Almond tree by Rodrigo Sousa. In his own words: “This photo it was taked by me in winter of this year in the month of February, at my region Algarve-Portugal. The species, Prunus Dulcis/amigdalus, normally known as Almond tree. About this species, they haven´t many followers, but have a little bit in their ,native regions, where they make very beautiful Bonsai. Her “strong point”, just like many Prunus, is in the end of Winter, with your white flowers in the naked branches.”
The Magican is one of the over 275 discounted items in our Spring Sale. Its discounted price is $12.00 (retail is $29.95). With volume discounts it’s price can be as low as $9.60.
Over 275 items are individually discounted
With purchases of $50 or more, all 275 plus items are doubly discounted. This makes for some very good prices.
“I shot this photo in October 2008 in Stony Mountain park near Atlanta. The sole pine growing on bald rock was very dramatic…” Alex Shapiro.
Don’t wait
We will accept entries for one more week (thru May 24th), so don’t wait to send yours.
That’s Jeremiah Lee sitting on the huge surface roots of a tree in Santa Barbara, California. His girl friend Courtney Hood took the photo. Jeremiah believes that the tree is a variety of ficus.
It’s not too late for yours
We are still accepting entries for our $100 Bonsai Art Photography Contest, though it seems to be turning out to be a contest about photographing trees in the wild. That’s okay, full sized trees, or parts of full sized trees are acceptable. It would be interesting however, if someone would send in an artistic shot of a bonsai (or part of a bonsai). Just a thought.
Why is this man smiling? Is it something he did?
Who is he and what did he do?
He’s Michael Hagedorn (we just featured him the other day) and he just did some very fierce hacking on a Zelkova.
If you count carefully, you’ll see that there are 1,376 leaves on this tree. If you subtract the 31 remaining leaves (top photo) you’ll see that he cut off almost 98% of the leaves. That’s pretty radical. BTW: don’t try this on your pines. Not that you’d want a broom style pine anyway.
We’ve featured bonsai by Budi Sulistyo before, and for good reason; his bonsai are innovative and daring. Budi isn’t afraid to try new ideas and break with convention. I’d say on balance, that this has served him very well.
Budi’s tropical gallery book
In addition to being an innovative bonsai artist, Budi is a photographer and the author of an excellent gallery book on tropical bonsai (now on special at Stone Lantern).
Margaret Wong submitted this photo along with her comments: “I thought it looked like a lovely inspiration for a group planting. It is a small island off the coast near Nelson in New Zealand. I take lots of photos of trees for inspiration wherever I travel :)”
Richard Warner’s beech has set something off
Margaret also has something to say about the photo that got the contest started: “Kiwis never, as far as I have heard (I am a kiwi living in Australia) call the tree a birch. It is a mountain beech, most likely Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides (New Zealand Mountain Beech) but it could also be Nothofagus solandri var. solandri (New Zealand Black Beech). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_solandri or http://cber.bio.waikato.ac.nz/courses/226/Fagaceae/Fagaceae.html.”
You could spend your whole life collecting bonsai and never find one as impressive as this. From Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai Seasonals. Here’s what Michael says about this photo… “Initial potting of a large Rocky Mountain Juniper, Winter 2010 Seasonal.” Just a little understated. If this is any indication, it’s worth noting that Michael has his students working on trees of this caliber (and caliper).
Study with one of the very best
My guess is that three days with Michael will be worth months or even years of fumbling about in your backyard in hopes that trial and error will see you through (speaking from painful experience and an embarrassing trail of damaged trees). Not that you shouldn’t fumble around a bit, that’s part of how we learn. But time with a genuinely accomplished bonsai artist and teacher can do wonders for your fumbling, and your bonsai.
Seasonals
“The Crataegus Bonsai Seasonal is designed for those who are not from the Portland area and who would be willing to travel to learn bonsai. This program is similar to how an apprentice learns in Japan: By working on our teacher’s trees, we study at a higher level. Now in its second year, the Seasonal was created out of requests of students from around the country who were interested in coming to Portland to study.” Continued here…
Icy larches from my back yard this morning (May 11). 25 degree Fahrenheit (-4 celsius) last night here in the lovely, underpopulated (now you know why) Northeast Kingdom, Vermont. I left a mist on all night to protect these newly dug and newly sprouted larches. It worked, the ice has melted (it’s sunny and around 50 now) and all is well. Photos by Amy Palmer.
An ugly little Eastern white cedar (Cham thyoides) made beautiful by icing. Eastern white cedars (not to be confused with Northern white cedars ‘Thuja occidentalis’ which are abundant around here) don’t do very well here, it’s too cold. I’ve had three or four that I’ve been trying to grow for years, but all they do is struggle and barely stay alive.
I don’t know what this is. I dug it along side the road where the town keeps cutting stuff down, just to see if it has any possibilities. I doubt if it will ever be a bonsai, but it might fit in as a landscape plant.
Submitted by Tyler (no last name given). “I took a trip to visit a buddy of mine who lives in the Bitterroot Mountains in western Montana. I found many naturally occurring bonsai but this one really looked the part. It was just jammed between these huge rocks on the side of a mountain overlooking a river valley. Hope you like it!”
What it is?
It’s best when people send along the name of the tree (as well as their last name), though I suspect that people often don’t know what it is. In this case, my first guess was lodgepole pine, but then I noticed the reddish bark, so I’m going with Ponderosa pine. Anyone else?