Inspiration for Backyard Bonsai Displays – #15

Bonsai with Koi. This is what could happen if you have the inspiration, space, time and money to build a pond in your garden. The shot is from Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Tokyo. The concrete display poles are made to look like tree trunks. This photo and all but one of the others in this post are borrowed from Bonsai Empire. This is the fifthteenth post in our long-standing Backyard Bonsai series. However, if memory serves, this is the first time that we’ve shown commercial gardens that happen to be in backyards as part of the series. In … Continue reading Inspiration for Backyard Bonsai Displays – #15

Bonsai-San

Two powerful trees from the European Bonsai-San 2015 Show. We lifted all the photos shown here* from Bonsai Empire (something we’ve been doing for a long time). They are from the just completed European Bonsai-San 2015 Show in Saulieu France. Oscar at Bonsai Empire wrote the following: “We thank Stephanie and Frederic Chenal for organizing and allowing us to film the exhibit. Visit their website here. Feel free to share these photos, but please mention the source. Thanks!” We don’t have any information on the artists or the owners of any of the trees shown here, though Oscar offers an … Continue reading Bonsai-San

Still Crazy…

It’s hard to deny the mind stopping power and originality of this bonsai. It’s by Luis Vila and the photo is by Salvador De Los Reyes. We pinched it from Empire Bonsai (apologies to Salvador and Empire for our crop; we wanted to maximize the tree). I usually try to come up with a good excuse for resorting to our archives (rather than going to the trouble to come up with something new), but today there’s no good excuse. Unless you think laziness qualifies. This post originally appeared in November 2013. It was titled ‘Crazy Bonsai.’ Beyond laziness, another reason … Continue reading Still Crazy…

Satsuki, Starflower & Not Much More

You can tell by the little symbol in lower right corner that this azalea was borrowed from Bonsai Empire. However, when I went back to find it, it seems to have vanished. So, no name, no specs & no attribution (our friend Jose Luis says that it’s from the Kennentt Collection and Terry Davis say it’s a Nyohozan – see comments below). Just a great Satsuki with a massive gnarly trunk, a colorful display of flowers, two large holes (like dark eyes peering out), and a nice pot. I’m in Portland studying with Michael Hagedorn (more on this later), so … Continue reading Satsuki, Starflower & Not Much More

Mystery Tree Contest Winners?

Here’s a photo of Boon Manakitivipart with the (no longer a mystery) Mystery Tree from his website Bonsai Boon. If you look at the original post (5/5/09) the contest was: the first person who posts the name of the person who took the photo and where it is on the internet, wins a $25.00 gift certificate to Stone Lantern’s web store. What I didn’t anticipate was that someone would tell me where it was on the internet and someone else would tell me who took the photo.