Bonsai Superlatives

770ficushsieh-shun-chin1-500x3911 I'm running out of superlatives. How about... 'somewhere north of magnificent.' My only question is, could the pot be a little bigger? By Hsieh, Shun-Chin of Taiwan

Continuing with spectacular Ficus bonsai…
Though the Taiwanese aren’t alone, a large dose of creative bonsai energy seems to be emanating from that unique island. And it’s not just Min Hsuan Lo and Cheng, Cheng-Kung, they have plenty of talented company. If you want some evidence, check out the Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibitions

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A little change of pace. The tree on the right (Hibiscus tiliaceus*) has the mark of Min. At least the Min Hsuan Lo many of us have come to know. The Crape myrtle in full bloom provides a touch of wildness and color. From the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition 



Powerful, unique and full of movement, though knowing our audience, I imagine some may feel that the foliage is overly groomed. Premna microphylla by Yang, Chun-Cheng
trunkcuTrunk, branches and pot of the tree at the top of the post

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More Ficus Bonsai – Amazing Roshi Tool Special Ends Friday

hoeoscarcroppedFinest Tropical Bonsai & Finest Accent Plant. The tree is a Tiger bark Ficus (Ficus microcarpa) by Hoe Chuah. I've cropped this lead photo to show just the tree (a photo showing Soon Chuah's companion is just below and a photo of the tree with the companion is below that). The first three photos in this post are from Bonsai Empire.

Continuing with our 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition theme from yesterday and our Ficus bonsai theme from the day before.  And of course, our encouragement for you to visit the 6th U.S. National next month

A family that does bonsai (and companions) together, wins together. Hoe and Soon Chuah were double winners at the 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Hoe’s Ficus is a strong and perfectly well-balanced, even regal bonsai, and Soon’s companion is a simple wonder of subtle complexity.

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sooncuThis closeup shows Soon Chuah's prize winning companion (a photo of the whole display is below). This what can happen if you spend ten hours on one small companion planting (see Hoe's remarks below).
Though I wasn’t aware of Soon Chuah’s fine work with companion plants, I’ve long been a fan of Hoe Chuah’s bonsai (and his blog, Bonsai Penjing & More). I particularly liked this prize winning Tiger bark Ficus when I first saw it. Like several of the winning trees, it caught my eye on my first quick walk-though of the exhibit. Apparently the judges share my taste.
hoeoscarwith
The whole display. Two prize winners in one shot (shot by Oscar Jonker of Bonsai Empire)
The following is what Hoe wrote to me about his tree and Soon’s companion. “This is my first time at the US National and entered a ficus display, which won the Best Tropical Bonsai category. And to my wife’s surprise and thrill, she won the Bonsai Travel award for best companion plant. Our first participation, two awards in one display! Way beyond our imaginations. Aattached are some photos I took when setting it up (one of these is below). I had written a blog about 6 months ago on the 19-year journey of this Tiger Bark ficus starting from an unassuming pre-bonsai.”

When I asked for the companion’s varieties I got more than I bargained for. Again here’s Hoe: “Soon gave me the list, there are 16 kinds of herbaceous plants and weeds planted on this 8″ wide lava rock.

Polka dot
Oxalis (Purple shamrock)
Australian violet
3 kinds of Sedum
Ilysanthes grandiflora
Pink knotweed
Pennywort
Mazus reptans
Wild strawberry
Angel plant
Portulaca
and 3 unidentified weeds.
Moss

 “These combinations allow the kusamono to show different colors and flowers for spring, summer and fall. Large leaves were trimmed regularly to reduce the size such as the purple oxalis from ~2” to nail size. I took her 4 months of constant pruning to reduce leave size to look like miniatures.
One more thing, all these plants were mixed to give it a “natural” wild meadow look. They look like random plantings but actually took her 10 hours to create the combination so that they blend in to look as wild and natural as possible.”
 
hoe
Here's a photo that Hoe sent me. It was shot by bonsai photographer par excellence, Joe Noga

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6th U.S. National – Bonsai on a Steady Upward Curve

5main

This award winning dwarf Japanese garden juniper (Juniperus procumbens 'Nana') belongs to Creighton Bostrom of Waxhaw, North Carolina. The photo is from the 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. You can find it and all the other trees in the Exhibition Album. The same goes for the 4th Exhibition (the albums for 1, 2 and 3 are out of print)

Thanks to Bonsai Empire for the photos shown here (and for identifying the varieties and the owners). They just made my job easier. And of course, thanks to Bill Valavanis and all the kind folks who put together the previous U.S. National Bonsai Exhibitions and the albums that go with each one. And for working tirelessly to put together the upcoming 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

North American bonsai is on a steady upward curve and there is simply nowhere else that comes close to U.S. National when it comes to seeing and being astounded by some of the most powerful and exciting bonsai anywhere. If you haven’t made your plans yet, it’s not too late (September 8th and 9th, Rochester NY). See you there!

We will be there!

with our Roshi Tools, Bonsai Wire, Green T Turntables, Bonsai Books,
Field Grown Larches and much more
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and if you can’t make the show visit us at stonelantern.com

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Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), Ed Lauer, Zebulon North Carolina

 

53

Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), Ron Miller, Melbourne Florida


54Another award winner. Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens), Jason Eider, Seattle Washington

 

5maincu

Close up of Creighton Bostrom's Juniper

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Elevated Company

nachoficus

The sheer power of this magnificent tree places it in elevated company. It's a 50cm (20") tall Ficus microcarpa by one of our favorite South American bonsai artists, Nacho Marin of Venezuela. The pot is by John Evans of the USA.

Yesterday we featured a Ficus from Taiwan, so picking up that thread… and because I’m still on  mini-vacation, we’ll take the quick path  This one originally appeared here in May, 2015

Though this post was inspired by Nacho Marin’s powerful Ficus (above) and though Nacho is South American, when we start looking at Ficus bonsai we seem to circle back to Taiwan

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ficus

This must be one of the greatest Ficus in the world, which is really saying something considering how many great ones there are. It's 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 (they are broad leaf evergreens, so whenever you see one denuded of leaves, you know that it has been recently defoliated). The absence of leaves allows you to better see the structure and fine branching, both of which are exquisite.


asa

Even without the caption there’s no doubt this powerful tree is a Ficus. If there are two bonsai varieties Taiwan is famous for, they are Ficus and Taiwanese Junipers. Here’s the original caption: 2014, with Chinese-style bonsai exhibition award category: gold medal species: Ficus bonsai collection: Liu Jingyan. 

taiwan-huangchin-chi

Ficus microcarpa by Huang,Ching-Chi. We originally featured this magnificent bonsai in a post titled Fantastic Trees, Fabulous Pots. I guess you can see why. It originally appeared in the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website.

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Movement, Power & Artistic Freedom

junchi

Abstract bonsai art. I think there's a temptation to judge trees with elaborately carved deadwood. But maybe it's best to just appreciate the skill involved and not worry about too much deadwood or whether the result look like our sense of what's natural or not. Not to downplay the importance of bonsai the look like trees in nature, rather to appreciate the vast variety of approaches and results in our wonderful world of bonsai

Yesterday we featured Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s colorful side. Today we’ll touch upon his famous Sidao carving method and some results. Hopefully this will peak your interest. If it does, you can visit his website for more

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instructions

Cheng, Cheng-Kung's Sidiao method in a nutshell. There's a lot more where this came from.

 

28-9F007.tif

Just another Shimpaku with lots of deadwood? Well, maybe, but there's something unusual going on with the way foliage is configured

 

1-28F0211.tif

There a lot going on here. Movement, power and perhaps artistic freedom and a sense of relaxation (with getting too anthropomorphic about it). Is there anywhere else to go?

ficus

Cheng, Cheng-Kung's magnificent Ficus with its lovely old pot, has nothing to do with the Sidiao carving method. Just thought I'd throw it in because it's such a masterpiece bonsai

I’m going take this opportunity to show you a couple books that relate to the trees featured here

B1JUN770

Our best selling Juniper book is running low
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Not All Bonsai Need Deadwood

65-9F964.tif

It takes a strong tree to handle a pot like this. This Pistacio (Pistacia chinensis Bunge) has at least two features that qualify: its muscular trunk which works well with the depth of the pot (deep pots with thin trunks just don't work) and its lushly hued full crown which contrasts with the pot's brilliance.

Today is the first day of a short summer vacation. We’ll try to keep Bark going by employing some favorites from our archives. This one is from January, 2016 (with a couple revisions today)

The trees shown here are all Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s creations. Cheng is famous for his Sidiao method (a technique for creating and enhancing deadwood – more on this tomorrow), but today we’ll show his more colorful side.

We’ve featured Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s bonsai several times here on Bark. You can also find his bonsai and Sidiao technique featured on his website, on facebook and in dozens of other places on the web.

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Will Change the Way Your Work on Your Bonsai
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66-1

One of two brilliant Satsuki azaleas featured on Cheng-Kung's web gallery.

sat

 The other one.

74-1F.tif

Pomegranate (Punica granatum Linn).
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Great Bonsai Deserve a Great Turntable

janEverything looks good on a Green T turntable and this powerful rock planting by Jan Culek is no exception

Just in case you missed it, we’re going to feature our famous Green T  Turntables again (it’s always worth another look). The time is always right for you to own and enjoy your own Green T Turntable (Basic or Plus models) while enhancing your bonsai enjoyment

ORDER YOUR OWN GREEN T
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suthingreent

One of North America’s favorite  bonsai artists, Suthin enjoying his Green T

BjornGTThat's Bjorn Bjornholm contemplating a tree during a bonsai demo. Here's Green Ts caption... "@bjorn_bjorholm_bonsai is giving his touches to this beautiful scots pine styled during a demo for @takibonsai! Another quality work done on a quality turntable! Coincidence?

 

gtkim

The Magician with one of his famous rock plantings and another omnipresent Green T at this summer's World Bonsai Convention

 

GTbw

One example of why the Green T Basic is the turntable for large bonsai
 
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Great Bonsai Shots – a Story of Time & Human Artistry

s1

A story of time and human artistry. This shot (looks like a Japanese white pine) is from Kunio Kobayashi's famous Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Edogawa, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan.  When I first saw it, I was sure that it's from the tree below. After closer examination, I'm not so sure. All the photos in this post are from the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum fb timeline

The Shunkaen Bonsai Museum was founded by the great bonsai master, Kunio Kobayashi. Here’s what Mr Kobayashi wrote about the museum…
“The Museum was built with the ambition to spread Japanese culture, especially Bonsai in a new way to the rest of the world. I wanted to show both the beauty and the severity of nature that is hidden within Bonsai, even just a little glimpse but to a great number of people from around the world. With that thought in mind I was successful in creating this beautiful museum.”

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s2

Unlike the photo above, it's clear this one is from the tree below

 

s3

Great tree,with several distinctive features. In addition to the trunk with its wonderfully intricate deadwood, holes and ancient bark, there's that crazy branch on the left. There are other notable features as well, but enough said for now

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The Monk, Bonsai Before & After

salba

Before and after by Salvador De Loy Reyes. He calls it The Monk, but gives no other information, including no species (looks a lot like a Shimpaku juniper) or details of any kind, though you might guess it was originally field grown and purposely twisted to look like an old Japanese yamadori (bonsai collected from the wild). Without seeing the other side of the tree, it's almost impossible to follow the live veins in their delightfully chaotic movement up the trunk

Yesterday’s post featured three trees that were ready to be reviewed and retouched by Salvador De Los Reyes. Today it’s a before and after by Salvador. The kind of before and after we often refer to as maintenance, where an already established bonsai is brought back to (or beyond) its previous splendor after a period of unfettered growth (benign neglect). Often this requires trimming, some wiring, and cleaning and highlighting the deadwood and live veins (we featured another maintenance B&A with a delightful play of live and dead wood, just the the other day).

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before

Before. It's all there. Just waiting for someone with the skill and some time on their hands to bring it back to what you see just below

after

After. I love the way the live veins standout against the deadwood. Together they created a puzzling abstraction. Not exactly like a tree you would find in nature. Especially with the wood cleaned up and enhanced this way

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“JeJeJe” – One Very Impressive Olive & Two Others that Can Use Some Reviewing & Retouching

olivemain

This impressive old Olive must have taken a long time to carve. Assuming that most of the deadwood was carved by human hands (with some power tools' help of course). Either way, it's masterpiece (though there's still the sacrifice shoots on the lowest branch, which will look a lot better when their work is done and they are removed). Speaking of the lowest branch, here's Salvador De Los Reyes' caption with this tree... "Vamos a dar mas fuerza a esa rama de abajo," and here's my translation... "We are going to strengthen the lower branch."

The photos of the three Olives and the Spanish text in this post are borrowed from Salvador De Los Reyes. Here’s his introduction to these trees… “Esta mañana he estado revisando y retocando algunos de los acebuches de la colección de Manolo Vargas.” And here’s the translation (mostly machine this time)… “This morning I have been reviewing and retouching some of the olive trees in the Manolo Vargas collection.”

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trunkcu
I cropped the photo above for a closer look at the trunk
olive3
No caption with this, so we don't know what Salvador has in mind. Though you might think that some more carving could work. Perhaps on the pile of roots and lower trunk?

 

olive2

"Nos queda rehacer la mitad del árbol... jejeje literalmente."  Here's the machine and me working together... "We have to redo half the tree... hehehe literally." I'm not sure I get the joke, except maybe mitad is a play on words. Perhaps referring to the middle as well as half?

 

olivecu

Here's that middle section that needs some work

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