Beyond Dazzling Deadwood

Colorado spruce from Ryan Neil’s Bonsai Mirai. This one is more about the bark than deadwood. Normally bark that covers deadwood is stripped to reveal the deadwood, but in this case it makes sense to just leave it. While we’re at it, we would be remiss not to mention the fantastic pot. You might notice how the trunk almost completely fills it side to side. Such relatively small pots are usually for show and not year round growing. Today we’re featuring three remarkable trees from Bonsai Mirai that we’ve never shown before. Yesterday we featured three remarkable Bonsai Mirai trees … Continue reading Beyond Dazzling Deadwood

Dazzling Deadwood

Dazzling deadwood. I think I see a live vein on the left edge of the trunk. Otherwise, this spectacular old specimen is a study in deadwood (with a little rebar thrown into the mix). It’s a Rocky Mountain juniper. The artist and owner is Ryan Neil, Bonsai Mirai. The tree was originally collected by Andy Smith of Golden Arrow Bonsai (Stone Lantern offers Andy’s excellent DVD on collecting bonsai). Intenational Bonsai Mirai has a great little back story on this intriguing old tree. This post originally appeared here in January, 2012. A lot has changed and a lot remains more … Continue reading Dazzling Deadwood

Mystery Bonsai with Looping Deadwood

Mystery pine with looping deadwood. Here’s a tree that anyone would like to have in their collection. Unfortunately, I don’t know who the lucky owner is. I found it on pinterest, which tends to be a maze of dead ends when it comes to pinning down the source. It looks like it could be a Ryan Neil tree (Bonsai Mirai), but no luck finding it there. Thanks to several people (see comments) I now know that Ryan Neil did style this tree. It was a demo for Bonsai Focus. We almost never do one tree posts, but circumstances insist that … Continue reading Mystery Bonsai with Looping Deadwood

Powerful Jaw Dropping Bonsai Six Months Later

The second place tree at last fall’s Artisans Cup. It’s a Sierra Juniper that belongs to Tim Priest. The other winners are below (if you’re wondering why we’re leading with the second place tree… we’ll we’ve already lead a post with the winner and I’m not so sure I care that much about winners (and by extension losers) anyway. Which begs the question… It has been a few days short of six months since the Artisans Cup; a ground breaking event at the Portland Art Museum that featured more powerful jaw dropping bonsai than most people will ever see in … Continue reading Powerful Jaw Dropping Bonsai Six Months Later

The Artisans Cup – Bonsai Past Present & Future

Look familiar? As an encouragement for you to visit the Artisans Cup website and see for yourself, we’ll break with our tradition and not identify the trees or their owners in this post. We just received a press release from Ryan Neil. It’s about the Artisans Cup, one of the most exciting and innovative bonsai events yet. Anywhere. But Ryan’s press release is not just about what has already happened, it’s also about the future of the Cup and of bonsai. But rather than me telling you about it, we’ll let Ryan speak for himself… “The Artisans Cup, the premier showcase of American bonsai that took place at … Continue reading The Artisans Cup – Bonsai Past Present & Future

Old Bonsai Tell Stories

I like this little tree. It tells a story – any tree that grow to over 250 feet (see below) in optimal conditions and yet looks like this, has a story. It’s a Poderosa pine. I don’t know who collected it, but it belongs to Colin Lewis (unless he sold it). Yesterday was Ponderosa pines, so we’ll continue on that track today. BTW: I didn’t set out to make this post about rare cork bark Ponderosa, but it has headed in that direction, at least in part. This is because some of the photos and text here are from a … Continue reading Old Bonsai Tell Stories

Lava Flow Bonsai

This simple and graceful old tree belongs to Ryan Neil (Bonsai Mirai). Here’s what Ryan’s caption says about it: “Lodgepole Pine. Pinus contorta latifolia. Collected in 2009 from a lava flow in the Cascade Mountains. Rapidly becoming one of Mirai’s favorites!” Interesting how the trunk looks kinda like a lava flow. I have no idea why Lodgepole pine bonsai are so rare, but they are. In the entire history of Bonsai Bark (almost seven years and several thousand bonsai) we have shown only three. Counting the three shown here (we’ve shown the one at the bottom before). Which is to … Continue reading Lava Flow Bonsai

Dwarf Kingsville & Other Boxwood Bonsai

You can tell this is a genuine Dwarf Kingsville boxwood by the tight tiny leaves. This planting by Boon Manakitivipart was the winner of the Certre Award at the 2010 U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Let’s touch back in with boxwoods for a moment (see our post from two days ago). This one originally appeared in September of last year. This post was inspired by an article on boxwoods in Bonsai Mary that sheds some light on the rampant confusion about dwarf boxwoods and particularly, what is and what isn’t a Dwarf Kingsville. Here’s one of the photos from Bonsai … Continue reading Dwarf Kingsville & Other Boxwood Bonsai

Bonsai-San

Two powerful trees from the European Bonsai-San 2015 Show. We lifted all the photos shown here* from Bonsai Empire (something we’ve been doing for a long time). They are from the just completed European Bonsai-San 2015 Show in Saulieu France. Oscar at Bonsai Empire wrote the following: “We thank Stephanie and Frederic Chenal for organizing and allowing us to film the exhibit. Visit their website here. Feel free to share these photos, but please mention the source. Thanks!” We don’t have any information on the artists or the owners of any of the trees shown here, though Oscar offers an … Continue reading Bonsai-San

A Collection of Famous Bonsai in a Lovely Outdoor Setting

Atlas cedar with shadows at the Pacific Bonsai Museum WHOOPS Let’s make that the National Bonsai Museum in Wash DC. From the John Naka collection. Photo by Jonas Dupuich (Bonsai Tonight). By now most of you have been flooded with great photos from the Artisans Cup (with more to come). What you may not have seen are photos from Cup sponsored tours to the Pacific Bonsai Museum with its collection of famous bonsai in a lovely outdoor setting. All the photos below (with the exception of the 5 styles) were taken by my childhood friend Michael Wells. The photos of … Continue reading A Collection of Famous Bonsai in a Lovely Outdoor Setting