elaborate. Also by Rudi.

Another excellent drawing by Rudi Julianto, but is it just me, or is this tree is going to tip over?

These two drawings are from John Naka’s Sketchbook. Mr. Naka, was widely recognized (even revered) as the Dean of American Bonsai. He traveled and taught tirelessly and probably did more for bonsai in the West than anyone else. He also regularly used drawings as teaching tools and if you happened to have studied with him and to have received a drawing of what your bonsai could become, then you were lucky indeed.

John Naka’s famous sketchbook. It’s on special at Stone Lantern with an additional 25% off for our current book sale.

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It’s About the Moss, Our Masters Bonsai Soil, and…

A little shaggy and the pot is dirty but it’s about the moss, our Masters Bonsai Soil and a post we did a while back.

An important issue came up in a post we did a while back about our Masters Bonsai Soil. The comment that provoked the question was by Andy Rutledge. Here’s what Andy said: Soil particulate size, especially at the surface, is important. These photos, the latter two especially, indicate problems in tree health will arise in the coming growing season. Be careful.

In a follow-up comment Andy goes on to say: …particle size necessarily varies due to vertical position/layer in the pot, tree maturity, pot size, tree-to-pot proportion, pot depth, soil material (is it inert? organic?),etc….in the lower two photos above, the more important factor is the size and depth of the pot. The surface material should be much smaller in order to properly maintain moisture retention; especially since this appears to be an almost completely inert mix. There’s more but this will do for our purpose now.

Though I don’t know if Andy would agree, but my solution is moss. Moss slows down the drying process, especially on the surface. At the risk of stating the obvious and of over simplifying what Andy said; if the surface dries too fast, the roots closest to the surface will suffer and the rest of the tree will follow.

So far the moss solution has worked. It’s true that the hottest days of summer are in front of us, but we’ve already had several days around 80F and sunny, so I’m optimistic.

Here’s a freshly cut back native Larch (Tamarack) that I transplanted into our Masters Bonsai Soil about 7 weeks ago. I left some open spots for aeration and as places to apply some slow release fertilizer. As you can see, I also left the Sword Shears I used.

More evidence and another dirty pot (I sometimes rail against other people’s photos with dirty pots). This Larch, which appeared in the aforementioned earlier post, was also transplanted about 7 weeks ago.

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Twisted & Otherwise Abused

Man made twisting. This little Shimpaku juniper was grown (in Japan) and shaped by human hands. Whoever grew it did a great job at creating a natural effect – it’s almost impossible to mimic the raw and rugged look that nature sometimes comes up with after hundreds of years of stressful conditions. The final styling was done by Masahiko Kimura. You can find this photo and the chapter that shows Kimura shaping this tree in The Magician, the Bonsai Art of Kimura 2.

The following photos are from a post titled Creating Twisted Juniper on a blog that I happily just discovered, called Tiny Trident Bonsai. I selected a few of the post’s many step-by-step photos. You can visit Tiny Trident Bonsai for the whole article.

Is it possible to grow bonsai material that has the highly coveted wild yamadori look? Without going into detail about the marks of countless years spent being barely sustained and even abused by nature and the seeming impossibility of replicating that, still, judging by the photo above, you might conclude that given enough skill and the right material, you can at least come close.

We don’t do a lot of how-to articles here on Bark, but every now and then we find something we just can’t overlook. In this case it’s personal; I’m field growing some small Shimpaku and am interested in doing what I can to create that elusive twisted-and-otherwise-abused-by-nature look.

A young Shimpaku juniper just out of a 1 gallon nursery container. This photo and the following photos are from Tiny Trident Bonsai. This caption and the next five captions are ours. The last one is from Tiny Trident.

The lower growth has been removed. This allows us to see the tree’s basic structure and also provides a clean slate for wiring.

Three strands of wire have been applied. Now it’s time to do some bending. BTW: the wire looks a lot like our Bonsai Aesthetics wire.

The first bend is on the lower trunk.

The next bend is farther up just above the first branch.

A third bend is created on the trunk and the final (for now) bend is on the first branch.

Done for now. Here’s Tiny Trident’s caption: “This tree will be left to grow in this state until the wire starts to significantly cut in. As this happens I will take the wire off and carve a twisted shari up the trunk. This should hopefully create a short tree with lots of interest in the trunk.”

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Shape Shifting

Robert Steven’s simulation of a juniper submitted by Peter Woosley. Peter’s original is below.

Last post we borrowed from our archives and featured the artistry of Robert Steven. Might as well follow up with more archival Robert (from April, 2011).

Before we start, a quick heads up with a nod to our sponsor (while staying on topic): We are down to less than 200 copies of our Masters Series Juniper bonsai book, and, as it turns out, we are currently running a 25% off sale on all of our books. Enough said.

A surprising shift
Robert fooled me (once again). At a glance I thought the tree had potential more or less as it was. All it needed was perhaps a little lean to the right, some work on the crown and that heavy upper section of trunk (where the first branches come off), and especially on the somewhat stiff feeling branch on the lower left that caused the whole tree to seem unbalanced. However, Robert saw things differently and ended up with a much more interesting outcome (though I would still like to see that thick upper section of trunk hidden or reduced a bit).

Peter Woosley’s original.

Robert Steven’s critique
This tree looks young and there is also a visual balance issue. The canopy is too big which gives an overweight feeling to the top of the tree. Also, the side branch on the left that points downward disturbs the visual flow. Overall, the tree seems unbalanced and the form of the round canopy does not fit to the character of the trunk line.

I would suggest a total restyling. The main objective is to explore the character of the tree based on the dynamic trunk line. In order to emphasize this dynamic flow, I would change the tree’s movement from the left to the right, by repositioning the the tree in the pot and leaning the trunk slightly to the right. I would also shorten all the branches on the left side, and extend the flow to the right.

In order to make the tree look older, I would shorten the crown and turn the apex into small jin, and reform the foliage to an irregular form that fits the character of the casual trunk line.

Last but not least, I would continue the shari to the right (I see a cut there), then continue from the back to the branch on the left. By doing so, the trunk movement is improved and the tree looks older with more charm.

General comments
There is more than one way to design any bonsai and my critiques and recommended solutions might not always fit your taste and personal preferences, but I always try to give my opinion based on artistic and horticultural principles.

To understand my concepts better, please read my books Vision of My Soul (out of print) and Mission of Transformation which are available at Stone Lantern.

You can also visit my bonsai blog.

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Useful Tips for Those of Us Stuck in Beginner Level Bonsai Skills

Robert’s digital simulation of a Ficus nerifolia that was submitted by Tom Kreugl.

Busy traveling so we’ll dig up another post from our vast archival past. This one is from September, 2010. It’s one of numerous Robert Steven critiques that provide simple lessons in bonsai design, with several useful tips. I think it’s particularly good for beginners and those of us who have been stuck with beginner level skills for too long (all of Robert’s critiques are good for beginners and for more advanced enthusiasts too).

While we’re talking about Robert Steven, this might a good place to mention that he is the owner of Bonsai Aesthetics Tools and that we are running a 25% off sale on these Aesthetics Tools that is about to end (tonight at 11:59pm EDT).

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Tom’s original. The small stick marks the front Tom has chosen.

Robert’s critique

In spite of the tree itself, this is a photo that I do not like (sorry!). There’s a problem with appreciation of the art of bonsai because the photo cuts off part of the pot.

The very basic concept of bonsai art as quoted in Chinese “yi shu er pen san ji jia” . Yi = one, shu = tree, er = two, pen = pot, san = three, ji jia = pedestal, these are the three elements considered as a must in bonsai art (tree, pot and stand). For our purposes at least, the first two elements (tree & pot) should be an inseparable unity. Otherwise, it is simply not a bonsai.

Now to the tree:

– The overall design lacks a natural look. It also lacks a convincing connection between the root formation and the slant of the tree. In other words, the design does not follow the rules of plant physiology. As you may know, a tree’s movement always follows the direction of the roots. A one-sided root formation will never form a symmetrical, formal tree shape; the tree will always grow and flow to the side where the roots are growing.

– You don’t always need to expose everything in the front view. When we try to show everything, we show nothing. Due to the over-exposed branches and the messy foliage, the tree does not look well refined. The leaves are also too big. This gives the tree a young look.

– The pot is too big and the soil surface is not natural looking.

Robert’s solution

– Re-design the composition to create the flow to the left (see the simulation above).

– Refine the foliage just enough to show the tree’s major branches (ramification) and the lower part of the trunk. Trim the the foliage around the tree’s edges so the leaves will look smaller.

– Use a smaller oval pot and place the tree slightly off-center.

There is more than one way to design any bonsai and my critiques and recommended solutions might not always fit your taste because of personal preferences. But I always try to give my opinion based on artistic and horticultural principles.

To understand my concepts better, please read my books Vision of My Soul (out of print) and Mission of Transformation which are available at Stone Lantern.

You can also visit my bonsai blog.

Deeply Discounted Bonsai & Japanese Garden Products at Stone Lantern