Your Fate is in Their Hands

Michael Hagedorn (our alphabetically first judge) worked on this Japanese white pine before his teacher, Shinji Suzuki entered it in the famous Kokufu show. You can visit Michael’s Crataegus Bonsai (one of my all time favorite bonsai blogs) for the whole story. Michael is the author of Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk.

Bonsai from Scratch Contest: it’s time to meet the judges
All the images have been sorted and sized and sent to the judges. Now it’s their turn, so I thought it might be a good idea to introduce them. In alphabetical order, they are: Michael Hagedorn, Colin Lewis, Teddi (Theodora) Scobi, Robert Steven and Bill Valavanis. I would like to extend a hearty thanks (in advance) to each of them for taking the time to help us along with this contest. I look forward to the results of their efforts.

This very muscular Elm is from a gallery of Colin Lewis’ trees. Colin is a well known bonsai artist, teacher and author (and, I suspect, a genuinely literate gentleman – though that might just be his English accent), and is our second (in the alphabetical sense) judge. Colin’s home and bonsai studio is located in the snowy wilds of Maine. Way back in 2010, we featured an interview with Colin.

This cascading Japanese black pine is from Teddi Scobi’s (and Hitoshi Kanaegae’s) New England Bonsai Gardens. Teddi is the warm heart of NEBG, and, on a personal note, a long time dear friend.

This now famous Premna, is one of dozens of my favorite Robert Steven trees. Robert is one of the most prolific and daring bonsai artists, teachers and authors in the world, and is always a great pleasure to work with. Robert’s critiques frequently appear here on Bonsai Bark.

Bill Valavanis must occasionally grow tired of being last or near last in the alphabet (but in no way last in the art of bonsai). But not to worry, we feature Bill, his excellent bonsai and his world class bonsai events (the 2012 US National Bonsai Exhibition is coming up) here on Bonsai Bark regularly. This Seigen Japanese maple is one of Bill’s most famous and most wonderful trees.

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Fishing for Bonsai Muscle

European olives are often resplendent with character as well as muscle and this one is certainly no exception (to say the least). I found it on flickr and then, one thing led to another (see Gone fishing below) and to the conclusion that this tree belongs to Luis Vallejo (though I couldn’t find evidence on his very attractive but oh-so-slow site).

Bonsai muscle
There’s something grand about bonsai with thick, powerful trunks. Assuming that I’m not the only one that feels this way, here are three exceptional bonsai (that also happen to be quite muscular) for your enjoyment.

Gone fishing
This post started as a bonsai fishing expedition that landed quite unexpectedly in Portugal, a country know for fishing. The flicr photo of the magnificent Olive above came with three bits of information: the species, Museu Bonsai Alconbendas (the results there weren’t too promising, maybe you’ll come up with something better) and, as you can see, kintall.blogspot.com, which is where the juice turns up. Kintall belongs to Rodrigo Sousa and is a bonsai gold mine, in which a little digging turns up the tree above, the two trees below and much more (that’s enough, you can take it from here if you’re interested).

Myrtus communis by Rui Ferrreira. I’ve never seen a Common myrtle with a heavy trunk, let alone one as massive as this one. The photo is from the EXPOS PORTUGAL – 3º Congresso Federação Portuguesa de Bonsai – Ericeira 2011. You can find it on Kintall’s home page).

Muscle with nine (?) trunks. This Trident, by Jose Machado, shows a nebari kind of muscle, but still, muscle it is. Also from EXPOS PORTUGAL – 3º Congresso Federação Portuguesa de Bonsai – Ericeira 2011, on Kintall’s home page).

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Bonsai Bark’s Weekly Wire #5

Loud and clear. This magnificent Fukien tea and it’s perfect pot speak for themselves, so I won’t say anything. Except that it’s from Taiwan Bonsai World (facebook), the botanical name is Carmona microphylla and the artist is HUANG, Qing-Quan.

Post your upcoming events here (in the comments below) and we’ll feature them in our next Weekly Wire. Most calendars on bonsai sites only run through this year, and don’t have much in the way of events this time of year anyway. It would be good if people would start putting up next year’s events (a few have begun, but the pickings are quite slim) so we’d have more to tell you about.

A sweet fall color larch planting from the North American Collection
(Les bonsaïs nord-américains) at the Montreal Botanical Garden.
The North American Collection is one of several world-class bonsai collections at these fabulous gardens.

Tradition in bonsai. Our old friend and colleague Andy Rutledge (The Bonsai Journal) puts the following question to five prominent bonsai artists: What is the role of tradition in the art of bonsai? Andy also has an excellent, in-depth article titled Life at a Bonsai Nursery about time he spent working at New England Bonsai Gardens.

Roy Nagatoshi’s colorful floral pattern shirt at a Bonsai Society of Greater St Louis workshop. Roy is the proprietor of Fuji Bonsai and a much loved bonsai teacher to many.

The Ottawa Bonsai Society website features galleries, articles and calendars of upcoming meetings and events.

Bay Area Bonsai riches. You can enjoy a ‘bring your own bonsai’ workshop at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (Oakland CA) the 4th Sunday of each month. Kathy Shaner, one of the West’s most distinguished bonsai artists, is the curator, though it’s not clear if and when she ever leads the monthly workshops.

Stay posted for more on this excellent bonsai garden. Their site is exceptionally rich with events, photos and more, and worth continued exploration.

Bonsai Detective Art Contest Winner. Congratulations to Dave Piemme, the winner of our Bonsai Detective Art Contest. We’ll have more to say about Dave and the contest in our next Weekly Wire, so stay posted.

Fall Color: In the Foliage, In the Garden, and In the Collections.
At the US National Arboretum. November 5.

Another worthy Bottlebrush. In our last Weekly Wire we featured a Bottlebrush from the National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia, which led me to comment that I didn’t think I’d ever seen an impressive Bottlebrush bonsai before. Now, thanks to Bruce Winter (Volcano Hawaii), I’ve now seen another even better Bottlebrush bonsai. Too bad it’s not flowering in this photo, but still…. BTW, there’s an article about Bruce in the Redwood Empire Bonsai Society newsletter.

It’s a mystery. Neea buxifolia, root-over-rock. You don’t see too many of Neea bonsai.
I’d like to tell you who this one belongs to, but lost the link and artist’s name. Anyone?

It’s about time. Stone Lantern’s immensely popular Okatsune Sharpening Stone is finally back in stock. It’s popularity derives from he fact that one side is rounded so it’s perfect for sharpening round blades. And like all things Okatsune, the quality is unrivaled.

Kevin Wilson’s handiwork from a bonsai carving demo in Croatia last month (bonsai4me). I’ve been a fan of Kevin’s daring approach to carving every since we ran Styling and English Yew in Bonsai Today 106.

Spain’s bonsai hotspot. This google map shows ten bonsai destinations around Madrid. I haven’t been there, nor did I check to see if each one is legit, but still, Madrid looks like a pretty good place for bonsai lovers.

A peaceful autumn day. From the Rosade Bonsai Studio newsletter.

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Bunjin Bonsai Bliss

Unfinished, but oh so wild and wonderful. I wonder what this Scot’s pine bunjin beauty looked like before it was collected somewhere in the wilds of Sweden. It belongs to Muaro Stemberger. It’s from his facebook page. Mauro also has a website. It’s called Italian Bonsai Dream.

Bunjin or Literati, bonsai elegance by any name
The following is from something I wrote for The Magician: The Bonsai Art of Kimura.

“Bunjin style bonsai originated in China among scholars and artist who were known as literati, which is another name for bunjin. Originally, literati style bonsai – which dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) – was influenced by Chinese brush painting. With a little imagination, the connection can be readily seen.

Perhaps the keys to understanding bunjin are the notions of simplicity and elegance. These qualities arise as expressions of freedom; freedom from conventional and habitual way thinking, doing and seeing. This type of freedom – which is highly valued in some traditional societies and is not easily obtained – results in a direct and immediate way of experiencing the world. This could be called intuition…”

That’s enough for now (I know your time is precious). If you’re one of those strange people who likes to read the ramblings of others, you can always purchase (our peruse your copy of) The Magician.

This triple humpbacked pine combines elegance and a rugged wildness. I don’t know who it belongs to (please don’t show me up by pointing out that it’s in an issue of Bonsai Today or one of our books, there’s no more room on my face for any more egg), but I’d guess that it’s Japanese. It’s from Lombok’s photos on facebook. Like about half of the bonsai you find on facebook, it’s unattributed.

A study in simplicity. This Japanese Red pine (Pinus densiflora) is the result of a challenge to Masahiko Kimura (the world’s best know bonsai artist) to create a bonsai with only one branch. It’s from The Magician: The Bonsai Art of Kimura 2. The original article is from Bonsai Today issue 69.

Few and far between. Have you ever seen a true fir (Abies) bonsai? How about a bunjin fir bonsai? This one is a Grand fir (Abies grandis) that belongs to Lee Cheatle. Grand firs are native to the Pacific Northwest. The photo is from the 2010 US National Bonsai Album.

Bunjin is not just about pines. Bonsai Today back issues (including this bunjin special) are currently 70% off at Stone Lantern.

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Displaying Your Favorite Bonsai

Enter your favorite bonsai in the 2012 US National Bonsai Exhibition
Have you thought about entering your bonsai in next year‘s US National Bonsai Exhibition? Why not? Not only will it focus your mind on your bonsai, but you’ll no doubt learn something in the process. Not to mention that, if your tree is accepted, it will show up in the 2012 Exhibition Album. And then, there’s always the chance you could win something.
You can contact Bill Valavanis for details: WNV@internationalbonsai.com

Even you if don’t enter, this is a good time to start planning your visit.

2008 & 2010 Exhibition Albums at deep discounts

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Weekly Wire #4

The Adachi Museum Garden is featured the Japan Journey’s Gardens of Japan tour next month (Nov 11-22). Though I’ve never been to the Adachi gardens, judging from the photos, I just might agree with those who say it’s among the world’s most glorious gardens; Japanese or otherwise.

Bonsai clubs. Looking for a Bonsai Club near you? Here’s the ABS Bonsai Club Directory.

Calendars. Our 2012 Bonsai calendars are coming soon. Stay posted.

The Mid-Atlantic 2012 Spring Festival is scheduled for April 20-22. This excellent show has long been a premier East Coast bonsai event.

Our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. We’ve received all the final submissions and the judges have been notified. Next, comes the judging (it will be blind – they’ll receive no names with the photos), and finally the posting of the results. Please be patient. All this will take time (my best guess is at least a month to get everything sorted out).

The Green Club. If you’re ever in Japan, you don’t want to miss the world’s most famous bonsai market. A while back we featured a post on Japan’s Green Club. Now, Bonsai Tonight is offering you the opportunity to dig deeper into this wonderful world of magnificent and often astoundingly pricey bonsai for sale.

China tour. I think there is still space available for Dan Robinson’s Elandan China tour (April 2012).

Plant City Bonsai is offering Advanced Classes with Warren Hill Oct 29th & 30th.

The National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia. I’ve seen Bottlebrush used as street trees in San Francisco, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an impressive Bottlebrush bonsai (I have seen overpriced little commercial Bottlebrush online). Until now that is. This one is part of the National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia in Canberra. The artist is Derek Oakley.

Mountain lake from the Minnesota Bonsai Society’s Newsletter. They are offering a tool maintenance class, Nov 15.

More fall color. The other day we featured a fall color gallery (Blazing Bonsai). Continuing in that vibrant vein, here’s one we missed. It’s a Japanese maple from Morten Albek’s Shohin blog. Morten is the author of Majesty in Miniature: Shohin Bonsai.

The Kusamura Bonsai Club (Palo Alto, California) is offering a potting party Nov 13th. Their annual bonsai show is scheduled for April 21-22 2012.

This strange and wild bunjin finishes with an unconventional (and a little unsettling) pincer-like flourish at the top. It popped up on facebook; which brings up the facebook dilemma.

The facebook dilemma
Bonsai photos abound on facebook and I suppose this is a good thing. The problem is, often the trees are unattributed, or even falsely attributed. I know this doesn’t matter to many people, but if you’re interested in what a tree is and who styled it, you’re often left in the dark. This is the case with the strange, but kind of compelling tree above. I’d be interested to see Robert Steven do a critique on this one.

Bonsai with Japanese Maples. Paul Stokes has some book reviews on his web magazine, of Bonsai. Here’s one on Bonsai with Japanese Maples (available at Stone Lantern) you might find helpful, especially if you are growing or thinking or growing any of these superb trees (BTW: interestingly, the tree on the cover is a Trident maple, not a Japanese maple).

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Bonsai from Scratch Judgement Day

It’s almost time for the judges to do their thing.

A little update on our Bonsai from Scratch contest
We’ve received all the final submissions and the judges have been notified. Now I just have to finish sorting through and organizing all the submissions, and then, off to the judges. When they’ve finished, their numbers will be averaged, and then, the posting of the results. Please be patient. All this will take a little time.

Blind justice
FYI: lest you’re worried about rampant corruption, the judging will be blind. Our esteemed judges will receive no names with the photos. So you can take that money that you planned on bribing your favorite judge with (I have reason to believe they’re all honest, but then, I’ve been fooled before) and use it to shop at Stone Lantern.

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Blazing Bonsai Gallery

The swirl of color and freakishly wild and wonderful form, belongs to Dan Robinson. It’s from Will Hiltz brilliant book (Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees) about Dan and his trees (this one is a Bald cypress, one of the handful a few deciduous conifers on this planet).

It’s that time of year…

This brilliant Boston ivy appears on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 68 and is part of a gorgeous autumn color gallery (Bonsai Today back issues are currently 70% off at Stone Lantern).

A multi-hued Trident maple forest from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum’s North American Collection.

We’ve shown this glorious golden toned Trident before, but it’s worth another look. It belongs to Walter Pall.

As you can see, this is a Virginia creeper belongs to Harry Harrington. It’s from Harry’s most excellent site: bonsai4me.

Here’s another spectacular tree from Will Hiltz brilliant book (Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees). It’s a Korean hornbeam.

It’s the nebari more than the fall color that caught my eye with this Red maple (Acer rubrum). Here in Vermont Red maples usually flame a brilliant scarlet to orange, while this one shows much softer tones. Still, it’s a sweet tree with a sad/sweet story (from Crataegus bonsai).

Root-over-rock larch by Larch Master Nick Lenz (Nick’s benchmark collecting book is on sale at Stone Lantern). Larch are another of the small handful of deciduous conifers.

Danish anyone? This brilliant yellow-green Danish cherry is from Morten Albek’s website (Shohin-Bonsai Europe). Morten is the author of Shohin Bonsai: Majesty in Miniature (also currently on sale at Stone Lantern).

http://www.bonsai-nbf.org/site/north_american.html

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Improving a Less-Than-Beautiful Design

Robert Steven’s simulation of a Chinese elm root-on-rock bonsai submitted by Ikhsan. The original (before) photo is below.

Still impressed
No matter how much I try, I don’t see nearly as much as Robert Steven sees when he does his critiques (it’s not even close). So, once again, I am left to sing the praises of Robert’s bonsai wisdom. If you’d like proof of that wisdom, just read on. Or, you can check out Robert’s books and search his name on this blog and read through dozens of his earlier posts. It’s time well spent.

Robert’s critique

How can two nice components create a less-than-beautiful design?
We can all agree that this bonsai and the natural container are very nice (see photo below), but we still feel there is something wrong in the overall composition, which make the design less beautiful than it could be. How can two nice components (container and tree) create a less-than-beautiful design?

It’s about our cognitive sense and our sub-conscious. Our background, experiences, culture, education, social value; what we see and what we learn, all are stored somewhere in our brain. Then, when we see something that doesn’t accord with the data in our brain’s folder, our cognitive sense rejects it and our sub-conscious reacts to the discrepancies and perceives it as less than beautiful.

Here’s the original photo that Ikhsan submitted.

So, what’s wrong with this bonsai?

The problems have to do with natural phenomena, the plant’s physiology and morphology, which have not been logically applied in the creation of this bonsai.

– The tree grows in relatively symmetrical manner with slight movement to the right and with the roots spread equally around the base of the trunk.

– The natural container depicts a generally rocky area with the tree growing beside a big rock on its right.

– Logically, in such growing conditions, the tree’s roots system will not spread equally around, but tend to grow to the left for the water source, and grow away from the barrier on the right. Physiologically, the tree will never grow symmetrically or with movement to the right when the roots in the ground are growing to the left

– These are the reasons we feel the design is not as beautiful as it could be, even though the two main elements are nice.

Correcting the flaws
So, to correct it, simply follow the plant physiology and plant morphology. In most case, this just means that you can use common sense when it comes to natural phenomenon. This is the element we sometime overlook in our bonsai design process.

I would correct the shape of the container by cutting it to make it shorter and to create a downward slope. The objective is to create more natural look that fits the shape of the tree.
Reposition the tree to lean to the left, cut some of the roots on the right, so that they are slightly one-sided to the left.
Shorten the right branches and lengthen the left branches to create movement to the left that follows the direction of the roots.

Now, when you look at the simulated image, you see a better composition with more a logical design: a tree growing on a sloping rocky area. When it’s more logical, you feel it’s more beautiful…

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 and Mission of Transformation which are available at Stone Lantern.

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Bonsai Bark Weekly Wire #3

This photo of Kobayashi Nursery comes from Soh-Ju-En Satsuki Bonsai. ~~I assume it’s Kunio Kobayashi~~*** (he’s won awards for Satsuki bonsai), but my research team (that’s me) is a little over-worked right now and is having trouble finding time, so we’ll have to leave it at that.

***Thanks to Marc (see comments below) we now know that this photo is of Kobayashi Sangyo Satsuki Bonsai Nursery and is not Kunio Kobayashi’s.

Do your tools look like this? If not, then here’s a hot tip on how you can make it happen: visit Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s most excellent website (he’s one of best) and then go to his Simple Sharpening Tools Method. I won’t say Mr. Cheng is on the cutting edge of tool care (that would be too easy), but I will say that it just might revolutionize your approach to the business of keeping your tools sharp.

Craig Coussins’ bonsai collection is up for sale. Craig is the author of Bonsai Master Class, Bonsai School, Totally Bonsai and other now out-of-print books (in the US at least). Craig has been an important teacher and friend to many in our bonsai world for 40 years.

The BCI Grand Bonsai Tour Japan is coming up soon (Nov 17-27).

Hinoki Cypress at the Chicago Botanic Garden Permanent Collection. Featured on the Midwest Bonsai Society website. In addition to a wealth of other useful information, they have an excellent regional calendar. Not to mention (to mention) one of the best designed bonsai sites on the web

The Phoenix Bonsai Society is hosting a Ben Oki workshop Nov 12-13 & Kathy Shaner Dec 3-4.

You don’t have to live in one of their 19 member countries to enjoy The European Bonsai Association website.

Here’s a site that that you might find useful. It features a few bonsai blogs (including this one).

Nothing new under the sun? How about this brand new wiring technique by Mr. Ken Fujiwara? It’s from the latest post on Peter Tea’s blog, Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en, Japan.

Wabi Sabi by Dan Barton. One of a whole bunch of great pots (and other stuff) on Dan’s website.

Foliage clean up by Michael Hagedorn. Has Michael finally gone off the deep end?

Twit bonsai? Going even further off the deep end, here’s how you can use Twitter to grow bonsai.

Speaking of Kobayashi (top of this page), we found this photo of his book cover on Bonsai Network Japan. Is anyone out their familiar with this book?

Stone Lantern (that’s us) recently purchased Haskill Creek Publishing from our friend and colleague Dennis Howke. It has been a pleasure working with Dennis the last couple years, and, the good news is, he’ll still be in the picture – he’s working on magically transforming all six titles into eBook format for us. We’ll keep you posted as the process unfolds. Meanwhile, we do plan on bringing the two out-of-print titles back soon.

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