A Goldmine of Great Bonsai

Cascading Shimpaku juniper with copious deadwood and floating foliage clouds. This could only be described as an exceptionally powerful and distinctive bonsai, even if you take issue with such well-manicured foliage. The photo was taken by Enrique Castano. I cropped it a little to eliminate background noise

There’s an online goldmine of great photos from the World Bonsai Convention, so we’ll just keep digging in that vein. The photos in this post are by Enrique Castano

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This powerful tree must be a Japanese beech

Another Shimpaku with copious deadwood (I wanted to say what else is new?, but the trees are too good for that kind of cynicism)

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I just couldn't resist. 99% of the time, we just show bonsai and leave the other stuff for social media, but this one is just too good. Are they pretending to be bonsai with their strange hats as extensions? The gentleman is Enrique himself

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20,000 Visitors & Hundreds of Breathtaking Bonsai

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Lush foliage and an unusual design. This Japanese maple features branches that are almost down to the surface of soil. So low that foliage covers part of the nebari and lower trunk - something you don't see that often. Conversely, the way so much of the mid and upper trunk is exposed is also a bit unusual (with no effort made to cover the unsightly black scar). The impression we're left with is a trunk and branches designed to show off the foliage. Much the way flowering bonsai are often designed to show off the flowers.

Thank you Bill Valavanis for the your excellent photos from the ongoing World Bonsai Convention in Saitama Japan (seems like we’re always thanking Bill for something). To see more, I encourage you to visit Bill’s blog. Continued below…

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Here’s what Bill Valavanis wrote about this year’s WBC…
“The 8^th World Bonsai Convention is taking place on April 27-30, 2017 in Saitama City, Japan. Held every four years, the inaugural World Bonsai Convention was held in 1989 in the same city, Omiya (city name was changed.) There are 1,200 people registered from 40 foreign countries and it is expected that there will be 20,000 visitors during the four day event. I think most came yesterday because it was extremely difficult to see and photograph much. The event is being held in the huge Saitama Super Arena.”

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“Some of the incredible trees you witness upon entering…”

Hot off the press. This swirling, whirling dervish of a tree would be hard not to notice, even at the World Bonsai Convention where the competition is just a little stiff.

Some people have all the luck. These photos were taking at the World Bonsai Convention (happening as we speak) by Mark Field. Here’s Mark’s brief comment… “Some of the incredible trees you witness upon entering the show!” Okay Mark, now you’ve got our attention…

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Looks a lot like a Japanese white pine

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This closeup is just a little fuzzy, but I think it helps appreciate some details

Raft style Japanese white pine

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Shimpaku. It's hard to see the base of truck in this shot...

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... maybe this will help just a bit

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Ezo spruce? Can't help guessing even though it's bit dangerous. I cropped this one a little. It was too busy. I think this shot better captures the feeling of the planting (you can see the original here).

Reminiscent of Kimura's rock plantings

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World Bonsai Convention, Kimura & Green T Turntables

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Massive Mugo pine resting comfortably on a Green T professional bonsai turntable. The prize winning tree belongs to Paolo Riboli. The turntable could belong to you.

I just heard from Marco Invernizzi, a long time student of world famous bonsai master Masahiko Kimura (aka The Magician) – and someone we have featured here on Bonsai Bark many times over the years – who informed us that he was at Kimura’s place last week where Green T turntables are used every day by Master Kimura and his apprentices (past and present) .

WBC - Green T Official sponsor

Green T is also an official sponsor of the World Bonsai Convention - the world’s biggest bonsai event - which is currently being held in Saitama Japan.

And by the way, we’ve got two models now. In addition to the Green T Basic model we now offer the New Green T Plus. And more good news… both models are 10% off with our volume discount.

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Four Kimura apprentices with bonsai and Green Ts

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Monster tree, monster turntable. The tree is a Holm oak that belongs to Raffaele Perilli. The turntable is a Green T Basic that also belongs to Raffaele.

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Boon & His Bonsai Friends

This Satsuki azalea's trunk reminds me of some of Antoni Gaudi's sculptural architecture that graces the great city of Barcelona. Though in truth, the tree resides in Boon Manakitivipart's impressive bonsai collection in the great city of Alameda, California (birthplace of yours truly, btw).

The last week of April and first week of May are peak digging and transplanting season around here, so to save some time, it’s back to our archives. This one is from October, 2010 (with some revisions today).

Boon Manakitivipart is one of North America’s most influential bonsai artists and teachers. Several of his students have become important artists and teachers in their own right, and countless trees of Boon’s and his students’ have appeared on this blog, in magazines and books and elsewhere on the web.

All of the photos in this posts (except the very last one) are from a workshop that Boon hosted. It’s my impression that all of these trees were worked on by Boon’s students.

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 From chuhin to shohin. I have a soft spot for stubby little trees. Especially ones with reams of character like this European olive that was originally a stump dug from Boon's garden.

Another short, sweet and muscular little tree. This one is a Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia).

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Is this a Shimpaku grafted onto a California juniper? Whatever it is, there's an abundance of power, movement and grace. There's another photo (also from Boon's workshop) of Janet Roth working on this tree that says, Janet is working on her show tree for Jan 2014 show.

This is the same Sierra juniper that appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 108 (our famous last issue). The first branch has been shortened, and there's more foliage peeking out to the left of the trunk, but otherwise, it hasn't changed very much.

The photo that was used for the cover of Bonsai Today issue 108.

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Spring Bonsai Power

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Norway spruce spring power is Mauro Stemberger's title for this series of photos. What caught me about this tree is how natural it looks. As in the case of most of the best bonsai, you know that it has been styled, but styled in a way that you might call just so. Or just enough.

Welcome to another Bonsai Europe post (six of our last ten posts have featured European bonsai). It’s not that we don’t appreciate what’s going on in the rest of the world… it’s just that from where we sit it seems like the center of Bonsai gravity is slowly shifting to that colorful cluster of cultures (sorry) on the other side of the pond (it’s a good thing nobody reads anymore, otherwise I might be in trouble).

All the photos shown here were posted on facebook by Mauro Stemberger.

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Field Grown Bonsai that Look Like Wild Trees

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After. This sweet little Shimpaku and the one below were posted by Bjorn Bjorholm. The before photos for both trees are at the bottom of the post.

Just spent late yesterday digging Larches (they’re called Tamaracks around here) on a friend’s land, and now I need to get them into the ground right away, so we’ll save time by borrowing from our archives. This one originally appeared August, 2014.

Before I make another mistake and look foolish in the process, here’s my disclaimer for this post: I don’t know for a fact the origin of the bonsai shown here. Much of what I have to say here is conjecture.

Continued below…

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After. Tree number two. The before photo is at the bottom.

Continued from above…
Lately I’ve been noticing field grown bonsai that look like yamadori (bonsai collected from the wild). More accurately, the best look almost like yamadori. I believe this is the case with the two bonsai shown here that were styled by Bjorn Bjorholm. Here’s why…

… All the high quality wild Shimpaku in Japan have long ago been collected and are now very expensive. As a result, most have fallen into the hands of wealthy collectors or people like Kimura and other Japanese bonsai masters.

Also, though the bonsai shown here are excellent, they don’t quite look like Yamadori. Very good to be sure, but something is different.

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The before shot of the tree at the top of the page

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The before shot for tree number two

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How Much Would You Pay for a Bonsai?

Would you pay 6,000 dollars (5,500 euros) for this bonsai?

How does someone who wants to sell a bonsai arrive at a price and how does someone who wants to buy that bonsai decide if that price is fair?

There really are no firm guidelines on valuing bonsai, at least that I know of. The best I can say is the value of a bonsai depends on what at least one person is willing to pay. Unless of course, you’re in the business of buying and selling bonsai. Then there are at least two values involved.

The three trees shown here (Sabina juniper, Common myrtle and Chinese elm), along with their prices (and some other information not listed here) were posted on facebook by Gabriel Bonsaisantboi Romero Aguade.

Continued below…

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How about 4,900 dollars (4,500 euros) for this Myrtle?

To complicate the pricing conundrum, there’s the issue of value added. Moving a tree from one place to another can increase the value (Southern California to Boston for example), as can timely trimming, or repotting, or a whole range of other possibilities. Even something as simple as cleaning and oiling the pot or mossing the soil surface can add value.

There’s a lot more we could say, but we’ll leave the rest to you.

Or 975 dollars (900 euros) for this Chinese elm?

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Bark, Deadwood & the Ravages of Time

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I've long been fascinated by close ups. Especially shots of deadwood and bark with their richly illustrated stories of time and the elements.

Sunday morning. Crocuses, peepers in the pond and pure unobstructed sun. Time to get outside. So rather than taking the time to put together another new post, we’ll borrow from our archives. This one originally appeared in March, 2015.

All the photos shown here are by Salvador De Los Reyes. I believe that all but one are of his trees (here and here are couple earlier Bark posts that feature Salvador’s bonsai).

You can view more photos of Salvador’s bonsai on facebook and on his blog.

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If you are skilled enough, you can create the illusion of age by carving and applying other techniques on deadwood. But when it comes to bark, time and only time is necessary for that prized aged look.

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The photo is by Salvador and as far as I can tell, this is the only tree shown here that is not his. It belong to Luis Vila. The whole tree is quite remarkable and worth a quick click to a Bark post from 2013.

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Just in case you were wondering, Salvador does feature plenty of full bonsai photos (my apologies for the blown-up-too-far fuzz)

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Before and after

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Bonsai Before & After – Transforming a Badly Damaged Tree

Here's what Harry Harrington has to say about this impressive tree, and in particular it's recovery and transformation from what you see in the photo below... "This is probably the best example I have of the usefulness of anti-transpirant, an Itoigawa juniper bonsai that came to me in a very bad way a couple of years ago, and was sprayed with anti-transpirant once a month to reduce further moisture loss from the leaves while it recovered and grew new roots. (Second image is from just 6 months later after styling)."

We’ve been featuring Harry Harrington a lot these days. Part of this has to do with being the North American distributor of his The Foundations of Bonsai, and part is because I’ve long been a fan of Harry’s bonsai on a budget approach. Long before* I knew anything about his book

Continued below….

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Before. Not looking too good. A real challenge for any bonsai artist.

Continued from above…
Harry doesn’t promote what he’s doing as bonsai on a budget, that’s just my observation based on years of tuning into his bonsai4me website and following him on facebook. Harry has a knack for finding material that others may disregard and turning that material into quality bonsai and even superior bonsai. Or in this case, transforming a badly damaged bonsai into a work of bonsai art.