Satsuki azalea bonsai

Full Bloom Bonsai – A Passion for Beauty

This wildly colorful Satsuki Azalea is from a Flowering Bonsai Gallery in Bonsai Today issue 65 (image courtesy of Bonsai Focus). If you take a close look at the flowers, you’ll see that there are a number of different shades and patterns. A mark of human passion for beauty and endless variation. There are few things as delightful as Satsuki azalea bonsai in full bloom. Especially in person. Lacking that, next best are high quality photos of Satsuki azalea in full bloom. Especially during the darkest and coldest days of winter. Continued below… NEW INCREASED DISCOUNTS 30% to 35% off … Continue reading Full Bloom Bonsai – A Passion for Beauty

Satsuki Bonsai, with or without Flowers

This must be one of the most perfect Satsuki azalea you’ll see anywhere. It’s sheer power, balance and shape are so spot on that it doesn’t need to be covered with flowers (see below) for its majesty to shine through. I’m pretty sure we’ve shown it before, but a quick search came up empty. I found it somewhere on social media. Unattributed (I can guess it’s from Japan) and unidentified…. Continued below… Three Big Sales End Tomorrow Night 30% off 500 gram Bonsai Wire 25% off Koyo Japanese Bonsai Tools 20% off Okatsune Japanese Bonsai & Garden Tools all three … Continue reading Satsuki Bonsai, with or without Flowers

Spring Is Coming! Only Fourteen Weeks Until Our Bonsai Awaken

The new growth on some Spruce is often a brilliant yellow. Almost like yellow flowers. In this case the spruce is an Ezo (Picea jezoensis). This one resides at the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum as do the other trees in this post. It’s the shortest day of the year and you know what that means…  SPRING is coming! I know it’s too soon and a little crazy and even a little cruel to think this way when we still have about fourteen weeks of cold stretched out in front of us before our bonsai wake up and start making their … Continue reading Spring Is Coming! Only Fourteen Weeks Until Our Bonsai Awaken

Colorful Bonsai to Brighten these Sun-Short Days

This Satsuki azalea photo was taken to emphasis the flowers, rather than the tree. If you were to take a photo of this tree when it’s not in flower, you’d take it a from a point a little lower to better show the powerful trunk and nebari. Here’s a little bonsai color to brighten up these sun-short days. Including four shots from our New 2017 Japanese Calendars… …NEW 2017 Bonsai & Japanese Garden Calendars Now double discounted at Stone Lantern with our 20% to 25% Site Wide Sale This lovely Satsuki Azalea is from our New 2017 Bonsai Calendar   … Continue reading Colorful Bonsai to Brighten these Sun-Short Days

Brilliant Spring Color on a Snowy Winter Morning

Good snowy morning to you. Thought I’d remind you that spring is just around the corner (ha!) by showing you three Satsuki azaleas from our New 2017 Bonsai Calendar. There’s a lot more where these came from. Twenty six specimen quality Japanese bonsai to be exact. SITE WIDE SALE Everything at Stone Lantern now 20% to 25% off* Including our 2017 Calendars time to get a jump on December madness     20% to 25% off Site Wide Sale Bonsai Books make great gifts for any bonsai lover (including yourself) and now all books and everything* else are 20% to … Continue reading Brilliant Spring Color on a Snowy Winter Morning

Fall Transplanting – Timing and a Light Touch

A freshly transplanted Black pine. From our Masters’ Series Pine book. When it comes to transplanting, timing depends on your climate. Here in northern Vermont seasons can change rapidly and winters are very cold. If you live in a warmer climate fall comes later for you and there is more margin for error. One advantage to transplanting in the early fall is when the spring season starts, little or no growing time is lost. Roots grow in the fall when the soil is still warm and after diminished light and cool nights have shut top growth down. By the time … Continue reading Fall Transplanting – Timing and a Light Touch

Sumptuous Satsuki Bonsai & 3 Big Sales End in 2 Days

This sumptuous Satsuki is from Bill Valavanis’ 2014 Japan Satsuki tour. Based on the massive trunk there’s a good chance that it was originally field grown or dug up after a long time in someone’s garden. I was going to make this post about digging from the wild and field growing, but it’s a very large topic and it’s Monday morning and ten thousand emails await, so we’ll just have to postpone until there’s more time to dig (intended) into it. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these two sumptuous Satsuki azaleas. Here’s another powerful Satsuki azalea that may have been … Continue reading Sumptuous Satsuki Bonsai & 3 Big Sales End in 2 Days

Sacrificing for Better Bonsai

The huge girth and dramatic taper on this powerful Satsuki azalea, were achieved primarily through the use of sacrifice branches. In fact, some are still being employed to help thicken the primary branches. This photo is from The Magician: The Bonsai Art of Kimura 2, by Stone Lantern Publishing. I just received an email from Morten Albek about a new post on sacrifice branches on his Shohin Bonsai blog (I pity the poor English teacher reading this). NOTE: it was just pointed out to me that this reads as though I am mocking Morten’s English, but what I was trying … Continue reading Sacrificing for Better Bonsai

Not to Swamp You with So Many Flowering Bonsai…

An exposed-root, semi-cascade Satsuki azalea with passionate pink flowers. The photo was taken by Hiroyuki Suzuki at the recent Ueno Satsuki Festival. I don’t mean to swamp you with so many flowering Satsuki photos these days, but this is (or just was) their time to shine. And most are high quality bonsai that would be worth a look even without the flowers. With the flowers they are brilliant (unless of course, you’ve become completely jaded). For a little change of pace, we’re intentionally staying away from the heavy trunks and featuring exposed-root and other unusual trunks this time. I borrowed all … Continue reading Not to Swamp You with So Many Flowering Bonsai…

More Stunning Bonsai Brilliance

In addition to its stunning (some might say gaudy) floral display, this Satsuki azalea possesses some other powerful features. Though when it’s in full bloom like this, they might be easy to overlook. A couple posts ago we featured some flowering bonsai brilliance from the 2016 Satsuki azalea Bonsai festival at Ueno Park in Tokyo. To continue in the same vein, I thought we would dig up last year’s post on the 2015 Ueno festival. Not only does it have information you might find interesting, but most of you probably haven’t seen it anyway. And if you’re anything like me, even … Continue reading More Stunning Bonsai Brilliance