Two Before & After Bonsai – Juniper & Pine

We found these two photos at Bonsai Shikoku. All the text is Japanese and there are no intermediate photos, so what you see is what you get. At a glance you can see that the foliage has been thinned in order to expose most of the trunk and some of the branching. This allows for an unobstructed view of the deadwood and the lower sections of the living veins. Another obvious change is the result of meticulous cleaning and brightening of the deadwood and living veins. Continuing with our recent Before and After theme, we’ve got couple good ones for you. Both … Continue reading Two Before & After Bonsai – Juniper & Pine

A Steady Stream of High Quality Shohin Bonsai

There are few things more delicate than fresh spring Maple leaves (Trident maple in this case). This and the other bonsai in this post are by Haruyosi Still on vacation so we’ll keep borrowing from our past. This time it’s Haruyoshi’s little trees. Haruyosi has been making and photographing a steady stream of high quality shohin bonsai (including the pots) for a long time MID WINTER SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING PLUS AN EXTRA 10% TO 20% OFF ROSHI TOOLS and AN EXTRA 10% OFF BONSAI POTS – Red on red. In a previous Haruyosi post (Very Red and Very Rare), we mentioned that red glazes … Continue reading A Steady Stream of High Quality Shohin Bonsai

The Cutting Edge of Bonsai Innovation

The play of light and shadow… This photo is from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. Here’s part of the machine translation… “Japanese yew, Autumn Special Exhibition: Contemporary Bonsai Masters: Masahiko Kimura; Playing with Bonsai, the Origin of His Works” You can read more and see other masterpiece bonsai photos here Even though I think he’s fallen a little out of favor in some circles, I’m still a fan of Masahiko Kimura’s bonsai. For years his wildly innovative techniques and his visionary’s eye, combined with a healthy does of daring, produced results at the cutting edge (so to speak) of bonsai innovation. Now, forty some … Continue reading The Cutting Edge of Bonsai Innovation

Walter’s Wild Sabina Juniper

A recent photo of Walter Pall’s wild Sabina juniper. There’s a much older photo of this tree below Second leg of our journey to the sun this morning, so once again we’ll take the easy way out and continue with a Walter Pall posts from our archives. This one is from May 2017, with a newly discovered lead photo NEW SITE WIDE SALE 20% OFF EVERYTHING A GOOD TIME TO STOCK UP – This photo of the same tree, guy wires and all, dates back quite a few years. We found it on The Art of Bonsai Project. The pot is by Bryan Albright … Continue reading Walter’s Wild Sabina Juniper

New Year New Day New Bonsai Essentials

There’s something about Quince flowers… Here’s Bill Valavanis’ caption: “A small size Toyo Nishiki Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Toyo Nishiki’ with multiple colored flowers. Although red, pink and white blossoms are common for this great cultivar, I’ve often seen red branches grafted onto specimens to improve color distribution.” Welcome to 2019. My other New Year’s resolution (see yesterday) is to avoid recycling these same trees for a forth time next year. Stay posted to see how we do. I guess a passable excuse is just how good these trees are. They’re from the 2015 Kokufu Bonsai Exhibiton and were lifted directly from … Continue reading New Year New Day New Bonsai Essentials

Bonsai Berries & a Failed New Year’s Resolution

This prolific Pyracantha was our 2018 New Year’s tree. I don’t know who the artist or owner is (more about this below), but my guess is the tree is Japanese Here’s my New Year’s resolution from 2018… No more unattributed trees on this blog (uh… except for the one just above). So I failed on the first day last year and the failure reoccured throughout the year (you can take this as a metaphor if you’d like). In light of this, here’s a more realistic resolution for this year… I will attribute the trees we post when possible and encourage all of us who have been … Continue reading Bonsai Berries & a Failed New Year’s Resolution

Festive Bonsai

I don’t know if you’d call this tree festive, but it has a bright spirited quality. It’s an English yew (Taxus Baccata) by Stefano Frisoni from Italy I just spent 30 mins cruising fb looking for a Christmas decorated bonsai to feature, but came up blank. I did find this in our archives. It has a bit of Holiday flavor and I like it, so why not? Continued below… Roshi Bonsai Tools 30% off Plus and extra 10% off on orders 150.00 or more Roshi Tools are famous for precision, durability, beauty & reasonable prices this special ends Dec 26th at 11:59pm … Continue reading Festive Bonsai

Bonsai Holiday Greetings from Another Place & Time

Chinese hackberry by Lo Min Hsuan It’s the Holidays and we all need a little down time, so today it’s back to our archives. All of today’s photos are from Lo Min Hsuan’s Bonsai blog and they all appeared here exactly eight years ago. That’s a great thing about bonsai of this magnitude… they are already so old that eight years might as well be yesterday Roshi Bonsai Tools 30% off Plus and extra 10% off on orders 150.00 or more Roshi Tools are famous for precision, durability, beauty & reasonable prices this special ends Dec 26th at 11:59pm EST – I’ve always appreciated a good … Continue reading Bonsai Holiday Greetings from Another Place & Time

Happy Bonsai Holidays – Merry Bonsai Christmas

Though most Christmas trees have their charm and some are genuine works of art, this one by Nacho Marin has to be one of the best we’ve seen Peace on earth and goodwill to you, your loved ones and everyone else on this lovely troubled planet. This is not the first time we’ve shown this bonsai Christmas tree by Nacho Marin (2013 was first), but until we find one we like more, it won’t be the last NEW SPECIALS at STONE LANTERN SEE BELOW we’re done shipping on time for Christmas but that doesn’t mean we’re done for the Holidays Just before and just after. … Continue reading Happy Bonsai Holidays – Merry Bonsai Christmas

Eccentric or Just Twisted?

Doing the Twist. This tree belongs to Mauro Stemberger (Italian Bonsai Dream). Mauro has one of the most dramatic bonsai collections in the West, and though this one certainly qualifies, is there a line between dramatic and eccentric? Continuing with ‘Eccentric Bonsai’ from two days ago, here’s another one from our archives (November, 2016). Two of the trees in this post are naturally twisted and the other two were twisted by the hands of man. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble telling which is which. SITE WIDE SALE ENDS TOMORROW Everything Is At Least 20% off DOUBLE DISCOUNTS – SALE … Continue reading Eccentric or Just Twisted?