Bonsai at the Intersection of Environmental Art, Durational Art, Performance, Architecture, and Design

There’s more than the tree to bonsai. This photo with the brilliantly conceived pot and stand – and the way they both emphasize and elevate (literally) the tree – perfectly illustrates this point. It’s from a special event flyer posted by Pacific Bonsai Museum titled LAB, Living Art of Bonsai. The date is August 4th. The rest of the details are here This event looks and sounds so compelling that if it weren’t for previous unbreakable commitments, I’d be making my reservations right now. But perhaps you can be lucky! Here’s part of the copy from the Pacific Bonsai Museum about the upcoming LAB… “In … Continue reading Bonsai at the Intersection of Environmental Art, Durational Art, Performance, Architecture, and Design

Grape Bonsai, in a League of Its Own

We don’t see grape bonsai that often and of the ones we have seen, this one is in a league of its own. Even if it weren’t a grape, the well-tapered trunk with its powerful base, beautifully carved deadwood, undulating live vein* and long cascading branch present an impressive picture. And then there are the grapes! The artist is Juan Antonio Pérez. He doesn’t list the varietal I’m always a little stoked when we discover a new bonsai artist (new to me and Bonsai Bark, that is). His name is Juan Antonio Pérez and he lives in El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. The discovery started … Continue reading Grape Bonsai, in a League of Its Own

Revisiting the Great Bonsai Debate

A naturalistic Norway spruce (Picea abies) by Walter Pall (from Bonsai Today issue 106) A blast from the past. This post originally appeared here in July, 2009, our 6th month Barking (this means we’ve been doing this for almost ten years). I don’t know if the topic is still relevant to any of you, but there was a time when it created a bit of a buzz and I think many of us can learn something by reading what Walter Pall has to say about the topic (below). As always with reruns, I’ve made a few changes. In the expanding galaxy of … Continue reading Revisiting the Great Bonsai Debate

Feed Your Bonsai (They Don’t Survive on Water, Light and Love Alone)

Your bonsai may never look like this, but they can be this healthy if you tend to basic care, including ample fertilizing. It’s a Japanese maple that belongs to Walter Pall. Walter lists its height as 75cm (30″) and its age as around thirty years. It was imported from a Korean nursery in 2016. The pot is a Tokoname from Japan. This is not the first time we’ve encouraged you to tend to your bonsai’s nutrient needs, and it won’t be the last. The tree above appeared here on Bark a few months ago. Most of the rest of what you see here … Continue reading Feed Your Bonsai (They Don’t Survive on Water, Light and Love Alone)

Selling Bonsai & Buying Time – Bill’s Fire Sale

This awesome Full moon maple with its fiery foliage belongs to Bill Valavanis. Here’s Bill’s caption. “The Full moon maple was well developed, one of my favorite developed bonsai. Usually a colorful ribbon was tied to the lower branch to caution people not to damage the lovely branch. As many of my bonsai are, this Full moon maple is often changed in the garden according to season. It is always tied down with one or two pieces of sissy wire.” We can’t go too long without featuring Bill Valavanis. Especially getting this close to the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition (in … Continue reading Selling Bonsai & Buying Time – Bill’s Fire Sale

Cage Free Bonsai & Other Wonders

I couldn’t resist. The photo and Cage Free title belong to Rodney Clemons, a well know bonsai humorist and respected artist (Tony Tickle’s American counterpart?). A little whimsy to start the day. You can find the photos above and just below, and much more on Rodney Clemon’s timeline. 30% off Bonsai Pot Sale Ends Wednesday (Tomorrow) at 11:59pm EDT – Rodney Clemon’s famous Kingsville Boxwood. We’ve feature it before and if I had to guess, we’ll probably feature it again someday. The ancient olive below has little to do with bonsai, though it would be easy to imagine it scaled down to bonsai size “The at least 2,000 year old olive … Continue reading Cage Free Bonsai & Other Wonders

Japanese Beautyberry & other Fruiting Bonsai

This brilliant little Japanese beautyberry (Callicarpa japonica) is well named indeed (it’s nice when the name of a plant says something about how the plant looks; an onamonapia of sight). I found this photo on Bonsai Empire They attribute it to AR&B*, but I think AR&B picked it up somewhere else and failed to attribute. Looking at the tree, I’m almost certain that the pot, tree and photo are from Japan. The rest of the photos in this post are from an old Bark post called Luminous Fruit. The artist is Katsumi Komiya. If you’ve ever tried to grow fruiting … Continue reading Japanese Beautyberry & other Fruiting Bonsai

Suthin’s Bonsai & New Import Duty on Bonsai Wire

You can see Suthin’s mastery in the way this little Japanese black pine undulates (like waves) all the way from the base of the trunk down to the tip of the cascade. You can enjoy this tree and some other new offerings on Suthin’s website Our friend (everybody’s friend) Suthin Sukosolvisit has added the three trees shown here plus some others to his site’s sale page. I think you’ll like them and that you might like to know how to go about ordering from Suthin. Many of you know Suthin, but just in case you don’t, Suthin is a highly skilled and prolific bonsai artist. One of our best. If you’d like … Continue reading Suthin’s Bonsai & New Import Duty on Bonsai Wire

If you only visit one bonsai event this year, make it the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

I borrowed this famous cascading Juniper from the 5th National Bonsai Exhibition website (cropped to better fit a certain social media’s format). If you only visit one bonsai event this year, make it The 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Rochester NY, September 8th & 9th. Do whatever it takes! Rearrange you life if necessary so you can be there. Each National Bonsai Exhibition is better than the last, and the last one was mind-stopping. The buzz was palpable and from conversations with dozens of others, the feeling was universal. And it wasn’t just the bonsai, though they amazed me more each time … Continue reading If you only visit one bonsai event this year, make it the 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

Less Is Enough

A whole lot of tree to fit into such a small pot. It’s looks like a field grown Shimpaku juniper that was raised to look like it was collected in the wild. Most of the collectable Shimpaku (and other desirables) are long since gone from the wilds of Japan. This photo is titled ‘Shugaten 2013 – Tokyo Ueno,’ which was a Shohin Bonsai Exhibtion in 2013 that was held in Tokyo. Guillaume Billaud posted it. Stuck somewhere between enjoying a holiday week and trying to do just enough work to keep the ball rolling. I started out today to put together a new before and … Continue reading Less Is Enough