Bonsai Globetrotting, Make Your Own Rock, A Wild & Wonderful Hornbeam, The World’s Most Amazing Garden

This powerful pine with its lush, full (almost yellow on my screen) canopy that’s shaped more like something you’d see on a deciduous tree (or a roof on an abstract pagoda), makes little attempt to appear like a pine in nature. Still, naturalistic or not, it’s hard to deny how the power of its trunk and the lush beauty of its canopy complement each other. I found it here on facebook. It looks like it’s part of a Japanese bonsai nursery, but I couldn’t find any verification.   Dan Robinson’s wild and wonderful Hornbeam resides at the Pacific Rim Bonsai … Continue reading Bonsai Globetrotting, Make Your Own Rock, A Wild & Wonderful Hornbeam, The World’s Most Amazing Garden

Weekly Wire, Bonsai Comic, Shohin Maffia & A Colorful Bonsai Celebration

Look familiar? You may have seen this most excellent Mario Komsta pine before. In fact, it’s possible that we’ve already featured it right here, though I can’t find when or where. Anyway, if we did already show it; it was good then and it’s still good now.   Do you recognize this tree? If so, It’s not too late to enter our Bonsai Detectives $250 Mystery Contest.   Shohin Maffia? I guess you know what shohin means and you probably have a pretty good grasp of maffia too (even with the double f). Now you can see what happens when … Continue reading Weekly Wire, Bonsai Comic, Shohin Maffia & A Colorful Bonsai Celebration

The Twist & Other Bonsai Eccentricities

Doing the twist. We’ve featured a few of these corkscrew types lately (all Shimpaku junipers), but this one takes the cake. Even though there’s something unnatural about many of these twisted bonsai, some work better than others and I’d put this one in that category. BTW: nature sometimes does twist trees in this manner, but I’m not so sure you’d find ones with this many twists growing naturally. Photo by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight. Pines and junipers at Meifu-ten All of the photos in this post have been lifted from a post on Bonsai Tonight titled Pines and junipers … Continue reading The Twist & Other Bonsai Eccentricities

Great Photos, Great Trees

Shimpaku with fan. The photo is from Kennett Bonsai’s Wall Photos on facebook. Photos that are worthy of the trees It’s always good to see well-photographed quality bonsai. Many photos (especially on facebook) are hastily shot, often with little consideration for things like background, lighting and other elements that go into quality photography. In this case the bonsai (from The Kennett Collection) are excellent, and clearly, some effort has gone into creating photos that are worthy of the trees. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining about hastily shot photos. With facebook, spontaneity and informality are the nature of the … Continue reading Great Photos, Great Trees