Friday, December 30, 2011

Bonsai tree: A Rare & Wonderful Bunjin Bonsai

This Eastern white pine (Pinus Strobus) was donated to the Chicago Botanic Garden by Jim Doyle (Nature’s Way Nursery). The photo is by Steve Moore (Bonsai in Hoosierland).

Common but very uncommon

There are three things that I find striking about this tree: first, it’s an Eastern white pine, a tree that you almost never see as a bonsai, even though it’s quite common here in the Northeast. Second, it’s skinny but old (the bark gives it away). Another rarity when it comes to Eastern white pines. Third, it’s a good bunjin bonsai, healthy and understated, with just enough graceful movement to please the eye. Even the long shaggy needles are so delicate, soft and vibrant, that their length isn’t really a problem (these long shaggy needles is one reason you almost never see Pinus strobus bonsai). Maybe this tree will serve as an inspiration to others and we’ll see more Eastern white pine bonsai in the future.

This short post wraps up another year of Bonsai Barking. Thank you for sticking with us over the last three years (that’s about 500 posts worth). May your bonsai be healthy and beautiful and may you enjoy a Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Bonsai tree: Taikan-ten – awesome bonsai


Source: Bonsai Tonight
Taikan-ten – awesome bonsai

I hope it’s been obvious from my recent posts, but in case it isn’t, I’d like to underscore the fact that the great bonsai exhibits in Japan feature some really great trees. The Taikan-ten in Kyoto is the second largest exhibit in Japan and it always includes some outstanding trees. Special displays feature Kokufu and Sakufu prize-winners. These are typically very large and very old bonsai. It can be difficult to keep such trees healthy, let alone move them from one bench to another. Their beauty reflects not only great bonsai skill, but also great caring as their maintenance over long periods of time requires considerable resources.

Although the show isn’t organized by size or variety, I’ve taken license in presenting like groups of trees for dramatic effect. Doing this helps remind me just how many fantastic pines, for instance, the show contained.

I hope you enjoy the photos below, and I’d like to wish you all a happy new year!  I appreciate your readership and engaged comments – they mean a lot to me. To borrow a phrase from Peter Tea, thanks for reading!

Black pine

Japanese black pine from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Black pine

Japanese black pine – work by a Daiju-en graduate

Black pine

Japanese black pine – from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Black pine

Japanese black pine

Black pine

Japanese black pine displayed at this year’s Gomangoku

Black pine

Japanese black pine

Black pine

Semi-cascade Japanese black pine

Black pine

Japanese black pine on a rock

Black pine

Cascade Japanese black pine

White pine

Japanese white pine from Mr. Moriyama’s collection – one of the trees I helped prepare for the exhibit

White pine

Japanese white pine

White pine

Japanese white pine – although the pot looks new, it’s likely over 100 years old

White pine

Japanese white pine – a great conversation piece

White pine

Japanese white pine

Hemlock

Hemlock – a favorite among many Taikan-ten visitors

Hinoki

Formal upright hinoki bonsai

Ezo spruce

Ezo spruce

Ezo spruce

Ezo spruce

Needle juniper

Needle juniper

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Shiimpaku

Roughbark maple

Roughbark Japanese maple

Trident maple

Trident maple – from Mr. Moriyama’s collection

Japanese winterberry - ilex serrata

Japanese winterberry – work by a Daiju-en graduate

Japanese maple

Japanese maple

Ginkgo

Ginkgo

Korean hornbeam

Korean hornbeam

Maple

Japanese maple – possibly shishigashira

Chojubai

Japanese flowering quince – ‘Chojubai’

Kadsura

Kadsura

Satsuki azalea

Satsuki azalea
Read more!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Bonsai tree: Weekly Wire: Tasmania! Tule Fog & an Unimpressive LittleBaobab

Holy Toledo! (as my dad used to say). Great tree and a most excellent photo. Now if everyone only paid this much attention to detail when they shoot their bonsai. It belongs to Piotr Czerniachowski (here’s a YouTube demo by Piotr) and has been accepted for the 2012 Noelanders Trophy exhibition. I found the photo on facebook.

Speaking of the Noelanders Trophy Exhibition, here a tree from their 2011 show. I lifted it from this YouTube video. If it looks familiar to you, it might be because we featured it in a post almost two years ago (that photo is much better than this one)


The Houston Bonsai Society already has a complete 2012 calendar up (I won’t say anything about Fresno or some others, except that in three days it will be 2012 already). Anyway, HBS has a great site with a current monthly newsletter (here’s December) and much more. Note: Apologies to the good folks in Fresno. For some reason I seem to be picking on them these days. Maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for the San Joaquin Valley with its searing heat and delightful country culture (see below).


While we’re in the San Joaquin Valley, we might as well visit the Modesto Bonsai Club (Modesto is where I experienced the joys and sorrows of childhood, which might help explain why I like to pick on Fresno). Sad to say, the Modesto club’s site appears to be about one year behind. Still, I expect the good folks of that glorious part of the country are still plugging away at their bonsai (while enjoying their famous Tule fog).

Tasmania! Not too far from Modesto, we’ve got Southern Tasmania (just kidding). I’ve always wanted to visit Tasmania, partly because it’s so far away (excluding Anartica, I don’t think you can get any farther away from Vermont than Southern Tasmania) and partly just because it’s Tasmania (most people couldn’t find it on a map if their life depended on it). The Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society’s site is up to date (here’s their December newsletter), always a good sign.

BTW: we received a nice note from Noel Kemp, the president of the Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society. You can read it below, at the bottom of this post.


Seen one, seen them all. Rhona Meislik standing in front of a young, somewhat unimpressive Baobab tree in South Africa. (Okay, I’m kidding, but it is Rhona and it is a Baobab). From Jerry and Rhona’s recent South African bonsai tour. Among other things, Jerry is the author of Ficus, the Exotic Bonsai (retail 27.95, on special at Stone Lantern for 19.95).


2012 Bonsai Calendars. We’ve still got a handful left. They won’t last much longer, so don’t wait if you want to enjoy world-class bonsai every time you check the date.



A Hawaiian bonsai story. From the Fuku Bonsai website: “In 1989 Fuku-Bonsai sprayed defective Benlate contaminated with weed killers and suffered catastrophic losses that totaled over $30 million.  With the support and assistance of many individuals and organizations throughout the Big Island of Hawaii, we survived, reinvented the company, and are now rebuilding and expanding.” It boggles the mind to think that there were thirty million dollars worth of bonsai in the entire country, let alone at one nursery.

The twist. I debated whether to show you this tree because I didn’t like the smudgy gunk on the background. But, in the end, the tree won me over and I just couldn’t resist. It, and several other notable bonsai, belong to Francois Gau.



Bonsai in northern Indiana. This banner is from a link on the Fort Wayne Bonsai Club website about their spring and fall bonsai shows at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory in downtown Fort Wayne. BTW: The FWBC calendar is up to date.

Back to Tasmania: A note from Noel Kemp, the president of the Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society.

Dear Wayne

Having just read your recent posting I shall take you up on your offer of letting you know about our Exhibition, in April, next year. Still a while away, but if people are planning a trip “Down Under”, advanced notice of events is usually a good thing.

We, the Bonsai Society of Southern Tasmania, are a small, but persistent Society, having been established in 1984.  We have waxed and waned in numbers over the years, and are currently in a strong position (as we were last year), to put on our second show.  Our inaugural Exhibtion, last (austral) Spring was a great success, which is why we have decided on a repeat performance. This one will be in the Autumn (“Fall”), next year, to show the public a different – seasonal- aspect of bonsai.

Although the notice is not yet on our site, your readers might like to look us up, in advance:

http://www.chooseit.org.au/bonsai/index.html

The Exhibition will be in Rosny (a suburb of Hobart):

14-15th April, 2012, at the Rosny Barn (an early 19th Century – old for Australia! – stone building), which has been refurbished inside and which is now a top-rate exhibition area; it is much sought after by artists for their shows.  In fact, having visited many bonsai shows on the mainland (as in, the big isle, up there, to the north of Tassy) I can honestly say that the Barn is one of the best venues for a bonsai show that I have seen.

Thanks in anticipation for passing this on to bonsai enthusiasts, and keep sending your Stone Lantern Newsletter, thanks!

With kind regards,

Noel

Noel R Kemp

President, Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Bonsai tree: Eccentric Bonsai: Too Strange, or Just Strange Enough?

Strange as this magnificent old tree is, it all works together to with a perfect blend of eccentricity and balance. But the nebari? That takes some getting use to. (This photo and the others in this post are from Peter Tea Bonsai.)

A good place to start resurrecting

Way back in 2009 and early 2010 we ran a series of posts that we called Eccentric Bonsai (here’s the last one). Maybe it’s time to resurrect the series. If so, this absolutely unique Trident maple seems like a good place to start.

Borrowing from Peter…

As you may have noticed, we’ve featured several posts from Peter Tea’s blog lately (Peter is an apprentice at Mr. Junichiro Tanaka’s Aichi-en bonsai nursery). Peter takes good photos, writes with a fresh perspective, and knows something about bonsai. To an old editor and bonsai enthusiasts, that’s an unbeatable combination.

Here’s that nebari, and here’s what Peter has to say about it: “A close up of the root spread.  Even the root spread of this tree is strange.  Answer me this, would a more natural radial root base go well with the rest of the tree? or vise versa?  My first impression of this root base was, “what is this?”  When I looked at the overall tree again this root spread turned out to be so right for this tree (there is an important lesson to learn here).  If you don’t believe me, look at the picture of the front of the tree again.  ;o).”




A profusion of very small, very colorful fall leaves almost completely cover the tree’s eccentric nature.

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Bonsai tree: Enjoying a bonsai show


Source: Bonsai Tonight
Enjoying a bonsai show

Walking through a bonsai show is a great way to pass an afternoon – or longer if the show is particularly large or excellent. But spending a whole day at a bonsai exhibit? Two days? Three? That’s a different story. I was surprised to find myself with a lot of free time at several great exhibits this fall. After wandering the aisles for several hours on consecutive days, I found there were many different ways to take in all that a show has to offer.

Kinzu

Citrus japonica ‘Hindsii’ – Kinzu, or wild kumquat

At first I spent a lot of time looking at my favorite trees, or trees that triggered enough dissonance to keep me engaged. I looked at the branches, the wiring, the style and the health of the tree. Sometimes I’d ponder the display or try to figure out what I’d do with such a tree were it my own.

Japanese flowering quince - 'Chojubai'

Japanese flowering quince – ‘Chojubai’

Needle juniper

Needle juniper

This approach only kept me occupied for so long. During my second full day at Gomangoku, I searched out all of the black pines and really focused on how they were styled. During my third full day at the exhibit, I studied the relationship between trees and pots, asking myself if I liked the color, shape, size and style of the containers in which the bonsai were growing. At one point I caught myself focusing on the accent plants and even on the mini-slabs on which the accents were displayed. In short, I found there was a lot to learn from quality exhibits.

White pine

White pine

The photos in this post come from this year’s Taikan-ten in Kyoto. I don’t know that I saw the program for the event, but I spent a lot of time studying the trees. I think the only reading I did about the exhibit focused on a remarkable pine from Daiju-en that “survived the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima.”

Japanese black pine - survived Hiroshima

Japanese black pine


Card displayed with remarkable pine

Everything else I gleaned from the exhibit resulted from studying the trees on display and talking about the trees with Peter Tea and other visitors. I don’t recall what exactly struck me about these trees as I stood before them, but it likely resembled the questions and comments below.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku – what fun movement and dense foliage.

Trident maple

Trident maple – wow, the trunk fills the pot. Good fall color, and interesting glaze on the pot.

Princes persimmon

Princess persimmon with great fruit – I really want to develop more fruiting bonsai because they provide great color for exhibits.

Japanese black pine

Black pine – very unusual movement. What is the ideal pot for such a trunk?

Accent

Great fall color – interesting pot.

Satsuki

Old satsuki azalea

Persimmon

Elegant princess persimmon – nice open display

Satsuki

Giant trunk for a satsuki – is the pot a good fit?

White pine

White pine on a rock – these were always heavier than I expected

White pine

Unusual white pine planting – it might be fun to create more interesting “containers” for my trees.

Shimpaku

Shimpaku with small scroll

Japanese black pine

Formal upright black pine – wish I had a few.

White pine

White pine with striking first branch – how would I style such a tree?

Japanese maple

Japanese maple – great color, great trunk, great roots. Nice composition.

White pine

White pine with really long key branch

White pine

White pine clump on a slab. This is clearly the year for non-traditional white pine bonsai.

White pine

Great white pine – massive base, and the tree was only about a foot tall.

Japanese black pine

Black pine

Shimpaku

Shimpaku

Flowering apricot - ume

Japanese flowering apricot – ume

Shimpaku

Shimpaku with awesome movement. Wow. Really pretty tree. How fun to pick a pot to complement the trunk.

Rock planting

What’s the name of this tree again? I looked it up when I got home. It’s a Japanese pepper tree – Zanthoxylum piperitum, known as isozanshou in Japan. I’d like to find one to work on.

Korean hornbeam

Korean hornbeam

Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine – a comforting tree to admire. The base is large but not overpowering. The round apex and branch pads give the tree a soft feeling that complements the round bends in the trunk.

The pine above was one of many nice pines on display, and one of the many great bonsai in the hall. Enough so that I didn’t even try to take it all in at once. The sales area made for the best distraction – that and the snack bar. I’ll take a short break now and share more photos from the show later this week.
Read more!