Bonsai tree: Weekly Wire #4

The Adachi Museum Garden is featured the Japan Journey’s Gardens of Japan tour next month (Nov 11-22). Though I’ve never been to the Adachi gardens, judging from the photos, I just might agree with those who say it’s among the world’s most glorious gardens; Japanese or otherwise.

Bonsai clubs. Looking for a Bonsai Club near you? Here’s the ABS Bonsai Club Directory.

Calendars. Our 2012 Bonsai calendars are coming soon. Stay posted.



The Mid-Atlantic 2012 Spring Festival is scheduled for April 20-22. This excellent show has long been a premier East Coast bonsai event.

Our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. We’ve received all the final submissions and the judges have been notified. Next, comes the judging (it will be blind – they’ll receive no names with the photos), and finally the posting of the results. Please be patient. All this will take time (my best guess is at least a month to get everything sorted out).

The Green Club. If you’re ever in Japan, you don’t want to miss the world’s most famous bonsai market. A while back we featured a post on Japan’s Green Club. Now, Bonsai Tonight is offering you the opportunity to dig deeper into this wonderful world of magnificent and often astoundingly pricey bonsai for sale.



China tour. I think there is still space available for Dan Robinson’s Elandan China tour (April 2012).



Plant City Bonsai is offering Advanced Classes with Warren Hill Oct 29th & 30th.

The National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia. I’ve seen Bottlebrush used as street trees in San Francisco, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an impressive Bottlebrush bonsai (I have seen overpriced little commercial Bottlebrush online). Until now that is. This one is part of the National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia in Canberra. The artist is Derek Oakley.

Mountain lake from the Minnesota Bonsai Society’s Newsletter. They are offering a tool maintenance class, Nov 15.

More fall color. The other day we featured a fall color gallery (Blazing Bonsai). Continuing in that vibrant vein, here’s one we missed. It’s a Japanese maple from Morten Albek’s Shohin blog. Morten is the author of Majesty in Miniature: Shohin Bonsai.

The Kusamura Bonsai Club (Palo Alto, California) is offering a potting party Nov 13th. Their annual bonsai show is scheduled for April 21-22 2012.
This strange and wild bunjin finishes with an unconventional (and a little unsettling) pincer-like flourish at the top. It popped up on facebook; which brings up the facebook dilemma.

The facebook dilemma

Bonsai photos abound on facebook and I suppose this is a good thing. The problem is, often the trees are unattributed, or even falsely attributed. I know this doesn’t matter to many people, but if you’re interested in what a tree is and who styled it, you’re often left in the dark. This is the case with the strange, but kind of compelling tree above. I’d be interested to see Robert Steven do a critique on this one.

Bonsai with Japanese Maples. Paul Stokes has some book reviews on his web magazine, of Bonsai. Here’s one on Bonsai with Japanese Maples (available at Stone Lantern) you might find helpful, especially if you are growing or thinking or growing any of these superb trees (BTW: interestingly, the tree on the cover is a Trident maple, not a Japanese maple).

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Bonsai tree: Create A Bonsai Garden in a Planter!

Image via Wikipedia

By Jennifer Akre

A bonsai garden is the picture of peace and tranquility. The time and dedication that goes into the trimming of each small piece of branch to allow the tree to blossom into a unique shape is a natural art form to behold.

The hobby of growing and shaping bonsai trees has gained in popularity in recent years. Some enjoy the relaxation it brings. Others like to watch the trees as they continue to grow into a new shape. Creating a center of peace, such as this, in your backyard is easier than you think.

In order to create your bonsai garden, you are going to need to start with bonsai trees, outdoor planters, and a plan. You don’t want all the trees side by side, you want to space the outdoor planters out, so you can walk to each tree and appreciate it, but not feel crowded by other trees.

You may want to walk around your garden space a few times to get a good feel for where the trees should sit. You want to make sure where they are allows for a natural view of the trees with no distractions.

When selecting the outdoor planters for your bonsai tree, you need to keep in mind the overall impact it is supposed to have, little to none. The outdoor planters are not what you are trying to show off. They are simply the vessels that are supporting the bonsai trees that you are raising. That means the outdoor planters you choose should not be showy or over the top. Instead they should be natural looking pieces that add to the overall effect of the tree in them.



In addition to the outdoor planters you may want to add other items to your bonsai garden to complete the image of serenity.

Water is a very calming force, and can also have that effect in your garden. You can bring this extra calming impact to your bonsai garden by putting a fountain in between your outdoor planters. There are many completely built fountains on the market that you can put in place, with little to no fuss, plug in and let them flow.

Want something a little bigger? What about a small Koi pond in the middle of your garden? If you are very creative and want a weekend project to really add some oomph to your bonsai garden, you could create your own babbling brook that runs through the garden space. This will involve all the elements of a pond building kit, plus some creative additions.

A final touch to your bonsai garden may be to add another style of garden to it. You can install a small Zen rock garden. The rakes and rocks are easy enough to buy and you can create a frame out of a few pieces of wood. Fill with very find white sand, place the rocks, and take your time creating an energetic design in the surface, as your days stresses melt away.

Jennifer Akre, owner of numerous online specialty shops, shares her insight on how to create more space outside your home by using decorative teak planters, charming planter boxes and sturdy teak garden planters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Akre

http://EzineArticles.com/?Outdoor-Planters—Use-Them-to-Create-a-Bonsai-Garden&id=859449
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Bonsai tree: Japanese bonsai garden

Source: Bonsai Tonight
Japanese bonsai garden

I don’t know whose garden this is, but I am impressed by the trees. The group plantings remind me of the bonsai from Saburo Kato’s nursery, but I haven’t been there in over 10 years and cannot say for sure. Enjoy!

Bonsai garden

Kuromatsu

Kaede

Nishiki matsu

Goyomatsu

Shimpaku

Yose-ue

Yose-ue

Yose-ue

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Bonsai tree: Backyard Bonsai #10

This isn’t necessarily the best shot of these gardens. I picked it because I think the mountain in the background gives a good sense of place (somewhere in Italy).

Antonio Gesualdi’s Bonsai Garden

I found these photos on facebook. They are part of album entitled AIkI BONSAI EN… my Bonsai Garden by Antonio Gesualdi. Though none of the photo are perfect, still, they capture the delights of Antonio’s little piece of bonsai and garden paradise.

Our backyard bonsai tradition

We’ve been occasionally putting up photos of backyard bonsai displays almost since our beginning, way back in the recesses of time (more than two years now). Here’s our last one. Good ones aren’t that easy to find, but this one certainly qualifies. If you’ve got photos of yours, I’d love to see them

A pond and bridge and plenty of other Japanese influenced landscaping features that go well with bonsai.





I like this shot. Even though there’s a lot going on, this corner of the garden seems lush and peaceful. It also shows a lot of very large bonsai.

Two very powerful trunks and a blue blue sky.

Antonio’s outdoor tokonoma.


Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Bonsai tree: Backyard Bonsai #9

A piece of Christian Przybylsk’s garden (I took the liberty of cropping his photo a little). If you visit his site you can see the uncropped original, as well as over a dozen backyard photos that are not included in this post. Like this one, they are more about the garden than the bonsai, but still, there are enough bonsai sprinkled around for you to get the idea.


Picking up an old thread

Way back in May 2009 we started a series called Backyard Bonsai. Most of the eight previous posts are from 2009 and early 2010, though the last one is from just a few days ago (David Benavente’s, which I didn’t include as part of the series because it is clearly a commercial situation and the others – with one or two possible borderline cases – are just bonsai enthusiast’s backyards).

A bit of a mystery

The one featured here belongs to Christian Przybylsk. He’s a bit a mystery to me; I don’t know much about him beyond the fact that his site is in German and his email address indicates that he lives in Germany; and that he’s an accomplished bonsai artist and landscaper. Maybe that’s enough.



The bonsai in this shot are difficult to see. Still. it shows another view of a well-designed backyard; and if you look closely, you’ll see what looks like a stump (middle left) where you might imagine a bonsai is sometimes displayed.





It’s not exactly Christian’s yard, but it’s a pretty good bonsai. If you go here, you can see how Christian transformed this tree from partially developed stock, to this finished (for the moment) gem.

Source: Bonsai Bark Read more!

Bonsai tree: Gardens of Kyoto

These pics were taken around Kyoto in the summer of 2010. Included are shots from Hieizan, Nanzen-ji, Koto-in, Daitoku-ji, Ryoan-ji, Arashiyama, and a few others. Enjoy!

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Backyard Bonsai

Up against the wall! I borrowed this from Rosade Bonsai Studio website. You don’t need new glasses; it’s a little fuzzy because I increased the size to fit it into our format.
I don’t know who lives here, or even what country it’s in. Maybe it’s Spain. I ran into Chase and Solita Rosade there in 2007 at a large show at Mistral Bonsai.
As we mentioned then, it’s a good place with friendly people, and, as far as I know, nothing has changed.






The unfuzzy, uncropped original. Read more!