Bonsai Wiring Lesson

Front view of a freshly trimmed and wired Scot’s pine (Pinus sylvestris) by Luis Vallejo. This photo and the others shown here are from Luis’ facebook feed. It’s not often we find good bonsai technique photos on facebook, so I got a little excited when I stumbled across a whole bunch of great photos of a freshly wire Scot’s pine by Luis Vallejo and thought you might like to see them too. I won’t attempt to show all of Luis’ photos in the series. You can make the short journey to his facebook feed if you’d like to see them. … Continue reading Bonsai Wiring Lesson

Finally, An Undisputed Winner

Contest or no contest, this powerful European olive by Luis Vallejo is an exceptional tree. Okay. That whole prove us wrong thing from last week was a bust. Absolutely no dissenting views. Looking on the bright side, I guess that means we got it right. Best of all, we finally have an undisputed winner for our Bonsai Detective contest. Congratulations to Dorothy Schmitz. She wasn’t one of the first entries, but she kept plugging away until she got it right (if you happen to be Dorothy, your $100 gift certificate will be emailed to you on Monday). Thanks to all … Continue reading Finally, An Undisputed Winner

Prove Us Wrong & Win a $50 Gift Certificate

This is the one that caused the most trouble (see D below). Our Bonsai Detective contest (from three weeks ago) turned out to be the most difficult one to judge yet. Remind me next time to be sure we have an ironclad grip on all the answers before we start. Not only were there lots of entries, but most were very good with only one or two misses. But what really made it difficult is conflicting, vague and otherwise unreliable information on the internet (surprise!). Especially on facebook (another surprise no doubt). The upshot is that after spending hours pouring … Continue reading Prove Us Wrong & Win a $50 Gift Certificate

Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…

European black pine (Pinus nigra) by Mauro Stemberger. I took the liberty to crop this photo (the uncropped version is below) and to brighten it up a bit (the other photos in this post too). All of the photos here are from The Bonsai Blog of Sandor Papp. The bonsai shown here all appeared at the 2014 Noelanders Trophy in Belgium. The photos were taken from The Bonsai Blog of Sandor Papp. They represent a small sampling of Sandor’s Noelander’s photos. Whenever I see photos of the some of the best European bonsai I can’t help but compare them with … Continue reading Comparisons Are Odious, But Still…

Invisible (& Visible) Bonsai

Aside from the fact that this is a remarkable bonsai, there’s the play of light and shadow on the wall. Though I didn’t set out to chose photos with shadows, because there are so many great trees to chose from, it seems like a good way to narrow it down a bit. The photo is from Segundo Congreso y Concurso de Bonsai via Bonsai Fachforum. The remarkable bonsai you see here turned up on Bonsai Fachforum, a German language site that is overflowing with photos of great trees. The Spanish language poster (see below) says Segundo Congreso y Concurso de … Continue reading Invisible (& Visible) Bonsai

Bonsai Muscle

European olives are often resplendent with character as well as muscle and this one is certainly no exception. I found it on flickr and then, one thing led to another and to the conclusion that this tree belongs to Luis Vallejo (though I couldn’t find evidence on his very attractive site). Fair warning I mentioned this last time, but just in case you missed it: I’m out of town and busy with things too numerous to mention, so we’ll dig into our archives once again. This digging should last about two weeks and then we’ll get back to fresh posts. … Continue reading Bonsai Muscle

Bonsai Island

I’ll take this to be an European olive, even though it looks a lot like a Florida buttonwood. No matter, it’s a very unusual and compelling tree; so compelling that it won Kuni Kobayashi’s Grand Prize in the 2008 Concurso Nacional de Alcobendas MMBA (see below for info on this year’s exhibition). Island bonsai school All the trees shown here are from Antoni Payeras’ Escuela de Bonsái (Bonsai School) gallery. Antonio, and his Escuela reside on Menorca (Minorca), one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. I like two small holes in the deadwood. Not that there aren’t other … Continue reading Bonsai Island

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 … Continue reading Fishing for Bonsai Muscle