Circling Back to Needle Junipers

This luscious Needle juniper turned up on Juan Andrade’s latest facebook post. Juan is (or was?) an apprentice at Bonsai Aichien in Japan, where this tree resides. BTW, we featured a Before, During and After post by Juan exactly one month ago. Don’t be misled by the title; this is not another trip back into our archives, though the second tree in this post is from an earlier bark post. The rest of the photos are all originals for us. It has been over three years since we devoted a whole post to just Needle junipers (Juniperus rigida). This juniper … Continue reading Circling Back to Needle Junipers

Bonsai & Some Great Stories Unearthed

This photo is originally from the from Kokufu-ten 47 (1973) and came to us via Owen Reich’s Bonsai Unearthed. We’ve been discussing root-on-rock bonsai lately, and by extension root-over-rock bonsai, and you must admit that this is a worthy and very unusual example of the latter (I’ll guess that it’s a Trident maple). Also, when have you ever seen a companion plant quite as large as this one? It’s about time we featured Owen Reich (an apprentice and instructor in Japan whose name came up in our last post). After all, it’s rare to find someone who knows his (or … Continue reading Bonsai & Some Great Stories Unearthed

Root-On-Rock Bonsai

The result. It’s a Needle juniper (with secondary plants and moss) root-on-rock planting by Noboru Kaneko. All the photos in this post are from our Masters’ Series Juniper Bonsai book. Something I’ve noticed in my countless hours of internet bonsai journeys, is how seldom you see good root-on-rock bonsai (or root-over-rock bonsai for that matter). I don’t know if this is because this style bonsai has fallen out of favor, or if it’s because accomplishing a good root-on-rock is no mean feat, so most people simply don’t try. Or they try and fail. And then there’s the issue of finding … Continue reading Root-On-Rock Bonsai

Still the Best

When I first saw this tree I thought it might be a Yew. But, the bark isn’t right, and even the foliage, though close, isn’t quite right either. Fortunately, Peter Tea solved the problem in his 2011 Taikan-ten Exhibition post. Peter’s caption reads: “This Yew Hemlock caught many peoples attention. It made sense that it took the prize for medium conifer. We don’t have any Yews here at Aichien because they don’t do well in the hot weather that we have in Nagoya.” As for the species, it turns out that there are two Hemlocks that are native to Japan … Continue reading Still the Best

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

Elevating the Art of Bonsai in the West

Mesmerizing bonsai perfection. I think this tree has something to say about just how far American bonsai has come. It’s a Japanese white pine by Ryan Neil. From his International Bonsai Mirai website. Ryan Neil and International Bonsai Mirai I think these photos of Ryan Neil’s bonsai speak for themselves. Loud and clear. But just in case you’d like to read a few words to flesh things out a bit, here’s what Ryan’s site has to say about itself: International Bonsai Mirai is a reference point where serious individuals can come to see bonsai pursued at a higher level with … Continue reading Elevating the Art of Bonsai in the West

Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries

Can you imagine the time needed to develop and maintain the numerous foliage clouds? Does this level of refinement exist outside of Japan? Needle juniper (J. rigida) by Shinji Suzuki. From our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Picking up where we left off Our last post provoked more discussion than any post so far. Roughly drawn, the topic is naturalistic bonsai versus highly stylized and highly refined bonsai. I thought it might be good to continue with examples that exist at the extremes, at least in my view. This Big cone Douglas fir by Dan Robinson jumped out at me because … Continue reading Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries

Bonsai the Natural Way and the Hand of Man

My best guess is that this powerful old tree is a needle juniper (Juniperus rigida), though I can’t be sure. Whatever it is, it seems to posses an extraordinary number of separate live veins and a massive amount of deadwood to boot. It’s from Gyozan Nakano, Sakai: A 35 Year Anthology (not available in English). Nature and the hand of man Though the tree above is quite powerful and leagues above most bonsai, still, you might fine the busyness around its base (and other places) a little distracting. I’m not sure I’d do anything about it, as attempts to improve … Continue reading Bonsai the Natural Way and the Hand of Man

Needle Junipers

This Needle juniper (J. rigida) is from our Japanese bonsai calendar. August, 2010. There are Needle junipers and then there are needle junipers, and then… Juniperus rigida (above) are commonly called Needle junipers. Then there is the class of junipers with needle like foliage, that are often referred to as needle junipers. These are distinguished from the class of junipers with softer scale like foliage. The problem is, that sometime some junipers with needle like foliage show some scale like foliage (and vice-versa). Confused? You can always order our Masters’ Series Juniper book and sort out the whole thing (and … Continue reading Needle Junipers

Masters’ Bonsai Gallery: Let’s Rock!

This group of Needle junipers on a large rock by Norboru Kaneko won first prize at Sakufu-ten #12. It originally appeared in Bonsai Today issue 24 (long out of print). It also appears in our Bonsai Today Masters’ Series Juniper book (still in print). Root-on-rock vs root-over-rock The bonsai shown in this post are all root-on-rock, which means that the roots are growing in soil that is in pockets in the rock. Root-over-rock is where the rock sits in soil in a pot and the roots are trained to grow down over the rock and into the soil. We’ll do … Continue reading Masters’ Bonsai Gallery: Let’s Rock!