Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

This photo is from our first Bonsai Bark post. January 26th, 2009. We finally threw the switch and now you can visit our Brand New Stone Lantern Website. It’s a huge improvement and I’m sure you’ll like it As an encouragement to get you over there, we added some bonuses… every single item is on special. Some for as much as 50% off. And we’ve got several new items that weren’t on our old site And if that’s not enough, we’re offering an additional 10% off on everything for orders 50.00 or more, provided you put the sale code LAUNCH … Continue reading Visit Our New Stone Lantern Site for Your Bonsai Essentials – We’re Sure You’ll Like It!

No Switch Last Night, Specials Extended & a Humble Bonsai/Landscaping Experiment

This photo was taken in 2010. It’s one of my small man made landscaping hills for field growing future bonsai. Most of the little trees you see here have been dug. Some of the ones that are still there aren’t that much bigger than they were nine years ago (this might have something to do with our seriously short growing season) I give up. For the moment at least…. We didn’t throw the switch to our new Website last night. I jumped the gun with yesterday’s announcement, and now I’m wiping egg off my face (humiliation goes well with mixed … Continue reading No Switch Last Night, Specials Extended & a Humble Bonsai/Landscaping Experiment

Boon’s American Larch – Which Pot Do You Prefer?

One American larch, five pots (the original pot is below). If things go according to plan (when did that ever happen?) this will be our last post in this tired old software. Starting tomorrow morning our posts will show on the ‘front page’ of our NEW Website (wish us luck!) What better way to end an era and begin another than with two of our favorites, Boon and the American larch? Continued below… FOUR SPRING SPECIALS END tonight when WE THROW THE SWITCH* 25% OFF BONSAI WIRE FOR 3 OR MORE ROLLS 35% OFF ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS 25% OFF … Continue reading Boon’s American Larch – Which Pot Do You Prefer?

Flowers, a Tiny Lizard & Other Bonsai Wonders

It’s almost that time of year. Here’s David Benavente’s caption… Rhododendron indicum “Shin Nikko” hoy, en plena floración (today in full bloom). 45x55cm (18″ x 21.5″) We’re still working on finishing touches for our soon-to-be launched new website. Stay posted, I think you’re going to like it. Meanwhile time is of essence so we’ll take our trusty old shortcut. This one is from May of last year. It’s been a while since we’ve featured David Benavente and his Estudio de Bonsái. It’s in Galapagar, Spain. Just outside of Madrid. The photos are from David’s timeline FOUR SPRING SPECIALS 25% OFF BONSAI … Continue reading Flowers, a Tiny Lizard & Other Bonsai Wonders

When Can You Call It Bunjin?

Bunjin (aka Literati), a style you don’t see too much in the West. I think it’s difficult to do bunjin properly. It defies our tendency to fill up space. Adding rather than subtracting, where subtracting all the way down to bare bones seems to be one of the keys. There’s much more, but I’m not that versed in the topic, so we’ll leave it at that This is the third consecutive day of our virtual visit to Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai. Today it’s some pines in Michael’s portfolio that caught my eye. Though it started unintentionally, there’s a progression based … Continue reading When Can You Call It Bunjin?

One of the Best Pieces of Bonsai Advice…

This old collected Rocky Mountain juniper is from Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai portfolio. Spent long days all weekend rewriting my old copy for all 700 or so of our products for our new, soon to be live website. It’s a big job, but essential. If you don’t believe me, read some of our current, soon to be replaced thirteen year old website and you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, I’m not finished yet and time is still compressed, so it’s back to our archives. This one originally appeared here in April, 2015. It’s one of the best pieces of bonsai … Continue reading One of the Best Pieces of Bonsai Advice…

Blue Skies & Beautiful Bonsai

There’s a lot to like about a good Stewartia like this, including the fine ramafication (branching). Only years of careful trimming can accomplish this. There’s also the strong nebari that offers a sense of stability and a sign of age on any good Stewartia. And then there’s the beauty of the exfoliating bark with its soft reddish shades. All this makes for a masterpiece bonsai. I cropped the original photo for a closer look (it’s below with the original caption) We can’t stay away from Luis Vallejo’s Bonsai Museum for very long. Though I don’t have time to count, I’d … Continue reading Blue Skies & Beautiful Bonsai

That Rugged Yamadori Look in a Tropical Bonsai World

An an ancient sinuous root stand in Robert Steven’s tropical bonsai world Continuing with Robert Steven (see day before yesterday) with some of my favorites he has posted over the years. There are many more to be sure, but these provide some powerful glimpses. They are all from his fb timeline TWO NEW SPECIALS 25% OFF BONSAI WIRE FOR 3 OR MORE ROLLS 35% OFF ROSHI BONSAI TOOLS Specials include items already discounted – This and the other trees shown here all have that rugged collected-from-the-wild (yamadori) look A simple tree with its gnarled time-twisted trunk, leans into the … Continue reading That Rugged Yamadori Look in a Tropical Bonsai World

Bonsai Deadwood, Too Much or Just Right?

This unusual full cascade Juniper will no doubt put off some of our anti-deadwood folks, but to my eyes, it’s an expressive and dynamic tree. Cascade shots are normally taken from a point that shows the tree cascading down one side of the pot, but in this case the pot is hidden by the tree, which creates a whole different effect. Still busy putting finishing touches on our soon to be New Website, so we’ll take a short cut and dip back into our archives… All the photos shown here were taken by Andres Bicocca at the 2017 European Bonsai … Continue reading Bonsai Deadwood, Too Much or Just Right?

Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest

This elegant composition is a small piece of a mixed media show that Robert Steven put together (with a little help from his friends) at the Pasar Seni Art Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. If you are near Jakarta, there’s still time to catch it before it closes (March 7th is the last day) I originally found this mixed media bonsai event on Robert Steven’s fb timeline. Most of the text is in Malay and rather than rely on machine translation, I ask Robert if he could write something for this post. Here it is, in his own words… “This was … Continue reading Warming Up for the 2020 International Bonsai ArtFest