Backyard Bonsai #9

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A piece of Christian Przybylsk’s garden (I took the liberty of cropping his photo a little). If you visit his site you can see the uncropped original, as well as over a dozen backyard photos that are not included in this post. Like this one, they are more about the garden than the bonsai, but still, there are enough bonsai sprinkled around for you to get the idea.

Picking up an old thread
Way back in May 2009 we started a series called Backyard Bonsai. Most of the eight previous posts are from 2009 and early 2010, though the last one is from just a few days ago (David Benavente’s, which I didn’t include as part of the series because it is clearly a commercial situation and the others – with one or two possible borderline cases – are just bonsai enthusiast’s backyards).

A bit of a mystery
The one featured here belongs to Christian Przybylsk. He’s a bit a mystery to me; I don’t know much about him beyond the fact that his site is in German and his email address indicates that he lives in Germany; and that he’s an accomplished bonsai artist and landscaper. Maybe that’s enough.

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The bonsai in this shot are difficult to see. Still. it shows another view of a well-designed backyard; and if you look closely, you’ll see what looks like a stump (middle left) where you might imagine a bonsai is sometimes displayed.

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Bonsai Pots at Stone Lantern

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A small sampling of what we have and what’s to come.

Finally
We’ve been talking about offering bonsai pots for a while and now, finally, we’ve got them. So far we’ve put up thirty-some, with many more to come. Stay posted.

A ways to go
Organization-wise, we still have a ways to go. Once we get enough up, we’ll organize them into sub-groups for your convenience. Meanwhile, it’s pretty easy to go through what’s already up.

Competitive prices too
We are being very careful to keep our pot prices competitive. Feel free to compare. In this vein, we have also been working on lowering prices on some other items we offer (tools, fertilizers, wire and other stuff).

Don’t forget our book and magazine sale
Big discounts! We haven’t decided when to end it yet, but it won’t be too much longer.

new books jan 2011

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Digging Around Pays Off

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You can find this monarch of bunjin pines and other great trees on Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai website. This one is from the 2004 Taikan Ten show in Japan and is part of an article called Japanese Shows that Michael posted in 2008 (the caption says White pine; however, it looks like a Black pine to me).

Digging around
Sometimes digging around through old material pays off (if you call 2008 old). I found this powerful, stately old pine (above) and several other magnificent trees while digging around Michael Hagedorn’s postings on Crataegus Bonsai. It’s part of a posting called Japanese Shows that features trees that Michael worked on while he was an apprentice in Japan. Here are two to whet your appetite. For the rest you can visit Michael’s site.

Michael’s excellent book
If you haven’t read Michael Hagedorn’s excellent book (Post Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk) on his experience as a bonsai apprentice in Japan, this is a good time to get your hands on it – Stone Lantern is currently running a big book sale.

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This Itoigawa juniper is from Kokufu ten, the most prestigeous show of all.

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Bill’s Bonsai & Stone Lantern’s Sale

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I don’t think there are very many genuine Tokonomas in North America. Of the few I’ve seen, this is one of the very best. The funky curvy wood on the right and the wildly voluptuous wisteria contrast perfectly with the formality of the rest of the display.

For your enjoyment
Bill Valavanis of International Bonsai recently posted a series of excellent photos on facebook. We’ve included a few for you to enjoy. You can view them all here.

Also for your enjoyment
Stone Lantern (that’s us) is having a wild and woolly book sale and Bonsai Today sale right now. You can enjoy discounts up to 40%, and, in some cases (when you include double discounts on individually discounted books), 50%, 60% or even more.

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The starkly contrasting colors make for an brilliant photo.

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Correction & Apologies

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Back on November 19th I posted this magnificent tree by Walter Pall. At the time I didn’t know it was Walter’s, so I didn’t attribute it, though I did say where I found it. So far so good…

The problem was…
… I was convinced it had been photoshopped to enhance the fall color. Now, after reading several comments, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t photoshopped. My apologies to Walter Pall and everyone else. The details are here.

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Robert Steven Critiques a Manchurian Pear

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Robert Steven’s simulation of a Manchurian pear that was submitted by John. His original submission is below.

Fall color bonus
A while back we ran a few posts on fall color. This one qualifies for that group as well as a subject for a critique. In fact, it was the tree’s fall color that prompted John to send it to us. Now with John’s good-natured permission, Robert gets a crack at it.

Autumn in March
John lives in Australia (but far from the flooding). So this photo was taken while late winter snow was still on the ground here in Vermont. Robert Steven lives in Indonesia, where fall color and snow have little meaning.

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John’s original.

Robert’s critique

The best feature this tree displays is the leaf color. Other than that, there are many points to comment on.

1. In bonsai design, I always emphasize the importance of horticultural clues (plant physiology and morphology) in order to make a bonsai look natural; the way a mature tree grows in nature.

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David Benavente’s Excellent Bonsai World

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An elegant bonsai enhanced by an equally elegant photograph. From David Benavente’s website.

Why not smile? Señor Benavente offering you a chance to buy a sweet little Shimpaku.

If one were inclined to jealously
I don’t advocate jealousy; it’s a nowhere kind of emotion. But if you were the type to get jealous about someone’s bonsai scene, David Benavente’s would be a good place to start. I won’t say much more; the photos can speak for themselves. And no, I don’t think I’m jealous…. but still, such a well put together backyard nursery with such great bonsai and the climate is so good….

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More Rare Out-of-Print Bonsai Todays

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We just purchased an entire collection of Bonsai Todays from a long time bonsai maven who lives right here in northeastern Vermont. Many are rare out-of-print issues (some are very rare) and most are now up our site. We only have one copy of most (we do have a few doubles and even triples, but not many), so don’t wait.

In print and out
We still have over fifty issues of Bonsai Today that are what we call in-print. This just means we still have ones that have never been sold. They have been sitting in our warehouse and are just like new, even though they might be as much as fifteen years old. These in-print issues are less expensive than the used out-of-print issues.

So rare
Some out-of-print issues are so rare that we almost never see one. This is particularly true of some of the very early issues (especially the single digit ones). Issue number 2 (above) is the rarest of all. This is because many of them were water damaged on their ocean journey from the printer to our warehouse.

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Bonsai Journey by Lo Min Hsuan

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I was just reminded (on facebook, where else?) that Lo Min Hsuan has a new book. I don’t know to much about it, except that the cover makes me want to know more. Well, the cover and the fact it is by Lo Min Hsuan.

Continuing a thread
We’ve been featuring Lo Min Hsuan some lately (here, here and here). For good reason; he seems to be a the cutting edge of bonsai right now (at least one of the cutting edges) and he has this new book. There is some info about the book on his website, but the real proof will be seeing the book itself. I won’t say I can’t wait, because I can and I have to. But I am very much looking forward to seeing it.

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Page 24. Bonsai Journey by Lo Min Hsuan. For more on this book and on the author, you can visit his blog.

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Bonsai Critique: Simple & Profound

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One of Robert Steven’s two simulations of a tree in a rock-like container that was submitted by Kian (no second name given). In spite of the somewhat fuzzy images, the general ideas come through loud and clear.

Simple changes with profound results
Sometimes an adjustment to the position of a container (above), or a new container (below), can radically transform a planting. Neither of Robert’s simulations involve any changes to the tree, yet both transform a somewhat stagnant planting to something full of natural movement and interest.

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Robert’s second simulation.

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