Bonsai tree: Show Time

This Japanese holly won a prize at the Taikan-ten. Photo is from Peter Tea’s blog.

What happens when two American bonsai apprentices help prepare for a major Japanese bonsai show?

A lot of work and energy go into a major bonsai show. What you see are the results; magnificent bonsai beautifully displayed. What you normally don’t see is everything else; the behind scenes efforts that make for a good show. Both Peter Tea (Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en) and Jonas Dupuich (Bonsai Tonight) present a behind the scenes view of the Taikan-ten Bonsai Exhibition* in their latest posts. They also present some great shots of the trees.

* The tree’s Jonas presents have been prepared for four different shows, rather than just the Taiken-ten.

This powerful Black pine is a picture of perfection after a thorough prepping by Jonas. From Bonsai Tonight.

This Hemlock floors me. It’s the ancient bark and the unique top section of the trunk (among other things). From Peter Tea.

This rough bark Japanese maple is one of Peter’s favorite trees at the show.

Another Black pine that Jonas wired and cleaned up to show. In addition to the shear beauty of the tree itself, you might notice how well Jonas cleaned and oiled the pot. Now if everyone who photographs their bonsai would only do the same…


Peter doing some last minute pruning on a Trident maple.

Jonas giving us some scale for this large Japanese Black Pine. Photo by Peter.

The electric toothbrush technique. Photo by Jonas.

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Bonsai tree: Slow Down & Stop Thinking So Much

Michael Hagedorn reworked this collected Sierra juniper (grafted with shimpaku) in a half-day refinement session at the Weyerhaeuser collection in Federal Way, Washington, way back in 2009. The before photo is below.

Sight of the Blind Man

It’s very rare to find writing that explores what goes on with our thoughts and feelings when we work on our bonsai. Mostly we just talk about our trees and what we want to do to them or what we already did to them. That’s why I was surprised and delighted when I read Michael Hagedorn’s latest post on Crataegus Bonsai, Sight of the Blind Man. (it’s actually the second installment in a series; the first installment is The Hook to Hang Your Hat On). Rather than say much more, I’ll provide a little teaser with a link and you can take it from there.

In Michael’s own words…

When I was in graduate school learning ceramics, a friend of mine asked our sculpture teacher when he was demonstrating assembling a work with clay slabs, sticks, and coils, ‘When you’re making those decisions, what are you thinking?’ The teacher paused and replied simply, ‘I’m not thinking at all.’ And he looked at us and carefully warned us of creating and analyzing at the same time, ‘You’ll fail at that. It’s the worst trap of all, thinking while making.’ You can read the whole article on Crataegus Bonsai.

The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk

Most people don’t practice the art writing much (if at all) and therefore don’t write very well, if and when they have to. Michael Hagedorn is the exception. He writes regularly and he writes very well. Some of Michael’s best writing can be found in his delightful and humorous book, Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk.

Michael merging with an old Hemlock group. I wonder what he’s thinking. Before photo from 2010.

Before photo of the old Sierra/Shimpaku juniper at the top of this post.

Michael’s book

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Bonsai tree: Bonsai the Natural Way and the Hand of Man

My best guess is that this powerful old tree is a needle juniper (Juniperus rigida), though I can’t be sure. Whatever it is, it seems to posses an extraordinary number of separate live veins and a massive amount of deadwood to boot. It’s from Gyozan Nakano, Sakai: A 35 Year Anthology (not available in English).

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Bonsai tree: Hemlock group

This Mountain hemlock has been one of those intriguing trees that is so big at 65″ it is almost more of a conversation piece than a bonsai. And yet thinner trunked trees can be considerably taller and still ‘work’ as bonsai. I collected it about 1 1/2 years ago, and put it in pumice in a cedar box that was sort of cobbled together in an effort to have it appear to be on a slope of a hill.
Having dreamed about that hill for a while, at the March 2010 Seasonal we put it on a temporary plywood slab and erected a muck dam and at least got the footings of this unstyled tree underway. The chopsticks drilled into the plywood was a spur of the moment idea. When I woke up that morning I had no idea how to keep that muck wall overhang from falling over.
It may be ready for styling this fall, although I’ve always felt it would be a very light styling. There is already so much of a natural and wild and windy feeling about this group that I won’t be doing much.
Here’s a bit of a photo essay:
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