Bonsai tree: Blazing Bonsai Gallery

The swirl of color and freakishly wild and wonderful form, belongs to Dan Robinson. It’s from Will Hiltz brilliant book (Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees) about Dan and his trees (this one is a Bald cypress, one of the handful a few deciduous conifers on this planet).

It’s that time of year…

This brilliant Boston ivy appears on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 68 and is part of a gorgeous autumn color gallery (Bonsai Today back issues are currently 70% off at Stone Lantern).


A multi-hued Trident maple forest from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum’s North American Collection.

We’ve shown this glorious golden toned Trident before, but it’s worth another look. It belongs to Walter Pall.

As you can see, this is a Virginia creeper belongs to Harry Harrington. It’s from Harry’s most excellent site: bonsai4me.

Here’s another spectacular tree from Will Hiltz brilliant book (Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees). It’s a Korean hornbeam.

It’s the nebari more than the fall color that caught my eye with this Red maple (Acer rubrum). Here in Vermont Red maples usually flame a brilliant scarlet to orange, while this one shows much softer tones. Still, it’s a sweet tree with a sad/sweet story (from Crataegus bonsai).

Root-over-rock larch by Larch Master Nick Lenz (Nick’s benchmark collecting book is on sale at Stone Lantern). Larch are another of the small handful of deciduous conifers.

Danish anyone? This brilliant yellow-green Danish cherry is from Morten Albek’s website (Shohin-Bonsai Europe). Morten is the author of Shohin Bonsai: Majesty in Miniature (also currently on sale at Stone Lantern).

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Bonsai tree: Show trees are full trees

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Show trees are full trees

You’ve heard the phrase if you’ve heard Boon talk about show prep. Full trees demonstrate health and maturity. Although there are exceptions, most bonsai look their best when they’re full.

Fullness means different things for different varieties. I consider the deciduous trees below from Bay Island Bonsai’s recent exhibit to be “full.”

Chinese quince ‘Chojubai’

Root over rock Japanese maple

Shohin trident maple

Some of the other deciduous trees in the exhibit are on their way to becoming full. The trident maple below has a wonderful trunk, but the branches aren’t yet as well-developed.

Trident maple

The same could be said of the trident maple below. The primary branches are in place, as are a number of the secondary branches.

Root over rock trident maple

I’m not very familiar with Amur maples. Based, however on the specimen below, I imagine that they will ramify well in time.

Amur maple

Chinese quince grow quickly in hot and humid weather, less so in more temperate climes like Northern California. In time, however, I expect this tree to ramify well.

Chinese quince

The same can be said for bald cypress, a variety that can develop quickly in the right weather.

Bald cypress

Fullness is a different matter for conifers. Shown year-round with their foliage, conifers are often the fullest trees in winter exhibits. I think of the two Japanese black pines below as being “full.”

Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine

I’ll say the same for the following black pine. Bunjin are not typically as full as non-bunjin bonsai. The bunjin pine below, however, has a thick trunk, and can support the additional foliage. By showing the tree unwired, the artist conveys the tree’s age through the foliage as well as the trunk.

Japanese black pine

The following three pines aren’t as full as the above examples. I expect each to be as full as the above examples after a small number of good growing seasons.

Corkbark white pine

Japanese black pine

Japanese black pine

From the beginning, Bay Island Bonsai exhibits have featured trees at a number of stages in their development. And I think this will be the case for the foreseeable future. The trees in my collections are at wildly different stages, as are the collections of most enthusiasts I know – which is fun, as this means we all have plenty to look forward to as our trees and exhibits improve.

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Bonsai tree: Coming Soon: North American Bonsai at the International Bonsai Symposium

This splendid Japanese maple by Bill Valavanis is from the cover of International Bonsai’s special Maple Issue.
Larch, cedar, bald cypress, buttonwood, Rocky mountain juniper will be all featured September 10-12 in Rochester NY. Meet some excellent bonsai artists and teachers, take a couple workshops and go home happy (visit International Bonsai for details).
…the gallery book North American Bonsai is now double discounted at Stone Lantern. So is The 1st U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Album.

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