A Bonsai Festival to Get Excited About – We Hope to See You There

Marc Noelanders posted this composition during last year’s Bonsai Namaste Convention in Pune India. I don’t know any details, but you might assume he and perhaps others put it together during the convention Continuing with yesterday’s post on the Mid Atlantic Bonsai Spring Festival (April 12th – 14th) and Marc Noelanders who is one of the headliners at the Festival. We’ll be there and we’re already laying the groundwork to offer items that you’ll never see on our website . We look forward to seeing you there Continued below… Meanwhile You Can Visit Stone Lantern for Our Current Site Wide Sale… … Continue reading A Bonsai Festival to Get Excited About – We Hope to See You There

Two Major Bonsai Events & a Regal Rock Planting

This is the after photo from a before and after of a planting by Marc Noelanders, a headliner at the upcoming Mid Atlantic Spring Bonsai Festival (see below). No mention is made of the type tree or what the rock is made of. If you’ve been following Bonsai Bark since at least December of last year, or you follow Marc on fb, you’ve already seen this masterpiece. If not, I’m happy you can see it here Continuing from yesterday with two barn burner bonsai conventions coming up this spring. They are the Mid Atlantic Bonsai Spring Festival and the American Bonsai Society (ABS) Convention. Unfortunately, they’re both … Continue reading Two Major Bonsai Events & a Regal Rock Planting

Bonsai Forest Rock Plantings

That’s Ryan Neil’s hand (Bonsai Mirai) posing for a professional photo with a very large root-on-rock planting. Here’s his caption: “In the studio today with @hornbecker shooting for the Artisans Cup promotional material” (from 2015). He doesn’t say what the tree’s are. If you’d like to see the uncropped original, it’s here We’re on a bonsai forest binge these days, so let’s keep going. Though it’s questionable if you’d call these rock plantings forests, they do share the multiple tree and some of the landscape features you’ll find with more conventional bonsai forests BONSAI TURNTABLE SPECIAL TURNTABLES ARE ALL INDIVIDUALLY … Continue reading Bonsai Forest Rock Plantings

Two More Bonsai & Two Special Events at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

This dynamic and wild looking Shimpaku juniper, aka Sargent’s juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. Sargentii), with its barely visible living vein (or veins?), was donated to the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum (Japanese Collection) by Kenichi Oguchi in 1976. It has been in training since 1905. The Museum’s logo (below) was inspired by this tree Today we’ve got two special events from the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, sandwiched between a couple Junipers from the Museum’s Japanese Collection. Stay posted for more events and more magnificent trees from the Museum’s new website PHOTOGRAPHING BONSAI WITH STEPHEN VOSS Feb 9, … Continue reading Two More Bonsai & Two Special Events at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

What Do FREE Bonsai Fertilizer & Football Have in Common?

This might pass as artistic, but it’s really just a miserably failed photoshop effort. The bonsai drawing is by Rueben Roig I was going to do a post on the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s powerful new website, but WordPress decided to upgrade last night, and now I need to relearn how to put up a new post. Meanwhile, we’re digging deep into our archives for this one (Feb 2015). I know you’re probably sick of hearing about football by now, but there’s always our FREE Green Dream Fertilizer Special to peak your interest (details below) FREE green dream Bonsai FERTILIZER Superbowl … Continue reading What Do FREE Bonsai Fertilizer & Football Have in Common?

Magnificent Old Larch Bonsai, Before & After

The Guardian of Laments is Giacomo Pappalardo’s name for this magnificent old European larch (Larix decidua) Another before and after and it’s a good one. I have a soft spot for larches, though ours are Tamaracks (Larix laricina) and this one is a European larch (Larix decidua). Not the same tree, but similar, though the similarity ends when you compare a tree like this with the much younger ones I’ve been growing here for the last fifteen years or so (this one was no doubt collected from the wild and shows all the signs of great age). Here’s your link … Continue reading Magnificent Old Larch Bonsai, Before & After

Sheer Bonsai Power – Before & After

We usually start Before and After posts with an appropriate B & A photo (see below). But I couldn’t resist this one. I think it captures the essence of the tree. Or at least its size and sheer power I found this impressive before and after pine on Luis Vallejo’s timeline. The only caption provided is… “Hiroaki Suzuki , Pinus sylvestris, Luis Vallejo Bonsái Garden.” We know Luis from numerous posts here on Bark and we also know a bit about Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine). I’m not familiar with Hiroaki Suzuki, but if you’d like to do a little research, here’s a link for you … Continue reading Sheer Bonsai Power – Before & After

Exceptional Before & After Bonsai

This has to be one of the most compelling bonsai I’ve seen in a while. It has that wild, not overly refined look and though the deadwood is prominent, it’s not dominated by deadwood like so many trees. But perhaps the best of all are are the brilliant living veins and the way they stand out against the deadwood Island hopping today, so to save precious time, we’re going to rerun a post on one of my favorite trees. This before and after is more about refinement than styling rough stock. Less daunting perhaps, but only someone skilled in the … Continue reading Exceptional Before & After Bonsai

Defoliating Grandfather Bonsai

Here’s Juan Adrade’s English caption for this magnificent old Trident maple. “Partial defolation on one of the grandfather trees. Close to 100 yrs old.” Here’s his Spanish: “Defoliación de las ramas exteriores en uno de los tridentes del abuelo de mi maestro. Este arbol posiblemente se acerca a los 100 años.” You might notice the part about exterior branches in the Spanish. This would indicate that Juan is redirecting energy away from the outer tips and down closer to the center of the tree. This photo is from Juan’s facebook feed. Defoliation is an important technique for redirecting energy, maintaining … Continue reading Defoliating Grandfather Bonsai

Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai

Root-over-rock Japanese black pine by Suthin Sukosolvisit. No major restyling, but still a striking improvement. Sutin’s caption reads simply… “Japanese black pine 2011-2013” The original before and after photos are from Suthin’s timeline Still on vacation, so we’ll simplify by borrowing from our archives. This one first appeared here almost exactly one year ago Continuing with before and after bonsai from two days ago… A big part of bonsai involves transforming rough stock into beautiful, or at least passable bonsai. However, it’s equally important to do the periodic work necessary to keep a bonsai beautiful, or soon enough it will lose its shape and start to look like … Continue reading Before & After Root-Over-Rock Black Pine Bonsai