Brilliant Bavarian Back Yard Bonsai Garden

Harmut Muenchebach’s brilliant Bavarian backyard bonsai garden. It wouldn’t be hard to indulge in a little envy here, but better to just enjoy. Let’s keep going with perhaps the most enchantng Backyard Bonsai Gardens we’ve seen yet. It belongs to Hartmut Muenchenbach of Bavaria. I found the photos on Walter Pall’s timeline titled Jennifer Price at Hartmut Muenchenbach’s. We originally featured it just over a year ago. BONSAI SOIL SPECIAL ENDS SUNDAY 30% off list prices on all Bonsai Soil special ends Sunday, July 1st at 11:59pm EDT – Impressive tree in an impressive garden A closer look at the tree’s details … Continue reading Brilliant Bavarian Back Yard Bonsai Garden

Stupendous Bonsai – a Good Place to Start

Stupendous is a good start in the search for words to describe this old full cascade Pemphis acidula by Budi Sulistyo. Ahh, to live in the tropics where stuff like this grows everywhere (well, not exactly like this, but still…). I first saw it in facebook in an album entitled My bonsai by Budi. By the way, Budi lives in Indonesia I’d venture that we’ve seen as many astounding Pemphis acidula as almost any other bonsai variety. Especially if we’re talking tropicals. Yesterday we featured three (along with some other tropical wonders), which got me thinking. Why not take a … Continue reading Stupendous Bonsai – a Good Place to Start

Bonsai Boon with and without Flowers

This powerful old Satsuki azalea belongs to Boon Manakitivipart. The shot was taken just before spring pruning. Boon’s caption with this shot and the one just below is… “Satsuki azalea Debloom and thinning” Boon Manakitivipart (Bonsai Boon) is one of our favorites and has appeared numerous times here over the years. In addition to being a highly accomplished and prolific bonsai artist, Boon is teacher to many of the best American bonsai artists. The photos shown here were taken from Boon’s timeline. Three of them are first timers here. You might notice that flowers were removed during spring pruning on … Continue reading Bonsai Boon with and without Flowers

Challenges All Their Own – Mixed Bonsai Forests

This mixed forest/landscape is from Spain. The Museo del Bonsai Marbella to be exact (from Bonsais del Sur). It’s too bad the pot is chopped off and the whole photo is cramped, but that’s the way we found it. Still, from what we can see, it look s like a very ambitious project with a numerous type trees and other features to integrate. No mean feat to pull off Today we’ll stay on our forest and other multiple trunk theme of late, only this time it’s mixed bonsai forests from mixed sources. Mixed forests present challenges all there own and are not as common as … Continue reading Challenges All Their Own – Mixed Bonsai Forests

Clump Style Bonsai – Multiple Trunks with a Single Root Stystem

We found this extraordinary clump style Japanese maple on Bonsai Nakayoshi (sorry the link is no longer active). You can imagine that all the smaller trunks started as suckers on the roots of the main tree (you could also imagine that they started from seeds dropped by the main tree; in which case each seed would have its own roots, so that wouldn’t qualify as a clump style bonsai). Staying on our clump style theme from yesterday, I borrowed this one from our archives. It was titled Multiple Trunks Sharing a Single Root System – Clump Style Bonsai Forests (technically, I don’t … Continue reading Clump Style Bonsai – Multiple Trunks with a Single Root Stystem

Clip & Grow Bonsai – No Wire Necessary

This massive Trident maple most likely started in a field somewhere and was allowed to grow quite tall (the fastest way to thicken the trunk) before it was cut back. This first cut was the beginning of clip and grow styling (see below). The owner/artist of this outstanding bonsai is German Gomez. Most large Trident maples and many other deciduous trees are started in the field and developed using the clip and grow technique. The result is usually a heavy trunked tree with gentle curves, often in a more or less S shape. You can see this basic shape in … Continue reading Clip & Grow Bonsai – No Wire Necessary

Black Hills Bonsai – What You Do to the Land, You Do to Yourself

Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) collected by Andrew (aka Andy) Smith and first styled by Walter Pall. It would hard to find a better pair for the job. Andy (Golden Arrow Bonsai) is a professional forester, master collector of wild bonsai and a bonsai artist in his own right, and Walter Pall is a world famous bonsai artist, teacher, entertainer and owner of a very impressive bonsai collection. The photograph is by Walter. My apologies for the fuzz. It’s the result of dramatically increasing the image size (on balance I think this size presents a better look at the tree … Continue reading Black Hills Bonsai – What You Do to the Land, You Do to Yourself

Magnificent Monster

In addition to its brilliant color, this powerful Trident maple has almost everything you’d want in a bonsai, including a massive trunk, fluid natural looking nebari, good lines, a well-matched pot and healthy green moss. The artist is German Gomez. Continuing with our Maple theme… Leaving for vacation in two days and still have a million things to do, so to save some time we’ll go back in time. The photos shown here first appeared on Bark way back in 2010. OKATSUNE TOOL SPECIAL ENDS TOMORROW NIGHT 25% OFF LIST PRICES ON ALL OF OUR OKATSUNE JAPANESE BONSAI & GARDEN TOOLS Special … Continue reading Magnificent Monster

When Was the Last Time You Climbed a Bonsai Tree?

It’s not that often you see a full grown man sitting in a bonsai tree (why doesn’t the tree fall over?). The caption and the photo are from BCI magazine. Yesterday we featured a major league rock planting by Simon Baron with Marc Noelanders. Simon is a new talent to us, but most of you know Marc, a respected and accomplished bonsai artist, teacher and author. Marc is also the founder and ongoing force behind the annual Noelanders Trophy Bonsai Exhibition. This post originally appeared here in December, 2015. It features the only photo I know of with a human sitting in a bonsai. SPECIAL … Continue reading When Was the Last Time You Climbed a Bonsai Tree?

A Happy Bonsai Accident

The original caption from Milan Karpíšek reads “Sabina of my friend ready for a show.” From this we might assume that the tree belongs to a friend and was styled by Milan, but we know about assumptions. The three trees shown here are from Milan Karpíšek’s fb photos (Milan is from the Czech Republic). Like many of the bonsai featured here, these were discovered by accident (aka stumbled upon). A very happy accident indeed. After yesterday’s post featuring two Savin junipers (Juniperus sabina) by Gaicomo Pappalardo, I went back to see others we’ve featured over the years and was surprised by just how … Continue reading A Happy Bonsai Accident