Precision, Power & that Natural Feel

I don’t think there are many trees in our bonsai universe this powerful and that are styled with such precision (and without sacrificing the natural feel). It’s a Ficus by Min Hsuan Lo (Min doesn’t give the variety, but does say there are details in his book, Bonsai Journey). You don’t see many defoliated Ficus either. The absence of leaves allows you to better see the structure and fine branching, both of which are exquisite (in case you didn’t notice). I like the pot too. Its dark reddish-brown helps bring out the texture of the trunk and also highlights the tips of the twigs.

We can’t go too long without visiting the bonsai of Min Hsuan Lo. Min’s artistry results in distinct and intriguing trees that cover a range of types and styles, almost like they come from different places or different eras, rather than the nursery of a single bonsai artist. Anyway, enough said. You can take a look and decide for yourself what it is about Min’s bonsai that makes them so fascinating.

 

This Bougainvillea is a case in point. It just doesn’t look like most other bonsai (any other bonsai?).

 

Not your everyday bonsai and another case in point. How many trees have you seen that look like this (aside from the fact that we’ve shown it before here on Bark)? It’s a Ficus pedunculosa with what looks like a crop of new leaves. Beyond the tree’s fascinating form, there’s the excellent choice of pots (I won’t state the obvious) with the lovely green moss.

 

Style-wise this Bougainvillea is not so dramatic, even pedestrian, until you notice that it seems to exist just to show off the brilliant flowers. Nice choice of colors on the pot too.

 

So strange and so wonderful and such great ramification. It’s a Clerodendron inerme (Seaside clerodendrum, Embrert, Indian privet, Glorybower), a plant I’m not familiar with (as is the case with thousands of tropical plants). I suspect it’s a variety that’s not used much for bonsai.

 

Another strange and wonderful tree. Have you ever seen a Shimpaku that looks like this? Especially with what looks like a flopped over apex (or is it just me?) One thing you can say for sure is that it’s not styled in any mainstream fashion.

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Trunks & Trunk Chopping Techniques

I borrowed this mesmerizing ancient black pine trunk from Andy Rutledge’s ‘the bonsai journal.’

I’m traveling again for awhile. I’ll try to find the time put together some new posts, but meanwhile, a little digging into our archives provides an easy way out. This post originally appeared almost three years ago (May 2011). I picked it for a couple reasons: I am enamored of the lead photo (above) and, we don’t do many ‘how-to’ posts.

There’s a reason for the dearth of ‘how-to’ posts; people don’t seem that interested, at least based on comments (which is all we have to go on). But then maybe we just haven’t given ‘how-tos’ enough of a chance…

Trunk chopping 101 for deciduous trees
There’s an excellent article on trunk chopping at Andy Rutledge’s bonsai journal. Andy bills it as trunk chopping for beginners, but I suspect there are experienced bonsai people out there who might also benefit (like me, for example). I’ll just show you an illustration and a little text here, and encourage you to visit Andy’s site to see the whole article (and plenty of other useful stuff).

Cutting back to an existing leader

Here we have a likely candidate (above). This tree already has pretty good taper, but it is too tall for bonsai purposes.
Until now, you’ve been growing the trunk for size and you’re ready to begin its transformation into a bonsai. You’ve decided to cut back the trunk to an existing small branch that will be the new leader (indicated by the red arrow).
Use the saw and cut a little bit above the branch. Be careful not to damage the branch that will become the new leader.

Visit the bonsai journal for the whole article

Another great trunk. Also from the bonsai journal.

More than just a labor of love
If you read Andy’s whole article, you’ll see that there are at least two tools you’ll need for successful trunk chopping; a sharp saw and a grafting knife. Needless to say, the folks over at Stone Lantern (that’s us) would be happy to help you with these. At a sizable discount, no less.

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Nest of Cranes, Whirlpool Dancer

Mulitple trunk, raft-style Japanese white pine. This is a truly spectacular example of raft style bonsai. It’s mature and abundant, with a flowing natural feel that is the result of bonsai artistry at its best (nature too). In fact, it’s so spectacular that it has a name (Maiko – Dancer). In Japan, names are usually reserved for the best bonsai. This tree resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, as do all five trees in this post (from Omiya’s timeline on facebook).

All the trees in this post are Japanese white pines that reside at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in Saitama Japan. Japanese white pines (Pinus parviflora) are native to Japan. All white pines have five needles to a bundle, so the Japanese white is often called Japanese five needle pine (Pinus pentaphylla).

For a number of reasons, Japanese white pines are prized in bonsai circles. Not the least of these is small needles (unlike our native Pinus strobus) and handsome greyish bark. Then there’s the fact that they take so well to bonsai culture.

A common bonsai practice is grafting White pines onto root-stock from the more vigorous Japanese black pine (Pinus thumbergii), which makes for faster growing and stronger trees than White pines on their own stock. Almost all of the imported White pine bonsai are grafted on Black pine stock.

Another positive feature of the Japanese white pine is its winter hardiness. Here in northern Vermont where temperatures are known to get as low as -20F to -30F (even colder in the old days), they can survive in the ground if you provide protection from the wind and a heavy mulching. In bonsai pots, you would want somewhat higher temperatures and very good protection.

For the past fifty or sixty years Japanese white pine bonsai have been exported from Japan to destinations all over the West. However, the very best usually stay home. For this reason, you will seldom see Japanese whites here in the West that are as developed as ones shown here.

 

Do you recognize this tree? It first appeared in Bonsai Today magazine and later had a whole chapter devoted to it in our Pine book (Jewel to Whirlpool). The artist was Tomio Yamada (at least at that time). It’s called Uzushio which as you might guess, means whirlpool. Like the other trees in this post, it resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum.

 

Like the one just above, this one shows a strong trunk that tell a story of hardship and survival. Like most of the others at the Omiya Museum, it has a name: Shungaku (Shungaku was a historical figure, though my extensive 30 second research didn’t reveal much detail).

 

Multiple trunk Japanese white pines are quite common. Though not as dramatic or old as the one at the top of the page, still it shows great movement and balance, with a nice light, almost floating effect. Rather than a name, the artist, Kenichi Abe, is listed with this tree.


This one is called Sokaku (nest of the cranes). It’s unusual, with it long straight split trunk. I like the loop on the left half of the trunk. Though you don’t see it very often, you can create split trunk bonsai with a trunk splitter some other tools and a little patience and skill.

All the bonsai in this post are from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum’s timeline on facebook.

 

Would you like to learn more about Japanese white pines? If you do, this book is what you need.

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$100 Contest: Choosing the Right Pot

The idea for choosing the best pot for this tree belongs to Boon Manakitivipart, as do all the photos in this post. The idea for turning this into a contest belongs to me.

This is our second post on Choosing the Right Pot in the last few weeks (December 14. 2013). The tree is a Chinese cork bark elm. All the photos were borrowed from Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon).

The Contest: To to eligible to win the $100 Stone Lantern gift certificate you must do the following three things.

1. Choose your favorite pot & tree combination from the seven shown here.

2. Choose which pot you think will be the most popular with our entrants (you can choose your favorite or you can choose another pot). This choice will determine whether you win or not.

3. Email wayne@stonelantern.com with your answers. Put pot contest in the subject line of your email. DO NOT PUT YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

The deadline for entry will be one month from today (February 12, 2014). Only one entry per person accepted.

The winner of the contest will be the person who picked the most popular pot (2 above). If more than one person qualifies to win, then the first person to submit their choices will be the winner. If two or more pots tie for most popular, then I’ll ask Corey and Ric to pick their favorites and hopefully break the tie. If that doesn’t work, I will commit seppaku.

Remember: DO NOT PUT YOUR ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

Pot 1


 

Pot 2


 

Pot 3

 

 

Pot 4


 

Pot 5


 

Pot 6


 

Pot 7

Our thanks to Boon Manakitivipart who went to the trouble to create, photograph and put these pot-tree combination up on facebook.

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A Good Year for Bonsai Events

I like the flowing deadwood and the strong cinnamon vein on this powerful old tree. It’s from the 2013 Noelanders Trophy poster. The 2014 Noelanders Trophy poster is just below.

While the year is still fresh, it seems like a good time to talk about some major bonsai events for 2014. Note the word some, no attempt will be made to list everything. Just a few to get started, with more to come later. Chronologically works best, so here goes…

 

January 18-19. Fifteen straight years gives the Noelanders Trophy some real cachet. Great cast of characters too.

 

February 4-12. Kokufu 2014 is coming soon. The granddaddy and still premier bonsai show. Couldn’t find a poster, so thought we’d show this 2013 prize winning Chinese quince that we featured in a post about Kokufu a few months ago. You can also find this bonsai and several other Kokufu trees as well as Kokufu information on the Valavanis Bonsai Blog.

 

An after photo that Suthin Sukosolvisit just posted on his timeline. Suthin is a headliner at this year’s Mid-Atlantic.

April 25-27. Mid Atlantic Bonsai Societies 31st Spring Festival. This should be a good one. Just the fact that Suthin is one of the three heavy hitting headliners should be enough, but there’ll be much more too. And it’s right in lovely New Jersey, the heart of our American East Coast.

 

May 9-11. Looking for a good excuse to visit Europe? Or, if you already live in Europe, a good excuse to visit Warsaw? Judging by what we’ve seen in the past, the 30th European Bonsai Convention promises to be one of Europe’s and the West’s premier bonsai shows.


September 13-14. The 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is in the fall this year. Should be great for fruiting bonsai and for other reasons too. This is a don’t miss show for any North American bonsai lover. Really, if you live within 3,000 miles of Rochester NY, you’ll want to be there.


October 18-21. Robert Steven’s International Bonsai Biennale promises to be a most unique and exciting bonsai and cultural event. We’ll be featuring pieces of the puzzle between now and then, but meanwhile you can visit Robert on facebook or go directly to the show’s website.


Speaking of calendars, you’ll need one to keep track of all the great 2014 events.
Our 13 page 2014 calendar is now only 9.95.

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Bonsai Art & Free Flowing Information

Root-over-rock Trident maple by Wolfgang Putz. The photo is from Bonsai Master on facebook as are all three photos in this post. Here are a couple earlier posts on Wolfgang’s bonsai (from May, 2009 and from August 2012).

All three of these photos are from someone called Bonsai Master (facebook). When I saw them, I was struck by three things:

1. All three are excellent bonsai.

2. The quality of the photos is also excellent. It make a big difference when people go to the trouble to take a good shot. Facebook (but not just facebook) is overflowing with poorly photographed trees.

3. Bonsai Master went to the trouble to attribute all three to their rightful owners (they’re pretty good about this, but they let some slip). If you’ve been following Bark, you may have noticed that this is a reoccurring theme. Many people don’t go to the trouble to attribute bonsai to the artist (or owner). Mostly, I think this is simply laziness. In some cases I wonder if there’s not a little vanity too (if you read the comments, it’s clear that people sometimes think the person who posted is the owner).

Attribution is important. Unless you can’t find the information, you wouldn’t show a painting without mentioning the painter, nor a poem without the poet.

While we’re at it, we might as well brag just a bit and mention links. You might notice that we always try to link to the source (often we provide other relevant links as well ). We know we might lose you this way (at least for a while) but we also know that many of you appreciate this practice and in the name of promoting bonsai art and free flowing information, why not?

 

Bonsai Master’s caption on this one says “Amazing..! Ligustrum Vulgare by Andrew Buettner. Thank you.” Ligustrum vulgare is Common privet (think hedges). Here’s Andrew’s facebook page.

 

We love larches and this one has a lot to love. Here’s Bonsai Master’s caption: “Beautiful. By Hans van Meer, Karomoto Bonsai Art.. Thank you.”

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Bonsai Meets Pop Music

This old triple trunk Japanese white pine (aka Japanese five needle pine, aka Pinus parviflora or parvifolia) resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Musem in Saitama Japan. There’s a lot to like here, including the ancient bark, a great pot and a nice play of shadows and light as a little bonus.

First a confession. The title of this post ‘Bonsai Meets Pop Music’ has little if anything to do with the bonsai shown here. However, if you scroll down, you’ll see that it wasn’t made up out of thin air, and if you read Japanese, some light may be shed (I’m waiting for your comment).

All the trees shown here are from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum, which houses, without doubt, one of the best bonsai collections anywhere. Here’s their website and here they are on facebook.

 

Crabapple. There nothing quite like viewing deciduous trees in the winter when the entire structure down to the tiniest detail is revealed (this never happens with evergreen bonsai). And then there’s the fruit, which adds color just when we need it the most. Speaking of the fruit, I like the way it’s randomly distributed.

 

If you can ignore the background noise for just a minute, you’ll see one of the finest and most powerful Chinese quince (Karin) in the world. Again, in all its naked splendor and with just one fruit (in case you don’t believe it’s quince).

 

This elegant Japanese Maple caught my eye as I was once again scrolling through ten thousand facebook photos, and as one thing leads to another, is the reason for this post. It’s named Musashigaoka. Turns out several of the trees at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum have names.

 

Now you know where the title comes from.

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Bonsai Wire Sale Ends Tonight

Don’t let yourself run out of Bonsai Wire.
It’s a great feeling to have exactly the right wire at hand when you need it.

20% to 50% off

All of our Bonsai Wire is now 20% to 50% off of our already low prices. But don’t wait.
The sale ends tonight (Sunday January 5th) at midnight (U.S. EST).

 

Chose from a whole range of roll sizes, diameters and types of Bonsai Wire.
All now 20% to 50% off.

30% off all of our Okatsune Tools and all other Garden Tools

Meanwhile, our Okatsune and Garden Tool Sale is rolling along

Three of our Okatsune Shears. If you know Okatsune tools, you know that they are
the choice of Japanese professionals. And why not?, they cut like butter and last forever.

This sale includes dozens of tools that are suitable for bonsai
for example…
all of our saws and our Okatsune shears. Sheaths, grafting knives and sharpening stone too

 

These well worn Okatsune bypass shears belong to Greg McNally and Tune Faulkner of Fall Brook Tree Farm in Wheelock Vermont. Tune uses hers all year, but most intensively before the holidays when she makes wreaths. She makes thousands of cuts a day when she’s going strong and has been using the same shears for years. We came up with 500,000 cuts, but suspect it could easily be twice that.

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Year Round Bonsai

Dien Dàn Cây Canh Viet Nam is what the caption says. Both the tree and the language are Vietnamese, even though the photo and the other two in this post are from Indonesian Bonsai.

It’s the tree above that caught my attention while scrolling through reams of facebook photos (part of the advantage of having several thousand facebook friends – there are disadvantages too, as you might imagine).

Aside from the fact that it’s a dynamic tree with its powerful well-tapered trunk full of texture and movement, three staggered crowns and all the rest, there’s that thought that keeps popping up every time I see trees like this… ah to live in tropics! Year round bonsai with cuttings as big as your wrist that actually take and growth so fast that there’s always something to do. Meanwhile the thermometer on the front porch says -20F (that’s -29 C – cold either way).

Speaking of Viet Nam, we featured a post a while back titled A Magical Land Where Almost Every House Has a Bonsai. The observation belong to Robert Steven. Can you imagine almost every house in your country with a bonsai? Or even almost every house in your neighborhood?

 

This one has the same caption as the one above (and below): Dien Dàn Cây Canh Viet Nam


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