Rugged, Graceful & Not All That Common

Sabamiki and uro. Aside from its overall power and beauty, there are a several things that might catch your eye: the flowers and buds, the aged bark (Ume bark develops an aged look fairly fast) and the hollowed out trunk (sabamiki). If you look closely you can also see several uro (small hollows that are left on deciduous trees where branches have rotted and fallen off, though bonsai uro may well be man made).

What’s in a name?
Ume have several names: Prunus mume (or just mume), Japanese apricot (or sometimes Japanese flowering apricot) and Chinese plum to name the most common. In the bonsai world, Ume seems to be the name of choice.

Fantastic bonsai
Ume is an Asian native and even though they make fantastic bonsai, for some reason not many nurseries grow them here in North America (Muranaka Nursery on the California central coast is one exception). As far as I know, they aren’t that difficult to grow as bonsai and they have numerous positive traits: they show the appearance of great age while still fairly young, they combine graceful elegance and tough looking ruggedness, and offer a striking display of buds and flowers late each winter. Altogether a noble candidate for your bonsai collection.

Omiya Bonsai Art Museum
The trees shown here reside at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum in Saitama City, Japan. The photos are from Yoshitomo Ishizuka’s facebook page.

Shari. Though it’s a little difficult to see, this ume features some deadwood (shari) on the trunk. You usually see deadwood on conifers, as it tends to rot fairly quickly on deciduous trees. However, on ume deadwood rots quite slowly, so the shari on this tree appears natural.

Fluid motion. Ume trunks and branches tend to display graceful, fluid motion. Just one more feature that makes Ume such a great subject for bonsai.

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Enter & Win, Imagine & Create, Visit Stone Lantern & Save

Goshin by John Yoshio Naka. This famous tree resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. Photos will never do it justice. It is huge (about 1 meter tall – just over 3 feet) and is so dramatic in person that it almost seems to vibrate with power. Goshin is featured in Timeless Trees by Peter and Mary Bloomer. It also appears on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 93, an issue that features a tribute to the life and works of John Naka (The John Naka Sketchbook is on sale here).

Enter & win
Or at least, enter. You just might enjoy yourself in the process and maybe even learn something (humility?). The contest is the ABS John Naka Award.

Our warehouse will be closed…
…from August 7th until the 19th so Corey can have a vacation. Orders placed with Stone Lantern during that time will be charged and shipped on a first-come, first-serve basis on August 20th & 21st.

All good things…
Our Red Hot but Very Cool Summer Sale ends in 3 days on Thursday the 26th. We will have other sales for sure and our prices are always low, but still, if you want some exceptionally good deals, order now.

Here’s a live link…

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Random Shots

Naturalistic. Another naturalistic bonsai by Walter Pall. We’ve been featuring Walter’s trees lately, now here’s one more for your enjoyment. Great pot too.

No particular theme
I’m still on vacation, so I’ll keep it short and hopefully sweet. All of the trees shown in this post are photos posted on facebook by Tae Kikuwon Bonsai. There’s no theme (that I can discern anyway) other than a few trees that caught my eye.

Berry rich. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many berries on a Pyracantha bonsai. Maybe not on any bonsai. If you know who this tree belongs to (or who any other unidentified trees belong to), you can always let us know in the comments.

Luminous. It’s the brilliant red foliage that catches your attention here, but on second take, you might notice the rough bark and deadwood. You don’t usually see deadwood on Japanese maples, and I’m not so sure you see such rough bark on thread leaf Japanese maples all that often.

Privet. I’m not sure why you don’t see very many privet bonsai; they’ve got some excellent features that you look for in a bonsai, including small leaves and a remarkable ability to take abuse. This one, with its hollowed out twin trunks and well developed ramification is another eye-catcher. The tree belongs to Mauro Stemberger and the pot is by Petra Han.

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Lithe Literati: Another Great Bonsai Exhibition part 2

Not exactly a traditional literati pot, but who cares?

Lissome literati
I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of literati bonsai (photos, that is) but very few quite like these. Enough said though (getting sucked back into work isn’t any way to enjoy a vacation).

Part 2
All three photos in this post are from the Malaysia Bonsai & Stone International Exhibition 2012. I found them on Robert Steven’s facebook page. Even though this post says part 2, it’s actually our 3rd post from the Exhibition (including Robert’s demo). Here’s a link to part one.

Again, not your traditional literati pot. I think both this one an the one above present a pretty unique expression of literati bonsai (especially if your view of bonsai has been heavily influenced by the Japanese tradition).

Bunjin. This one is bit more like what I’m referring to as traditional Literati bonsai (aka Japanese style). Apologies for the fuzz. I had to almost double the original in order to get this one up to full size. Still, even though it’s a bit fuzzy, I think you get the feel.

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Revisting a Famous Tree

2012. Walter Pall’s now famous Scot’s pine as it appears in a recent post on his Bonsai Adventures blog. Actually, it appears in three different iterations in the post, starting with this one (rather than try to explain, you can see for yourself).

Walter Pall’s naturalistic Scot’s pine
When you hear the words bonsai and naturalistic in the same breath, you might envision someone finding a little tree growing in the wild, digging it up, doing a little trimming here and there, perhaps a bare minimum of wiring (perhaps none at all), sticking it in a pot, and voila, a naturalistic bonsai.

While this scenario is always possible, don’t count on it. Almost all top quality bonsai that were originally collected in the wild, including ones that you might call naturalistic, go through a series of transformations (often radical transformations) over a period of years before they appear in magazines or shows.

The tree shown here is no exception. Though Walter refers to it as a naturalistic bonsai, if you follow the photos below (descending in time), you’ll see that the tree above is clearly the result of a long-time collaboration between Mother Nature and a skilled and patient human.

2005. The same tree as it appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today magazine issue 104.

2002. Continuing our march back in time. The photo above, this photo and the remaining photos in this post are from an article by Walter titled A Naturalistic Scot’s Pine that appeared in Bonsai Today issue 104.

1999

1997

1996

1995. This is the earliest shot we have. I don’t know if it was even rougher when it was collected, but this is rough enough to make our point.

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A Bonsai Story

A compelling bonsai story. If the best bonsai tell a story, this one speaks loud and clear. I think that the story here is expressed in the way the low tree on the right appears to have regenerated after a near fatal fall and the way this effect is supported by all the deadwood. Then there’s the overall balance that’s enhanced by the way the the foliage and wood on the small tree mirrors the large tree. There’s more, but enough said for now.

A great demo at an excellent show
A few days ago we featured some bonsai from the Malaysia Bonsai & Stone International Exhibition 2012. The photos were courtesy of Robert Steven. Now we’re featuring one of the demos at the exhibition, also courtesy of Robert Steven. Robert’s bonsai and his bonsai critiques are featured regularly on this blog for good reasons, not the least of which is that Robert is one of the most daring, innovative and prolific bonsai artists around. Not to mention the crass commercial piece: we sell Robert’s excellent books and his Bonsai Aesthetics line of tools and wire (just a little disclaimer that in no way detracts from Robert’s brilliance).

Trial and error. Robert and friend during the demo. Here are a couple links to more photos of the demo and the exhibition.

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Explore the World of Bonsai, Humidity & Heat, Columbus Is Still in Ohio & A Very Large Bonsai Tree

This photo is from Explore the World of Bonsai, a special feature offered on the National Bonsai Foundation website. Check it out, it’s well worth a look, especially for those of us still becoming acquainted with the art of bonsai (that pretty much covers us all).

Giant bonsai in a very large box. This turned up on Ruddy Valentino d’Augusto’s facebook page. It’s titled Amazing Bonsai Garden. I’ve seen other gargantuan bonsai, but this one may be the most impressive yet.

This fluid Japanese maple is one of a whole series of great trees featured on Yoshimoto Ishizuka’s facebook photos. Is it just me, or would you also like to see the sign removed?

Though it has been about twenty years since I’ve been there, if memory serves, Columbus is one of the nicer mid-sized, mid-western cities and the Franklin Part Conservatory is well worth a visit. Here’s a link to The Columbus Bonsai Society.

Check out the girth of the cascading branch on this excellent pine by David Benavente. Something you may or may not know about cascade bonsai is just how challenging it is to keep the lower parts healthy and strong looking. Most trees are apically dominant, which means energy tends to flow up, rather than down; thus the challenge. This photo is from David Benavente’s Estudio de Bonsai facebook page.

Humidity and heat. It’s that time of year. Morten Albek has a worthwhile article with some useful tips, title Humidity and heat on his Shohin-Bonsai Europe blog. For those of you who don’t know Morten, he’s the author of our Shohin Bonsai, Majesty in Miniature book.

The U.S. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum is still there, awaiting your visit.

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Another Great Bonsai Exhibition

The free-standing, somewhat strange deadwood on the left is both intriguing and disturbing. On balance, I think it’s a genuine eye-catcher that adds interest to the planting, even though the main tree would be excellent by itself. The original shot included a stand that seemed too large and distracting, so I cropped it out. Base-of-the-trunk level shots are usually the best way to photograph bonsai, but if they slip down just a little lower, they can over-emphasis stands and pots. The full photo with the stand is below, so you can be the judge.

Robert is at it again
The photos are posted on Robert Steven’s facebook page. They’re from the Malaysia Bonsai & Stone International Exhibition 2012. Robert was a featured bonsai artist and judge and though I don’t know how the judging went, the result of his demo was excellent. We’ll feature it and some more photos from the Exhibition soon. Meanwhile you can check it out for yourself.

Artist, teacher, author and friend to countless people
I just went through some of Robert Steven’s facebook pages and was astounded at how many birthday greetings he got. It seems that Robert has hundreds, if not thousands, of devoted friends and students. Which reminds me; Happy Birthday Robert! (just a little late…).

I can see why this photo is shot from below the base of the trunk; it provides a good look at the movement inside the tree, which is a net plus, even though the pot seems a little outsized from this angle.

Here’s the original shot of the tree at the top of the post.

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Bonsai Blogs: A Quick Web Journey

Mystery tree. It’s from Peter Warren’s latest post on his Suruyama blog. Unmentioned, unnamed and the brightest spot in the post.

A quick journey around the bonsai web
Though we often feature photos from other bonsai blogs, this type of sampling is something new for Bonsai Bark. I suspect you’ll see more in the future. Meanwhile, please don’t feel insulted if your favorite blog isn’t included. No attempt has been made to cover them all, or even search out the very best. Just stuff that caught my attention at the moment. If you know any you’d like to see here, the comments are below.

Magic? This formidable European beech is from Walter Pall’s Bonsai Adventures blog. If you know what a normal European beech looks like, you might wonder just what kind of magic Walter employed in shrinking the leaves.

De-candling and Stuff! This gnarly old pine is one of the many tree’s that Peter Tea de-candled on his Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en Bonsai Nursery, Japan

Bonsai Tonight: Jonas provides an up close look into treating a successful approach graft on a Black pine.

The Clinton Ezo. Capital Bonsai is featuring a post that ventures beyond bonsai and into the realm of international diplomacy.

The Elephant. If memory serves, this is our first visit to The Bonsai Blog of Hans Van Meer. Though the photo of this old collected Larch isn’t perfect and the tree isn’t fully refined or in a bonsai pot, still…

Norwegian Wood. Defunct or just very slow? This monster privet is from Norwegian Wood. Their most recent post is March 2011. It would be nice to see a later iteration of this tree.

Bonsai Blog. Here’s one that’s a little more current. It features a lot of great bonsai pots and some other interesting things. Its highly descriptive, but somewhat less-than-imaginative name is Bonsai Blog.

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Twisted

Twisted in the extreme. My guess is that you’ve never seen a tree as twisted as this one. I’m pretty sure I haven’t, though there are some (I think they are Whitebark pines Pinus albicaulis) at the treeline on Mt Lassen in Northern California that come pretty close. This photo is from Carlos van der Vaart on facebook. The caption says: Carlos van der Vaart with Carles Lleonart and Bonsai Eduardo Budes, Medellin, Colombia.

What causes trees to twist?
I’ve always thought twisting is caused by a combination of persistent strong winds and the way trees grow towards the sun. You might also throw gravity into the mix (many twisted trees grow on sloping ground). To me this seems like common sense. However, I did find at least two other explanations after a quick web search: 1. it’s genetics, and 2. no one really knows (I guess this doesn’t really qualify as an explanation…) If you’re interested in doing your own research, a couple pretty good places to start are: here and here.

A sudden twist of fate. This powerful California juniper starts out straight and then suddenly there’s a change of direction and a big 360 degree twist. You can only guess, but it looks like some powerful event caused this tree to change its angle in relation to the ground. Perhaps it was an earthquake or landslide, or maybe a flash flood. After the change, the forces that cause twisting took over. Of course this is all conjecture on my part and none of it explains the now dead second trunk that begins twisting almost from the ground. The tree was collected and styled by Ernie Kuo. It’s from our Masters’ Series Juniper book.

Man made twisting. This little Shimpaku juniper was domestically grown and shaped. 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.

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