I found this Kumquat on Ryan Bell's Japanese Bonsai Pot blog. My apologies for the fuzzy photo. It's cropped from a larger photo that originally came from Bonsai Tonight. The full photo and Ryan's caption are below.
It has been a while since we borrowed from Ryan Bell’s Japanese Bonsai Pot blog. As you might expect, it’s a great photo source for some of the best bonsai pots in the world. We’ll offer a glimpse of a few here, with and without trees. If you’d like to enjoy a whole lot more, I suggest you pay Ryan a visit.
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Here's Ryan Bell's caption: "The bonsai on the right is in a Tofukuji pot. The left bonsai is a kinzu(kumquat) and you may recognize it from Bonsai Tonight, Jonas Dupich’s wonderful blog." I just searched Kumquat on Bonsai Tonight and though I did find a lot of brilliant photos, this one didn't turn up.
This post originally appeared here on Bark in April, 2016
Ryan's caption: "Another traditional style painting, of Ume in bloom. The single offset bloom to the right of center creates an assymetry that makes the pot stand apart(and gives direction and flow to."
The pot just above and the two below were created by Kiyoumine Ogurayama. Here’s a little history courtesy of Ryan Bell: “Karahashi Homiyabi was born September 5, 1920, in Kyoto. Before bonsai pottery, he helped with the family business making traditional Kyo-yaki ware. He started his earnest apprenticeship as a potter/painter in 1970 under Heian Matsumoto, and gained his independence in 1975, whereupon he built a hybrid gas/electric kiln and took the potter name “Kiyoumine Ogurayama”. Ogurayama entered his first big bonsai pottery exhibition, the National Masterpiece Kobachi, in 1981, and took the Grand Prize. Since then, he’s won numerous awards and medals for his work. He is now retired, and his son is the Ogurayama.”
*special does not include Hydraulic Green T Turntables
Ryan's caption: "Ogurayama creates some of the best winter scene painted containers I’ve seen, from any painter. This piece is sublime, with just enough color to focus the attention on the figures crossing the bridge. The demon feet are a great touch, and show his carving work in addition to excellent painting."
Here's an unusual pot and here's Ryan's caption: "A really unique piece. The top a very highly detailed 5 color figure painting, and the base a gold overglaze enamel. Astounding contrast."
All the pots shown here (and many more in Ryan's Ogurayama post) are excellent, but I think this one is my favorite. Here's what Ryan has to say: "This piece throws me for a loop. Sitting under a tree, we are looking out on a landscape, rather than looking in. Like the finger crossing the frame in the previous piece, this shows something entirely different and more artistic in meaning and purpose than we see from most painters of bonsai containers. Very different…. "
Fluidity and power. If you're not into the highly styled look, then you're probably not crazy about this tree. But it might be possible to take a second look with some effort to relax any notion of what a bonsai should look like. When I do this I see an impressive work of art (in this case at least), though admittedly you'd never see a tree in nature that looks quite like this one. It's was posted on facebook by Minoru Akiyama, one of Japan's many outstanding bonsai artists. No species is given, but Shimpaku juniper is probably a safe guess.
This is what can happen when good stock ends up in talented hands. Mariusz Komsta has an excellent series of photos on facebook that shows how he got to this tree from a rough looking Juniper that was dug from the garden. The grafted on foliage looks like Shimpaku. The original plant had rough foliage that look liked San Jose juniper or maybe Prostrata. Here's Mario's caption... "pot is ready as well but needs to wait till spring and this left skinny jin is bothering me a lot, cut it?"
In a post titled Lavori in Corso, Michele Andolfo calls this tree an Abete rosso. This translates as Red spruce (Picea rubens), which is one of three spruce varieties that grow in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. I don't think I've ever seen another Red spruce bonsai and if I have, certainly not one this powerful. The illustrations below show how the design was arrived at.
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We don't feature suiseki very often, but just couldn't pass on this one. It's called Vampire and was posted by Hirotoshi Ito on facebook.
Tree number 6
This now famous bonsai planting resides at the 
Roan Mountain landscape again with its Alberta spruce and azaleas. Fortunately, winter will end someday.
Our vast selection includes tools by
Nepal Firethorn (Pyracantha crenulata), in training since 1966, donated to 
