Summer Relief for Your Bonsai

Deciduous Award at the 2012 U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition for the Finest Deciduous Bonsai. It’s a Japanese Maple by Suthin Sukolosovisit of Royal Bonsai. It has nothing to do with the topic of this post, at least directly, but the 3rd (2012) U.S. National Bonsai Exhibiton is now on special at Stone Lantern. The following very useful piece of advice is by Michael Hagedorn from his website Crataegus Bonsai. It originally appeared here on Bark almost exactly three years ago. “Last summer I mentioned the practice of ‘hamisu’ which is the misting of bonsai during hot summer days. This light … Continue reading Summer Relief for Your Bonsai

Junipers: Don’t Pinch Too Much!

Even if you’re one of those curmudgeons who complains about the overly sculpted look of some Japanese bonsai, you’ve got to admit that this powerhouse Shimpaku approaches perfection. That trunk draws your eye like few trunks anywhere, with its single living vein, mysterious hollow at its base and the spidery fingers and hole at the top. But it’s the tight lush foliage that I want to point out here; the result of some serious trimming and pinching. The photo is from our Juniper book. Artist unknown. Time for another Summer Rerun (this post originally appeared in 2010). This works because … Continue reading Junipers: Don’t Pinch Too Much!

Three Famous Sargents

Everything about this famous Sargent juniper (Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii) seems to be flowing, with its shari that looks like melting wax and its gracefully descending foliage. The tree resides at Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum in Tokyo. It won the Prime Minister Award at the 1998 Taikan-ten. Its height is 26″ (66 cm) and its estimated age is 200 years. The photo is from Fine Bonsai, Art and Nature. Every morning before getting started with my recent bonsai lessons with Michael Hagedorn, we would spend a little time looking through Kokufu albums. The exercise was illuminating and I wanted … Continue reading Three Famous Sargents

Revisting An Irreverant Bonsai Monk

A piece of the cover of Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk by Michael Hagedorn. Over four years later and still the best bonsai read What follows is a review of Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk that I wrote for Bonsai Bark in February 2009 (we still offer Post-Dated and a whole range of other excellent bonsai books at Stone Lantern). I first read Post-Dated at 30,000 feet; Boston to SFO. By coincidence, the man sitting next to me was reading Thoreau’s Walden, a book usually confined to students and scholars. He was well past … Continue reading Revisting An Irreverant Bonsai Monk

Monster Bonsai

A Halloween monster (trunk, that is). It’s not that often you see a tree with such a powerfully thick trunk, especially when you consider its size relative to the rest of the tree. According to Mareta Marrtell (facebook), it’s a 50 year old Kuromatsu (Japanese black pine ) that was grown from seed. Mareta says the photo is via sgforums.com. I tried that address, but came up empty. I did find a bonsai gallery at The Singapore Penjing and Stone Appreciation Society as a result of a search using s g forums, but couldn’t find this tree. In any case, … Continue reading Monster Bonsai

Pinch! Don’t Pinch! Part 2

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured this famous bonsai that originally appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today 63 and later in our Juniper book. I think it’s appropriate here for a couple reasons: it’s by Shinji Suzuki, Michael Hagedorn’s bonsai sensei (Michael provided the fuel for this post and our previous post) and it’s a needle type juniper, which provides a contrast to scale type junipers when it comes to controlling new growth. We can assume that Mr. Suzuki trimmed rather than pinched in creating such a profusion of dense foliage pads. Continuing where we left off Rather … Continue reading Pinch! Don’t Pinch! Part 2

A Levitated Bonsai Platform

After. A twin trunk Mountain hemlock that was collected, styled and placed on a very thin piece of plastic by Michael Hagedorn and friends. It’s been a while… …since we featured Michael Hagedorn (Crataegus Bonsai). This is partly because lately we’ve been focusing more on international bonsai than North American bonsai; and partly because if we do too much Michael, you might suspect there are kickbacks involved (Michael is way too clean for that; as for me…). Mountain hemlock on levitated nylon board I won’t say too much about the nylon board or the steps that were necessary to cause … Continue reading A Levitated Bonsai Platform

Michael’s Miraculous Escape

A famous Foemina juniper after Michael Hagedorn ruined it (just kidding…). Photos are from Michael’s Crataegus Bonsai. Tar and feathers If I was inclined to envy, I think I’d chose Michael Hagedorn’s writing skills to be envious of (taking nothing away from his considerable bonsai skills). Fortunately, my experience is more one of appreciation than envy (still, if I could only….). Anyway, I’ll let Michael speak for himself: “No matter how assured you are, changing the design of a famous tree is done with a deep intake of breath. One takes precautions. Like boarding up windows and doors, in premonition … Continue reading Michael’s Miraculous Escape

Weekly Wire: Nifty Nebari, Bonsai Cloud & What Happened to Fresno?

Pemphis acidula by Gedemerta Bonsaibali. For a while now, facebook has been inundated with bonsai by Gedemerta. Turns out, that’s a good thing if you like exciting tropical bonsai. If you’re not friends on facebook, you can see more of Gede Merta’s trees on Beial blog (on facebook it’s Gedemerta; on Beial it’s Gede Merta). Bonsai from Scratch prizes Are there any winners out there who haven’t collected their prizes yet? If so, please contact me at wayne@stonelantern.com. Do you have an upcoming bonsai event that you want to promote? Let us know and we’ll publish it for you. wayne@stonelantern.com. … Continue reading Weekly Wire: Nifty Nebari, Bonsai Cloud & What Happened to Fresno?

Slow Down & Stop Thinking So Much

Michael Hagedorn reworked this collected Sierra juniper (grafted with shimpaku) in a half-day refinement session at the Weyerhaeuser collection in Federal Way, Washington, way back in 2009. The before photo is below. Sight of the Blind Man It’s very rare to find writing that explores what goes on with our thoughts and feelings when we work on our bonsai. Mostly we just talk about our trees and what we want to do to them or what we already did to them. That’s why I was surprised and delighted when I read Michael Hagedorn’s latest post on Crataegus Bonsai, Sight of … Continue reading Slow Down & Stop Thinking So Much