Pine Bonsai – A Less Common Cousin

This handsome cork bark (see corrections below*) Japanese red pine, with its deeply grooved bark tells a story of age and beauty. The artist is Enrico Savini. If someone asked you to name two Japanese pines, you’d probably answer, Japanese black pine and Japanese white pine. This would make sense as most of the Japanese pine bonsai you see are Black or White. However, there is another important Japanese pine. It’s the Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora). One reason you might not think of the Red pine is that it is less common than the Black or White pine and, … Continue reading Pine Bonsai – A Less Common Cousin

A Little Bonsai Love on Hot Summer Days

I borrowed this distinctive two-headed Shimpaku from Micheal Hagedorn’s Portfolio on Crataegus Bonsai. Specifically from the section titled Bonsai Work in Japan (see Post Dated below) The text below is from a 2010 post we borrowed from Michael Hagedorn on summer misting. In addition being a highly accomplished bonsai artist, Michael is a great teacher, with a wealth of bonsai knowledge almost unrivaled in the West. If you’d like to learn more than you ever imagined about bonsai, you’d be well served to visit Michael’s Crataegus Bonsai. Continued below… NEW BONSAI TOOL SPECIAL 30% to 50% off Yoshiaki Hand Tools … Continue reading A Little Bonsai Love on Hot Summer Days

U.S. National Shohin Bonsai Exhibition – June 23-25

This classy Shohin display shows the quality you can expect at the upcoming U.S. National Shohin Bonsai Exhibition. It’s coming soon and it promises to be the Shohin bonsai event of the year. And best of all, it’s not too late to treat yourself and make your plans to be in Kannapolis, North Carolina (30 miles north of Charlotte) June 23-25. Here are three links for more details (Bill Valavanis’ website, Bill on facebook and Bill’s blog). And just in case – given countless Bark post (including our last two) and all three of these links – you might think … Continue reading U.S. National Shohin Bonsai Exhibition – June 23-25

Blooming Bonsai Beauties & a Quick Tip on Ramification

I found this luscious beauty on Micheal Hagedorn’s Crateagus Bonsai. It’s a Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis).* Here’s Michael’s caption… “This tree has been a prolific bloomer for the past five years. When the blooms are done, leaves form at the base of the bloom spike, so we cut them back to those leaves, leaving a short spike. That becomes our ramification in a wisteria bonsai.” Just back from vacation and swamped, so we’ll make this one short and sweet. Thanks once again to our friend and teacher, Michael Hagedorn, a source of brilliant bonsai insights (and brilliant bonsai!) ROSHI TOOL … Continue reading Blooming Bonsai Beauties & a Quick Tip on Ramification

Encore for a Famous Million Dollar Bonsai

This photo is from Bill Valavanis Bonsai Blog, as are the photos in our last post which featured bonsai by a Mr Funayama (no first name given) at the recent 8th World Bonsai Convention. The display of Mr Funayama’s trees was designed by Seiji Morimae. Here’s what Bill Valavanis wrote about the bonsai above (and below)… “Seiji Morimae and his assistants also maintain the Funayama Collection. A few years ago he (Seiji Morimae) took me to visit Mr. Funayama. During lunch Mr. Funayama showed me an old photograph of one of his prized Japanese five-needle pine bonsai from an exhibition … Continue reading Encore for a Famous Million Dollar Bonsai

A Walk Through an Exceptional Bonsai Collection

Not only is this a great tree, but is has to qualifies as one of the most unique bonsai we’ve seen in a while… it’s just not often you see three (or is it four?) trunks fused into one. The tree belongs to a Mr Funayama. We borrowed this photo and the others shown here from Bill Valavanis. The photos shown here all from the Funayama Collection which was on display in a section of private collections at the recent 8th World Bonsai Convention. They were taken by the omnipresent Bill Valavanis. For more, I encourage you to visit Bill’s blog. … Continue reading A Walk Through an Exceptional Bonsai Collection

Spectacular Demo Trees at the 2017 World Bonsai Convention

Isao Omachi, his just finished demo tree and a Green T Professional Hydraulic Lift Turntable at this year’s World Bonsai Convention Today it’s time to drive from the Central Coast back to SF, so I hope you don’t mind if we dig back into our archives. It’s a recent one (May 12th) and a bit of an infomercial, but the photo are still very good. Time to pay another visit to the recent World Bonsai Convention. This time it’s about the demonstrators, their demo trees and the heavy lifting, omnipresent Green T Professional Hydraulic Lift Turntables – the quiet stars … Continue reading Spectacular Demo Trees at the 2017 World Bonsai Convention

Boon’s Black Pine, Before & After

A Japanese black pine after some serious trimming. If you look at the photo just below, you might notice that there has also been some serious needle reduction. The tree and the photos in this post belong to Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon). Yesterday we featured Boon, our famous bonsai teacher to the teachers, so why not just keep going? We’re on vacation, so both yesterday’s and today’s (June 2014) are from our archives. The first two photos shown here provide a simple before and after on a Japanese black pine. As you can see it’s a remarkable tree. I … Continue reading Boon’s Black Pine, Before & After

Bonsai by Boon

This Sierra juniper by Boon Manakitivipart is one of three trees by Boon that appears in the gallery section of our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Still on vacation. Right now it’s California’s Central Coast, with its Elephant seals and pure blue sunny skies (last time I checked it was 50 degrees and raining at home). Anyway, vacation time is usually archive time. This one is originally from November, 2015. Boon Manakitivipart (Bonsai Boon) is a well-known and highly respected bonsai artist and teacher (a teacher’s teacher). He also has the distinction of having three of his trees in our Juniper … Continue reading Bonsai by Boon

The Tao of Bonsai

This famous three-tiered tree, is a good example of how a bonsai can express both movement and stillness. All three tiers, bottom, top and middle move to the right, yet the overall effect is one of balance and stillness. Our friend and associate Robert Steven is the artist. This post originally appeared in February, 2011. It’s one of dozens of Bark posts on the bonsai of Robert Steven, a long time leader in promoting and advancing the art of bonsai. The trees shown here are from Robert’s facebook photos. Bonsai Wire Special 500 gram rolls Only 9.50 each A simple … Continue reading The Tao of Bonsai