A Flowering Bonsai, a Pot that Some Would Die For & an Extraordinary Rock

Three major components come together in this colorful root-over-rock bonsai. A flowering tree (Malpighia pendiculata), a pot that some would die for (hand painted Chinese?) and an extraordinarily craggy rock. This bonsai and the others in this post are by Gede Merta. This isn’t the first time that we’ve featured Gede Merta’s bonsai. Nor will it be the last. If you don’t know Gede Merta, then welcome to his garden of tropical bonsai delights. If you already know Gede Merta, then welcome once again… A quick vacation before the Holidays set in, so we’ll resort to some archival action (from … Continue reading A Flowering Bonsai, a Pot that Some Would Die For & an Extraordinary Rock

Handle with Care & Only When Sober

I’m not sure how Nacho Marin did this. Carefully I suppose. His caption reads: “Ceiba Stick, drunk, choricia…. 65 cm (25.5″)” BTW, drunk refers to drunken stick (palo borracho*) a common name for Ceiba, and not, you can assume, to Nacho’s condition while working on the tree. I don’t know anything about Ceiba speciosa (aka Chorisia or Silk floss tree) beyond what I just read on Wikipedia. And though you might wonder why anyone would bother to bonsai such a difficult tree, there’s always the challenge that some humans seem to thrive on and perhaps there’s an interest in novelty … Continue reading Handle with Care & Only When Sober

A Common Mistake?

This image showing three tropical bonsai, each with two different crowns, was originally borrowed from Robert Steven. This post is worth another airing (here’s the original from last year). The topic is something many of us don’t think about that much when designing bonsai, though maybe we should. We’ll let you be the judge. The three trees on the left (above) are tropicals that are shaped like conifers. To Robert Steven and to many others, this a mistake. A common mistake to be sure, but still a mistake. The three trees on the right have more rounded and therefore natural … Continue reading A Common Mistake?

American Tropical Bonsai, Hurricane Andrew & One Penjing

Would you say that this prize winning Ficus neriifolia by Ed Trout looks relaxed and sensuous? Maybe, but it’s hard to deny its powerful trunk and nebari which lend stability to the tree’s natural uncontrived look. Monday morning and too much going on around here, so it’s time to dig into our archives once again. This one is from all the way back in April 2010. It was titled Tropical Bonsai with Mary Miller & Friends. I’ve enlarged and brightened the photos a bit, and done a little rewriting. All the photos were originally from Bonsai Mary. Mary Miller is … Continue reading American Tropical Bonsai, Hurricane Andrew & One Penjing

Don’t Do It Too Soon but Don’t Wait Too Long

You don’t often see half defoliated trees. You also don’t often see photos of bonsai with both side chopped off, but there was too much noise in the background so this is my solution (you can see the uncropped version here). The tree is a Ficus and the photo is originally from Eduardo Mourão Guedes’s post at Indonesian Bonsai Society. I couldn’t find a live link there but I did find one here. If you live in the tropics you can defoliate a tree like the one above any time of year. However, if you want to defoliate a Ficus … Continue reading Don’t Do It Too Soon but Don’t Wait Too Long

Wild Horses, Dramatic Bonsai, but No Snow!

That’s a tiny horse standing on a rock cliff. Which begs the question, do wild horses ever venture onto rocky cliffs, or do they avoid them? My guess is the later, but in this case it makes for a little more drama in an already dramatic and perfectly arranged scene by Li, Hung-Chien. The trees are Premna microphylla. The other day we featured a dramatic juniper bonsai by a Mr. Chiu Chung Cheng, a Taiwanese bonsai artist. It had been a while since we’d shown any bonsai from Taiwan and if you know Taiwanese bonsai, you know just how spectacular … Continue reading Wild Horses, Dramatic Bonsai, but No Snow!

Garden of Tropical Bonsai Delights

Three major components come together in this colorful root-over-rock bonsai. A flowering tree (Malpighia pendiculata), a pot that some of us would die for (hand painted Chinese?) and an extraordinarily craggy rock. This bonsai and the others in this post are by Gede Merta. This isn’t the first time that we’ve featured Gede Merta’s bonsai. Nor will it be the last. If you don’t know Gede Merta, then welcome to his garden of tropical bonsai delights. If you already know Gede Merta, then welcome once again… Do you see it? The Valentine heart? Normally we wouldn’t point that out, … Continue reading Garden of Tropical Bonsai Delights

Flowering Bonsai & some other Good News

This is the first and only Fuchsia bonsai we’ve shown. Until now, that is (see below). It’s from a post we did two years ago. We originally found it at Aus Bonsai. Tropical and semi-tropical flowering plants are common and abundant, though not all are suitable for bonsai. This has a lot to do with leaf size, as many have leaves that are too large for bonsai (you can reduce leaf size to some degree, but in most cases it’s best to start out with plants that have small leaves and short internodes). Two good warm climate flowering plants that … Continue reading Flowering Bonsai & some other Good News

Robert’s Bonsai & Our Disclaimer

Premna is all Robert Steven says about this remarkable tree, but maybe that’s enough; it can tell its own story of a wild life with more than its fair share of abuse (like some people we might know). As you may have noticed, we feature Robert Steven’s bonsai more than any other artist, so maybe it’s time to issue a disclaimer. But before we do that, we’ll note that Robert is one of the most prolific and talented bonsai artists we know. Beyond that, he teaches bonsai to a depth seldom seen and he expresses boundless energy and enthusiasm in … Continue reading Robert’s Bonsai & Our Disclaimer

Stumbling Upon Some Strange & Wonderful Bonsai After Six Plus Years of Blissful Ignorance

I’ve never seen a bonsai quite like this. It would be unusual even without that long joining root and those stubby trees in the back. With these almost alien features (and others), it stands alone as an absolute one-of-a-kind bonsai. It is also the only photo in this group (from bonsai4me) to give the artist’s name (Richard R Gomez) and the type tree (Strebulus asper). This is a first. A post on bonsai in the Philippines. After over six years of blissful ignorance, I discovered these wonderful (and in some cases, strange) bonsai by accident this morning. I won’t bore … Continue reading Stumbling Upon Some Strange & Wonderful Bonsai After Six Plus Years of Blissful Ignorance