Masters of Bonsai Technique

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 Masters of Bonsai Technique

Masters of the Art of Refinement

We don’t usually feature photos with so much background noise. But this bonsai (Trident maple) is phenomenal and the photo has an artistic quality and gives you a sense of place (the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum). The thing that most separates Japanese bonsai from much of the bonsai in the West* is refinement. With deciduous trees this is most obvious when you look at ramification (branch structure and particularly fine branch structure). There are certainly other feature that express refinement, for example taper and nebari, but nothing expresses it more than the development of fine branching. All the bonsai shown here … Continue reading Masters of the Art of Refinement

When Was the Last Time You Saw a Pink Bonsai Pot?

The more I look, the more I love this powerful little bonsai with its proportionally massive trunk and mottled tropical ocean-blue pot that accentuates its bright green leaves (it’s the coffee). The photo is from a section on Takao Koyo in the Japanese Bonsai Pots Blog. The tree is a Trident maple. This all started with a couple pots (below) by Takao Koyo that were recently purchased by Morten Albek and put up on his Shohin Bonsai Blog. A quick search lead to a Takao Koyo jackpot at Ryan Bell’s Japanese Bonsai Pots blog. Here’ a little piece on Takao Koyo … Continue reading When Was the Last Time You Saw a Pink Bonsai Pot?

Luminous Leaves, Glowing Glazes & Contrasting Colors

You don’t see that many bright yellow pots. The glaze is expensive and hard to come by and the brilliance of the color can be overwhelming. But in this case the little tree holds its own. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a better choice of pots to set off the the richly hued Trident maple leaves. The photo, like all the rest in this post, is from Haruyosi’s facebook timeline. I didn’t set off to talk about pot-tree color combinations, but that’s what happened anyway. I guess it’s pretty easy to tell why. I think you could spend a … Continue reading Luminous Leaves, Glowing Glazes & Contrasting Colors

Staying on Theme – New NABF Website

Japanese black pine by Dan Robinson. Dan is known for his dramatically wild collected trees from the American northwest (and Canadian far west). Obviously this Black pine doesn’t fall into that category, though a bit of that wild look is still there. It received a WBFF Certificate of Merit. We’ve been featuring new websites a lot lately so we might as well stay on theme. All the photos in this post are from the new North American Bonsai Federation (NABF) website. NABF is affiliated with the World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF).. One of the things the WBFF is known for … Continue reading Staying on Theme – New NABF Website

Time to Celebrate…

The sky blue pot is the perfect compliment to the light pink flowers on this powerful Satsuki Azalea that resides at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington DC. There are a multitude of cultivars in the Satsuki group of azaleas. This one is a ‘Nikko.’ It was donated to the museum by Masayuki Nakamura. It’s time to celebrate our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum once again. If you are anywhere near our nation’s capital, or plan on being anywhere near, don’t miss this phenomenal display. Even if you have no plans on being near Washington DC, you can … Continue reading Time to Celebrate…

Generalizations Can Also Be Odious

I am struck with the open and relaxed elegance that this pine displays. I wonder what would happen if the relatively heavy first branch was removed. Would it enhance the open elegance or would it rob the tree of its uniqueness? Like all of the photos in this post and the previous two posts, this was taken by Sandor Papp at the 2014 Noelanders Trophy (I cropped most of them to emphasize the individual trees rather than the displays). There was no caption with this tree, so we don’t know who it belongs to, nor do we know the species. … Continue reading Generalizations Can Also Be Odious

Random Pages & A Messy Desk

This unusual Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) is not representative of most of the trees that appear in Fine Bonsai, which tend to be powerful mind-stopppers. Still, there’s something about it, beyond just the fact that it’s so different… Packing and leaving for the West Coast today, so it’s archive time. This will be the third time for this post, which you might view as excessive and I’d have to agree. Except that these photos from Fine Bonsai are great. And, there’s a motive for resorting to a post about a book. We just put up a 25% off book … Continue reading Random Pages & A Messy Desk

Defoliación del Abuelo (Defoliating Grandfather)

Here’s Juan Adrade’s caption for this photo. “Partial defolation on one of the grandfather trees. Close to 100 yrs old (Defoliación de las ramas exteriores en uno de los tridentes del abuelo de mi maestro. Este arbol posiblemente se acerca a los 100 años).” All the photos in this post are from a series of photos on Juan’s facebook feed. Facebook is great if you like photos of children, animals or glassy eyed people over eating at restaurants. If you’re lucky and you have the right friends, you might find good photos of quality bonsai. However, it’s somewhat unusual to … Continue reading Defoliación del Abuelo (Defoliating Grandfather)

Playing It Cool

This freshly defoliated monster Trident maple was just posted on facebook by Juan Andrade, who happens to be the guilty party (see below). We’ve featured Juan here on Bark several times. My best guess is this won’t be last time either. Two monsters. The only thing the connects these two trees, at least as far as I know, is that they are both remarkably large. And very cool too. Two things jump right out about the Trident maple above: its remarkably massive trunk, the base of which almost fills the entire pot, and its most excellent taper (good movement too … Continue reading Playing It Cool