Boon’s Juniper Bonsai & Our Juniper Book

This Sierra juniper by Boon Manakitivipart is one of three trees by Boon that appears in the gallery section of our newly reprinted Juniper Masters’ Series book. Boon Manakitivipart (Bonsai Boon) is very 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 newly reprinted Juniper book. All three and a couple others appear here. Including one that is on the cover of our final Bonsai Today issue from way back in 2007. At least four of the trees (maybe all five) shown here are yamadori … Continue reading Boon’s Juniper Bonsai & Our Juniper Book

Juniper Bonsai Book Is Back!

Our famous Juniper book is back. Just in time for the gift season and for your winter bonsai study sessions. It has been thirteen months since we sold our last copy (number 5,000) of our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Too long really, but somehow time just slipped away. Anyway, we just got another 1,000 from the printer, so off we go. If you already own a copy, you can buy one for a friend (or, if you have more than one friend…). Rocky mountain juniper by Boon. From the gallery section of our Juniper book. Developing fine branching over … Continue reading Juniper Bonsai Book Is Back!

A Famous Hinoki in a Famous Pot

This stately distinctive Hinoki is from Michael Pollock’s blog Bonsai Shinshei as are the other two bonsai shown here. Here’s Michael’s caption: “My lone Hinoli cypress after a quick fall cleanup. Falling deeper in love with this pot that Ron Lang and I collaborated on.” Got Artisans Cup photos with species and artist labels? I wanted to show Ron Lang’s (and Sharon Edwards-Russell’s) pots that held seven of the remarkable trees at the Artisans Cup. Problem is, my photos are spotty and mostly unlabeled and the same goes for other Cup photos I’ve been able to dig up. So we’ll … Continue reading A Famous Hinoki in a Famous Pot

Only the Surface Waves

These three trees belong to Masahiko Kimura. I lifted (and cropped) this photo from El Tim Bonsai. It’s a Spanish language blog with an English language option. The Tim. I have long admired the great photos and great dedication to bonsai expressed on the El Tim Bonsai blog (the original Spanish language version and an English language version). The photos shown here are from El Tim’s visit to Masahiko Kimura’s nursery on a recent Japan trip. They are the tip of the Kimura iceberg and only the surface waves on El Tim’s vast ocean of great bonsai photos. If … Continue reading Only the Surface Waves

Powerful Bonsai with Brilliant Deadwood

A great tree for a study in deadwood. It’s a Juniper procumben from Luis Vallejo’s website. I cropped the photo a bit, but you can see the full size original just below. I just spent the last digital hour or so wandering around Luis Vallejo’s Bonsai Studio (Estudio de Bonsai) and his Bonsai Museum (Museo del Bonsai). Sometimes it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Without raving too much about what Luis has been up to, we’ll just encourage you to pay him a visit (his website and his fb photos). Given just how prolific Luis … Continue reading Powerful Bonsai with Brilliant Deadwood

A Four Course Bonsai Feast

Old Rosemary plants abound in Europe, so you’d expect to see some pretty good Rosemary bonsai and this semi-cacade certainly qualifies. It doesn’t hurt that it’s in a very cool pot. All the photos in this post are from old issues of Bonsai Today. They have all appeared here before, back in 2010 in a post called A Moveable Feast European Style. It’s a long story, but none were attributed then and none are attributed now. My apologies to the artists. All four trees shown here are from Europe and originally appeared in Bonsai Today issue 85. This twisty … Continue reading A Four Course Bonsai Feast

Today Is a Good Day to Hug a Bonsai… or even a Local Bonsai Friend

You may have already seen this magnificent landscape Penjing. Here on Bark, on Bill Valavanis’ blog or any number of other places. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist (or a bonsai master) to figure out why it’s so popular. All the photos in this post were borrowed from Bill Valavanis Bonsai Blog. Today is the big day. World Bonsai Day, a celebration of the art of bonsai that originated with the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. World Bonsai Day is held annually on the second Saturday of each May (you can check out yesterday’s Bark post for some background). … Continue reading Today Is a Good Day to Hug a Bonsai… or even a Local Bonsai Friend

Bonsai Roadshow

If you spend a lot of time looking at bonsai photos you’ll see a lot of trees that look more or less the same. Well done, often beautiful bonsai that vanish from memory after while. And then there are trees like this eccentric old Scot’s pine. You could stumble across it ten years from now and immediately recognize it. Not that it’s better or worse than most other specimen quality bonsai, just strikingly different. I found it, along with all the photos shown here on Bjorn Bjorholm’s facebook feed. Bjorn’s caption reads “Today’s work – a massive Sylvestris at Minoru … Continue reading Bonsai Roadshow

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…

What’s Eccentric?

This wildly elaborate juniper bonsai is from Bjorn Bjornholm’s facebook photos. It’s a case where a darker background would work better, but borrowers can’t be choosey. Here Bjorn’s caption: “Procumbens wired and ready for its trip to Tokyo.” When I saw the photo above my first thought was… it’s been a while since we did a post on eccentric bonsai, so why not? On reflection however, the whole notion of eccentric is called into question. This has a lot to do with the sudden spread of bonsai throughout the world and the cross pollination made possible by easy travel and … Continue reading What’s Eccentric?