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

Backyard Bonsai #17

I like it when people offer a peek into their inner worlds. It’s a generous act. This one belongs to Zdenek Svoboda. Zdenek lives in Skalica Slovakia, a place that’s a mystery to me Picking up our Backyard Bonsai series with a visit to Zdenek Svoboda in Slovakia (via his timeline on fb). There are plenty more great photos where these came from. If my count is correct, this is our 17th backyard display. Our first was Wolfgang Putz’ yard, in May, 2009 By the way, if you have a bonsai display in your backyard, we’d love to see it KILO BONSAI WIRE SPECIAL 16.95 PER ROLL ONLY … Continue reading Backyard Bonsai #17

The Beginning of Bonsai Time

A study in simple beauty. The tree is a European beech (Fagus sylvatica) that belongs to Harry Harrington, and the well chosen pot is by Erin pottery. The title of this post might be a little misleading, so we’ll call it poetic license (or maybe a metaphor?). Anyway, continuing our Harry Harrington theme, we’ll take a journey back to our first two Harry posts. The first is from March, 2009, Bark’s second month in existence, and the second is from August, 2011. NEW SOIL SPECIAL 30% OFF LIST PRICES ON ALL BONSAI SOIL – This Goldflame Japanese Spirea (Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame’) was originally dug from a … Continue reading The Beginning of Bonsai Time

A Rare Bonsai Occurrence – Harry’s Flowering Privet

This flowering Privet belongs to Harry Harrington (as does the wristwatch). I took the liberty to crop the original photo (see below) for a closer view Our talented and prolific friend Harry Harrington is at it again. Here’s his caption for the tree shown here (from his fb timeline)… “I think this is quite a rare occurrence, one of my Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) bonsai not only flowering, but in scale with the tree itself! Collected in 2009 from a hedge growing in West London, this has always been one of my favourite Privet. Height 14″/34cm, 5″/12.5cm trunk diameter. Pot by Victor … Continue reading A Rare Bonsai Occurrence – Harry’s Flowering Privet

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

A Different Kind of Root-over-Rock

A strange sort of root-over-rock. You might imagine that it started more or less like other root overs, but because the rock is so small, the roots grew under it and pushed it up, while also growing around one side and creating a firm grip on the rock. Though I originally thought the result might simply be an happy accident, upon reflection I think it was the intention of the original artist 40 to 50 years ago.* It’s just too perfect the way most of the rock, particularly the bowl is left uncovered and even emphasized. Like so many root-over-rock bonsai, the tree … Continue reading A Different Kind of Root-over-Rock

Great Root over Rock Bonsai & Great Roshi Tools

No source is given for this colorful ‘Seki-joju’ Azalea. My best guess is that the tree and photo are originally from Japan; it’s not uncommon for Japanese trees to remain unattributed (this is often the case in the Japanese gallery section in Bonsai Today magazine back issues). We found the photo on Bonsai Addicted’s timeline. Yesterday we featured a magnificent root-over-rock bonsai by Marvin Besa from the Philipines. Here’s a post devoted completely to Root-over-Rock bonsai that we originally featured a year ago NEW ROSHI BONSAI TOOL SPECIAL 40% off all Roshi Stainless Tools 30% off all Roshi Carbon Steel Tools Not only … Continue reading Great Root over Rock Bonsai & Great Roshi Tools

“One Quick Glance at this Tree Brought Me to a State of Nirvana”

A close up of a rather spectacular root-over-rock bonsai (the entire planting is just below). Here’s our original caption (from May, 2016) with some changes made today… Robert Steven (my mistake, see below) has done it again. This time it’s a perfect root-over-rock bonsai. Here’s what Charles Bevan has to say about it: “This is unbelievably perfect. One quick glance at this tree brought me to a state of nirvana.” I was looking to continue our forest theme when I ran across this post from last year (and the year before). There is a forest (below), but it’s the feature tree and … Continue reading “One Quick Glance at this Tree Brought Me to a State of Nirvana”

More Impressive Works of Imagination & Skill

This Penjing landscape features exceptionally rugged terrain and no immediately visible sign of humans. Or are there one or two tiny almost indistinguishable specks of something that could be man made? Continuing where we left off yesterday. For some reason I got a little fascinated with the man made elements; mostly small boats and buildings. I think maybe it’s the perspective they provide. Tiny beings in a vast wild world. Anyway, with or without signs of human activity, these rugged and realistic Penjing landscapes are impressive works of imagination and skill All the photos are borrowed from Hong Kong Bonsai Pots. No … Continue reading More Impressive Works of Imagination & Skill

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