Suthin’s Bonsai & New Import Duty on Bonsai Wire

You can see Suthin’s mastery in the way this little Japanese black pine undulates (like waves) all the way from the base of the trunk down to the tip of the cascade. You can enjoy this tree and some other new offerings on Suthin’s website Our friend (everybody’s friend) Suthin Sukosolvisit has added the three trees shown here plus some others to his site’s sale page. I think you’ll like them and that you might like to know how to go about ordering from Suthin. Many of you know Suthin, but just in case you don’t, Suthin is a highly skilled and prolific bonsai artist. One of our best. If you’d like … Continue reading Suthin’s Bonsai & New Import Duty on Bonsai Wire

Small Is Beautiful (& Practical Too)

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 is a big plus when it comes to growing aerial roots. Monday morning, Stone Lantern’s peak season and the busiest time of year for bonsai growers, so it’s back to our archives. This one is from April, 2014 Based on thirty five years experience in bonsai business, I’d say that the majority of our readers and customers are into their middle years or beyond. I’m sure there are several good reasons for this, but … Continue reading Small Is Beautiful (& Practical Too)

Celebrate Our Bonsai Museum & Cast Your Vote

The sky blue pot is the perfect compliment to the light pink flowers on this powerful Satsuki Azalea that resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. There are a multitude of cultivars in the Satsuki group of azaleas. This one is a ‘Nikko.’ It was donated to the museum by Masayuki Nakamura. Continuing with our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum theme from yesterday, here are some photos and text from three of our original Museum posts (dating all the way back to March, 2010). Meanwhile, I would like to encourage you to support the Museum by casting your votes at these two … Continue reading Celebrate Our Bonsai Museum & Cast Your Vote

Before & After – Antes y Despues

Before and after Itoigawa juniper (Juniperus chinesis ‘itoigawa’) by David Benavente. It helps to start with a magnificent tree. Still, this takes nothing away from the considerable skills of an artist like David Benavente. In fact, bringing a great tree back to shape and taking it to the next level is one of the things that defines a highly accomplished bonsai artist. Sticking with our reoccurant Before & After theme, today’s Itoigawa juniper is one of several remarkable Before & Afters (Antes y Despues) that David Benavente posted several years ago. By the way, if you’re confused about the difference between Shimpaku, Kishu and Itoigawa, here’s something from … Continue reading Before & After – Antes y Despues

Celebrating Our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

This brilliant Japanese Maple was donated to our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum by Ryutaro Azuma. It has been in training since 1906. The photo is from Capital Bonsai. It’s time to celebrate our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum once again. If you are anywhere near our nation’s capital, or plan on being anywhere near, don’t miss this phenomenal display. Even if you have no plans on being near Washington DC, you can always make new plans. You won’t be disappointed. SITE WIDE SALE UP TO 60% OFF SOME ITEMS EVERYTHING DISCOUNTED MOST ITEMS 30% TO 60% OFF* This and other specials apply only to … Continue reading Celebrating Our National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Bjorn’s Biggest Loser – Before & After – Fertilizing Old Trees

Before and After. This masterpiece Itoigawa Shimpaku was restyled by Bjorn Bjorholm at Keiichi Fujikawa’s Kouka-en Bonsai Nursery in Ikeda City, Japan, where Bjorn was apprenticing at the time. The photo is from a post on Bjorn’s Bjorvala Bonsai Studio blog, as are all the photos in this post. Continuing with our Bjorn Bjorholm theme (it fits well with our ongoing before and after theme as well). This post originally appeared here in April, 2013, with a few minor changes today In Bjorn’s own words… “This massive Itoigawa Shimpaku has a long history as a bonsai. It was first shown in the Kokufu-ten about 35 years ago, … Continue reading Bjorn’s Biggest Loser – Before & After – Fertilizing Old Trees

Juniper Bonsai – Before, During & After

This Itoigawa juniper (Juniperus sargentii Itoigawa) belongs to Yannick Kiggen of Yama Bonsai Studio. The shot is from Noelanders Trophy 2017. The 200 year old pot is by Nakawatari. The stand was built by Pascal Houdusse This before, during and after sequence, covers four years in the life of Yannick Kiggen’s massive old yamadori juniper (yamadori is bonsai collected from the wild). Yannick bought it in 2014 from Maarten van der Hoeven of Bonsaiplaza, who imported it from Taisho-en in Japan. Continued below… BONSAI BOOK SPECIAL ENDS SOON All of Our Vast Selection of Bonsai Books 20% to 75% off List Prices But only for 2 more days This special … Continue reading Juniper Bonsai – Before, During & After

The Whole Bonsai Setup – Trees, Tools & Wire

I like this photo. In addition to the rather spectacular tree, there’s the whole setup, with tools and wire that tells us something about the place where this tree was styled and the means by which it was styled. Here’s the caption with this tree… “What 6 years of work, a beautiful environment and a great photographer Jill Moors can do …” I always get a little jolt when I discover a new (for me) bonsai artist. In this case the artist is Yannick Kiggen. Yannick calls his bonsai endeavor YAMA Bonsai Studio. We’ll just scratch the surface here and encourage … Continue reading The Whole Bonsai Setup – Trees, Tools & Wire

Bonsai Before & After – Transforming a Badly Damaged Tree

Here’s what Harry Harrington has to say about this impressive tree, and in particular it’s recovery and transformation from what you see in the photo below… “This is probably the best example I have of the usefulness of anti-transpirant, an Itoigawa juniper bonsai that came to me in a very bad way a couple of years ago, and was sprayed with anti-transpirant once a month to reduce further moisture loss from the leaves while it recovered and grew new roots. (Second image is from just 6 months later after styling).” We’ve been featuring Harry Harrington a lot these days. Part … Continue reading Bonsai Before & After – Transforming a Badly Damaged Tree

The Usual Suspects & The Real Mr Kobayashi

This Japanese flowering apricot (Prunus mume) is from the Shunka-en Bonsai Museum. This and the other photos shown here are from Bill Valavanis’ Bonsai blog. If you’ve seen the movie The Usual Suspects, you no doubt remember Mr Kobayashi, a smooth and ruthless professional criminal with a Japanese name and a face that doesn’t match. Just another surprise in a very surprising movie. Anyway, I happened to watch Suspects for about the fifth time the other day, and now a day or so later, I just visited Bill Valavanis (his blog that is) and there he was… the real Mr … Continue reading The Usual Suspects & The Real Mr Kobayashi