Midsummer Bonsai Treat & A Short Guy-Wire Lesson

A bonsai treat. This short, muscular and quite distinctive little Korean Hornbeam belongs to Jonas at Bonsai Tonight. A little guy wire lesson If you’re a little lazy like I sometimes am, then you might not always properly protect your prize bonsai from serious scarring. With some trees it doesn’t matter that much, but with others, a wire scar can become a long term blemish, or worse. Bonsai Tonight has an excellent article that shows a simple technique for protecting branches from scarring when using a guy-wire. Looking good. Now to put this little baby to use. To see just … Continue reading Midsummer Bonsai Treat & A Short Guy-Wire Lesson

Out Stealing Bonsai Ideas

Major surgery. From a Bonsai Tonight post entitled ‘Best repotting of the year.’ Rapid evolution There’s a lot going on with bonsai these days, and it’s happening fast and right before our eyes. If you look at the evolution of bonsai, you’ll find slow but steady development up until sometime in the 1980s when the explosion began. Kimura was introducing power tools and Bonsai was becoming international. Suddenly bonsai books and magazines were springing up everywhere, and, at the same time, along comes the internet. Now, new (and old) ideas abound everywhere. Black ponderosa pine? Japanese black pine grafted onto … Continue reading Out Stealing Bonsai Ideas

The Art & Science of Judging Bonsai

Japanese black pine from Bay Island Bonsai via Bonsai Tonight. Still a ways to go, but perfect for learning how to evaluate bonsai. Good timing Thanks to Jonas of Bonsai Tonight for posting this timely article on judging bonsai. Our $1,000 Bonsai from Scratch contest is in full swing (it’s not too late to enter) and a question that arises around any bonsai contest is: how are bonsai judged? Bay Island Bonsai‘s judging form that was designed by Boon Manakitivipart. If you go to Bonsai Tonight you’ll see a number of forms that were used to evaluate these two trees … Continue reading The Art & Science of Judging Bonsai

BABA & Boston Ivy Bonsai

Boston Ivy bonsai at the Bay Area Bonsai Associates 29th annual exhibition. As usual when it comes to BABA, I’m borrowing from The three photos shown here are by Jonas at Bonsai Tonight. Consistent high quality bonsai I’m impressed with what the Bay Area Bonsai Associates has been up to. High quality bonsai just keep coming from that dynamic Northern California group. A big part of their excellence is due to the energy and skill of Boon Manakitivipart, founder and operator of Bonsai Boon and BABA’s prime player. But he’s not alone. (Whoops! Boon is associated with Bay Island Bonsai. … Continue reading BABA & Boston Ivy Bonsai

The Akio Kondo Bonsai Award

This awesomely stocky little Korean Hornbeam by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight (photograph also by Jonas) recently won the Akio Kondo Bonsai Award at the Bay Island Bonsai Exhibit in Northern California (my apologies to Jonas for cropping his photo, but I wanted to show the tree as close up as possible). Boon & Bay Island Bonsai Boon Manakitivipart is one of North America’s most accomplished bonsai artists and the owner of Bonsai Boon (we’ve featured Boon’s trees several times on Bonsai Bark). He is also the driving force behind Bay Island Bonsai, which is one of North America’s paramount … Continue reading The Akio Kondo Bonsai Award

Repotting The Imperial Pine

The Imperial Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora) at The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. In training since 1795. Photo by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight. Rusty, are you out there? I came across a link to the article below in a post on Bonsai Tonight. The post is about the National Bonsai & Penjing museum. The link to the articled appears in the post’s comments by someone named Rusty. Unfortunately, Rusty didn’t give his last name (maybe someone out there knows who he is). A complex task with a simple name The article is entitled Repotting the Imperial Pine. It’s … Continue reading Repotting The Imperial Pine

Bonsai Tonight with Boon & Peter Tea

This heavy gnarly trunked Japanese black pine is from Bonsai Tonight. When Jonas took this photo, it had just been styled at a Bay Island Bonsai workshop by Peter Tea. It’s not clear if the tree is Peter’s or if it belongs to Boon (it’s not unusual for a student to work on a teacher’s tree), though I imagine that it’s Peter’s. We’ve now been informed the the tree belongs to Boon (see comments). Close up of the trunk. Closer up still. You could search for a long time and never stumble across a trunk as abundant in natural character … Continue reading Bonsai Tonight with Boon & Peter Tea

Trunk Art

This rich and powerful, extraordinarily detailed old trunk sits at the base of a Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) bonsai (immediately below). It (and the others in this post) is from the recent Redwood Empire Bonsai Society’s 27th annual show. The photos are all borrowed from Bonsai Tonight. The complete tree. Superior bonsai photography My hat is off and my balding head is nodding in appreciation of Jonas Dupuich’s consistently superior photographs at Bonsai Tonight. If you can’t see a top quality bonsai in person, the next best thing is a top quality photo.

Daisaku Nomoto: Before & After

Sierra juniper after restyling by Daisaku Nomoto. From Bonsai Tonight. Photos by Jonas Dupuich. Mr Nomoto visits Bay Island Bonsai Jonas Dupuich is featuring a great series of photos on Daisaku Nomoto’s visit to Bay Island Bonsai. I’m on a short vacation, so this is an easy way to offer you something good with a minimum of effort. Enjoy! Before.

Balancing Growth on Pine Bonsai

Before decandling. Cork bark Japanese black pine from Bonsai Tonight. Decandling, candle plucking, candle pinching… The photos and instructions in this post are all from Bonsai Tonight. The topic is decandling (also called candle plucking or candling pinching) Japanese black pines (specifically a cork bark black pine). The purpose of decandling is to balance growth, develop ramification and reduce needle size. Not all pines are the same, nor should they be treated exactly the same. Still, the basic principles can be applied to pines other than the Japanese black. After decandling. Four zones, twenty days The following is a small … Continue reading Balancing Growth on Pine Bonsai