Bonsai That Speak for Themselves

Rugged natural beauty refined by the eye and hand of man (something like that anyway). The tree and photo belong to Colin Lewis. You can see more good stuff on his website.

All the bonsai in this post belong to Colin Lewis. Colin is a transplanted Brit who now finds himself working and living on the coast of Maine. You can find him there too (at his Ho Yoku School of Bonsai) if you would like study with someone who know their stuff

I won’t say much about Colin’s bonsai, rather let them speak for themselves. My best guess is that Colin would like it that way.

You might notice that this tree and the one immediately below are sold. Can we assume then that others are for sale?

Though I promised not to say more, I just have to mention that this tree looks distinctively like a Colin Lewis bonsai. This is based on older photos, some of which we have featured here on Bark.

This and the rest of the photos in this post are from Colin Lewis’ website.

Colin’s line of excellent Ho Yoku Bonsai Care Products. You can find them discounted at Stone Lantern (and get some FREE Bonsai Wire while you are at it).

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FREE Bonsai Wire & Tool Sale

This is what a professional wiring job looks like. I borrowed the image from Mario Komsta who happens to be one of our favorite bonsai artists. We’ve featured Mario’s bonsai here on Bark numerous times.

Free Bonsai Wire. Here’s how it works. You will receive free rolls of 100 gram bonsai wire with any Stone Lantern order over 10.00. Orders from 10.00 to 20.00 get one roll, orders from 20.00 to 40.00 get two rolls and so forth at increments of twenty dollars (yesterday it was 30.00 increments, but we just got more generous).

Wire diameters. When you order you can specify in the comments box what size or sizes wire you would like. If you don’t specify, we’ll decide and you’ll enjoy a surprise.

Bonsai & Garden Tool Sale. To make it easier to get your hands on your free wire, we are having a Big Tool Sale. 20% to 30% off all tools. Bonsai Tools. Garden Tools. Ikebana (flower arranging) Tools. The details are here.

BTW: Tools include turntables, sharpening stones and leather sheaths.

20% to 30% off all Bonsai and other tools. This is but a small sampling of our vast selection of tools. Our prices on most tools are already discounted and some are deeply discounted. When you add in your 20% to 30% discount, it’s a very good deal indeed. Visit Stone Lantern now and see for yourself.

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Celebrating Bonsai

I’m feeling a little daring today. Even revolutionary. This is the first time we’ve used cartoon images. Let alone head up a post with one. Both cartoons are promotions for Robert Steven’s big Bonsai Biennale and they work for me. Hopefully for you too. All the images in this post are from Robert’s facebook feed.

It has been a while since we’ve featured Robert Steven’s masterful bonsai and his other numerous doings. Doings so numerous that I suspect he seldom sleeps (Bill Valavanis is also suspect, but that’s for another time).

We’ll focus mostly on images that feature Robert’s upcoming International Bonsai Biennale, but we’ll throw a couple of his trees too. Just in case you’ve forgotten how great his bonsai is.

This wild, dynamic tree lingers right at the border between semi and full cascade. The pot is full-cascade, so I’m guessing that we’ll see the tip of tree descend over time. Speaking of the pot, I love it! The concave shape, the feet, the color, the art (what you can see of it). Everything about it, including how perfectly it complements the tree. You can see this image and the other great bonsai images on Robert Steven’s facebook feed. You can also visit Robert’s upcoming International Bonsai Biennale site.

Bonsai in the eye of the camera. Nice tree. Nice shot. It’s one of many creative images Robert uses to promote his upcoming Bonsai Biennale.

Another of Robert Steven’s masterpieces. My only question is; where I can I find rocks like these?

Old school and just a little more risque than usual (we’re not prudes around here, it’s just that we usually stick to just bonsai). It’s another of the many creative images promoting Robert’s Biennale.

Book now!

A word from our most excellent sponsor… Robert Steven’s benchmark bonsai book, Mission of Transformation is on sale for only 35.00 at Stone Lantern.

Another quick word from our sponsor. We just started a Bonsai and Garden Tool Sale 20% to 30% off All Tools (Ikebana too).

And just one more… FREE BONSAI WIRE!

Deeply Discounted Bonsai & Japanese Garden Products at Stone Lantern

Bonsai Alert: Have You Seen These Trees?

Alert. Have you seen this tree? This beautiful Birch bonsai was just stolen from Václav Stropek, who live in Nyrany in the Czech Republic. If you see it, please let Václav know ASAP.

Our original intention was to feature some Birch bonsai, not to send out an alert for stolen trees. Now however, we’ll put a hold on the Birch post and focus on helping Václav Stropek (Nyrany, Czech Republic) recover his stolen bonsai (the birch above and the excellent pine shown below). If you live in or near the Czech Republic, please be aware that someone may try to sell these trees and pass the word.

It’s always disconcerting when any bonsai any stolen, birch or otherwise. However, because there are only a handful of good birch bonsai in the entire world and because both of these trees are of exceptional quality, this theft has a particularly sharp sting.

This award winnin Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is the other missing bonsai. Please let Václav Stropek know if you see it.

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Sweet, Beautiful & Otherwise Adjectival

Looks like a quince. I’ve said this before, but quince flowers are one of best things on earth. Really. People travel all over the place looking for beauty, when all they need is a flowering quince. This photo and the others in this post are from Haruyosi on facebook.

Haruyosi again. Maybe I should just turn this into his blog. But here’s the deal; his little bonsai are so sweet, beautiful and otherwise adjectival, that I just can’t resist. Particularly his flowering bonsai. Others too though. And his pots of course (he makes his own). Anyway, enjoy!

This time it’s the pot that caught my eye. Have you ever seen one like this little gem? Haruyosi makes his own pots and just like his trees, they speak volumes. BTW: I think the little tree is another quince. No flowers right now, but still…

Quince again. This is what happens when you know how to design a tree to show off the flowers.

This might be embarrassing. The flowers look like crabapple (or just apple) and the leaves look like quince. Though my powers of identification are often befuddled, we’ll go with the leaves (turns out white quince flowers and apple flowers are quite similar).

Here’s a white quince flower. It’s not from Haruyosi. It’s just something that turned up when I googled (binged) ‘white quince flower.’

I don’t know what this delicate little kusamono (shitakusa, companion) is. Nice pot.

Speaking of small bonsai. And, it so happens that we just started a big book sale 20% to 30% off.

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An Almost Forgotten Promise

One of several great Shimpaku junipers from Bjorn Bjorholm’s Bjorvala Bonsai Studio. I picked this one in part because of the little curlycue jin (dead branch) hanging down. I’ve seen plenty of other intriguing jins, but this one is so distinctive and in a place so prominent that it comes close to stealing the show (in spite of the light background that diminishes its effect, and in spite of the many other wonders of this tree).

Not that anybody remembers or cares… still it’s time to come through on an old promise. In February of last year we posted some excellent pines from Bjorn Bjorholm’s website and made this promise at the time: “Just pines this time. I’m so taken with these trees that I’ve decided to make this a two part (or more) series. This first installment is devoted to pines. Next we’ll feature some of the equally impressive Shimpaku on Bjorn’s site. Maybe some others too.”

So, fourteen months later, here are the promised Shimpakus (plus one crazy Procumbens).

But first, just in case you are wondering, I do know that the world is overrun with Shimpaku that posses amazing deadwood. How many more do we need to look at? Still, we haven’t shown many lately and in spite of their abundance, the best are still mind-stoppers. Including perhaps, the ones shown here.

Doing the twist. There are plenty of other twisted Shimpakus, but you have to admit that this one is exceptional.

A short, chubby twister.

Two headed monster. I have a soft spot for good double crowned trees. Especially when one crown is clearly subordinate. Beyond that, you might admire the way the long fluid sweep of the trunk is mirrored by the long fluid sweep that leads to the second crown.

Pointing the way. You don’t often see two trunks in two different styles on the same tree. In this case, the dominant trunk is informal upright and the other one is semi-cascade. A couple other things stand out: the way the two trunks snuggle in together and the way the two trees come together to create a single well-balanced crown.

We’ve shown this crazy tree before, but this is a better photo. Like the other trees in this post, it’s from Bjorn Bjorholm’s Bjorvala Bonsai Studio. It’s a Procumbens juniper that looks a whole lot like a Shimpaku juniper (except for the foliage).

Speaking of Pines and Junipers. These excellent benchmark bonsai books are now only 35.00 for the set of two (list price 59.90). If you don’t need both, they are discounted individually too (Pine book or Juniper book). What’s more, we’re in our last day of a site wide sale. 10% to 30% off everything. Even items that are already discounted.

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Continuity, Charm & the Chinese Century

Root-over-rock bonsai. When we originally showed this photo, we (that’s me) missed the rock part, even though it’s obvious (especially once you know it’s a rock). Here’s the caption from last year: At the risk of getting carried away, how about ‘wandering sage stops for a moment to contemplate an ancient tree by the light of the moon.’ In any case, I don’t blame him. You don’t see trunks (or trees) like this one every day.

Our last two post have featured Penjing, so for continuity (and charm) we’ll make it three in a row. This one is borrowed from last year (Dragon Ascending, May 2013). I rearranged the photos, added just a little text and changed the title to reflect something Robert Steven says (bold type just below). Everything else is the same.

This post, like the previous post (previous to the May 2013 original) titled BCI: Bonsai Strong, shows more of Robert Steven‘s photos from the recent BCI convention in China. As you may know, in addition to being a great bonsai artist, Robert is also an expert on bonsai and bonsai history, with a strong bent towards Chinese bonsai and penjing. Here’s what he wrote about Chinese bonsai in the comments to the aforementioned post (squeezed into native speaker English by yours truly) “Chinese bonsai has seen amazing progress the last 15 years, but it wasn’t very well exposed till the last few years (through aggressive international events). They are coming out with very creative and refreshing designs, and ideas present no limits for them. At the same time, I dare to say the Japanese are in stagnation. I anticipate a change in worldwide bonsai orientation that will turn to China…”

One thing I noticed about the pines in the previous BCI post, is how much they seemed to be influenced by Japanese bonsai while at the same time being quite unique, not to mention extraordinarily powerful. On the other hand, the broad leaf trees in this post seem much more Chinese to my eyes. That’s not to say that they don’t express new and exciting ideas (they do), just that they also reflect a very traditional Chinese style. This is especially true of the tree above and the last three trees below

Something else you might notice about the trees shown here is that every one of them has a figurine, while none of the pines shown in the previous BCI post have any.

What appear to be roots growing out of a long hollow on the side of trunk, creates a very unusual and fascinating effect. The rest of the tree isn’t half bad either and the flute player adds a playful human quality and contributes to a sense of vastness. The photo, which is courtesy of Robert Steven is from the recent BCI convention in China

This large bonsai (with blue watering can) features another fascinating trunk. Though it’s impossible to tell (for me at least) the leaves look like they might be azalea.

Even though they are broad-leaf trees, their towering vertical thrust is reminiscent of a conifer grove high in the mountains of the western U.S.

Windswept bonsai with hitchhiker. This one reminds of some of Robert’s trees.

The big guy almost looks like a rock. Nice tree too.

Here’s the whole photo of the tree at the top of the post. Given my obsession with background distractions (noise), you can see why I cropped it.

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Strong, Wild and Full of Character

There’s a lot to like here. First, there’s some of that same funky (in the good sense) quality that you see in the feature tree in the previous post. Both are strong, wild and full of character. In this case so strong and clearly defined that the background noise doesn’t distract all that much. All the photos in this post are from Bonsai Quinn.

Our last post featured a couple Penjing plantings so we’ll stay on topic. All the photos shown here are from a newly discovered blog (for me at least) called Bonsai Quinn. The man behind the blog is Matt Quinn. He lives in Montreal, which makes him a neighbor of sorts.

Matt took these and numerous other photos at the recent (?) Guangzhou Exposition in China. I passed over some great trees because of background noise* and cropped most of the ones shown here to eliminate as much distraction as possible.

When I at look at these trees, a couple questions (no answers) come to mind: Is Penjing bonsai? Why aren’t there any good Penjing plantings by Western artists (or am I missing something?)?

I like this tree, though, like the tree above, I picked it in part because of how clearly it stands out from the background. It is, without a doubt Penjing style, though a lot about it is much closer to Japanese bonsai than many, if not most, Penjing.

Is this tree yawning? No matter what the gaping hole brings to mind, the trunk clearly has that wild, sculptural Penjing look. So much so that you might miss the excellent ramification and the high degree of artistry and technical accomplishment by some great bonsai artist (Ng Shing Fat – see comments below).

Raft style penjing in a beautiful arched pot. Both chaos and order come to mind with the wild roots and unruly trunks tamed by the balance of the single flowing crown.

Matt mentions a famous windswept tree. Is this it?

An old man enjoying the show. Is that a flute? What’s that rope hanging down and that thing that looks like a ‘towel rack’ attached to the stump?

* Background noise; not to be confused with the lovely sound of background singers. A little off topic, but Twenty Feet From Stardom which I just watched for the second time is absolutely delicious.

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Win a $25 Gift Certificate

I love this funky bonsai. Though I suspect someone like Robert Steven could place it in a category, to my eyes it’s one of a kind. Though it wouldn’t be a stretch to place it in the Chinese Penjing tradition (there’s just nothing Japanese or Western about it). A couple people have posted it on facebook without attribution, so rather than reward their laziness with links, we’ll turn this into a quick contest. The first person to identify the owner and the species of this tree, along with a link that provides proof, will win a 25.00 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. You can put your answer in the comments below.

Sometimes I see the same bonsai posted on facebook by ten different people (or groups, or companies). Usually unattributed. In spite of conventional wisdom about mellowing, my gut reaction to unattributed bonsai photos hasn’t lessened a bit. It’s lazy and unkind to the person who took the trouble to style the tree, take the photo and then post it for the enjoyment of others.

I suspect I’m fighting a losing battle. From what I can tell, facebook is mostly ‘look at me and like me,’ rather than useful knowledge. I do understand that there are exceptions and I’m not particularly interested in being labeled an old curmudgeon, so mostly I keep my mouth shut (fingers in check). Still, it wouldn’t hurt to exercise the tiniest degree of curiosity and ask who the tree belongs to or what kind of tree is it rather than the default ‘nice’ or ‘awesome.’

Here’s another funky Penjing. Even though the pot and stand overwhelm the tree a bit (in this photo at least), still it’s a great example of of what can happen when you marry a high degree of creativity with masterful technique. The photo appear on a Bark post from 2010. Here’s the original caption: A magical Chinese elm Penjing by Wang Huai Shun. Did this creative landscape, and others like it, influence some of Kimura’s more daring innovations? Robert Steven’s too? From Bonsai Today issue 98. Submitted by Karin Albert.

Here’s something you might consider spending your 25.00 gift certificate on. If you like Penjing (why wouldn’t you?), you’ll love this beautiful book. It’s currently on special at Stone Lantern for 22.00. Less your 10% to 30% Site Wide Sale discount.

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Practically Small

This banyan style dwarf Snow rose serissa (Serissa foetida microphylla) was styled by David Fukumoto of Fuku Bonsai in Hawaii. The pot is a Tokoname from Japan. Living in the tropics really helps when it comes to growing aerial roots.

Based on thirty years experience in bonsai business, I’d guess that the majority of our readers and customers are into their middle years or beyond. To be sure, there are some younger bonsai enthusiasts, but clubbing and couch surfing don’t mix all that well with bonsai care. Nor do small children and the rigors of a budding fast track career. A slower more stable lifestyle that allows the time and space to properly care for bonsai works best (preferably after the kids have finally moved out somewhere in their mid-thirties).

Which brings us to aging backs and smaller bonsai. On the back cover of our Stone Lantern book Majesty in Miniature; Shohin Bonsai it says “When compared to large bonsai, Shohin cost less, take less time to develop, take less space, are easier to move, and are less apt to be over-watered. Perhaps best of all, Shohin-bonsai are a delight to behold.” Easier to move and better suited to the small balcony on the retirement condo. Practically small.

BTW: I’m not bemoaning aging backs or small balconies. I’m firmly in the let’s enjoy being alive school (without being stupid about it) and practicing bonsai, especially shohin bonsai, is a good way to enhance that enjoyment.

Itoigawa juniper by Michael Hagedorn. Michael is one of our favorite American bonsai artists. If you haven’t visited his site (Crataegus Bonsai) this is as good a time as any. BTW: Michael is the author of Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk a fascinating read, bonsai or otherwise.

This small Viginia creeper by Harry Harrington (bonsai4me.com) is designed to show off the spectacular foliage.

This is the third time we’ve shown this Spiraea japonica (also by Harry Harrington). There are a couple reasons we returned to it: first, it’s a very sweet tree, and second, how many Spiraea bonsai have you seen?

Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai. Published by Stone Lantern. Retail 24.95, our low price 9.95. Less the 10% to 30% off provided by our current site-wide sale.

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