Bonsai tree: Art from National Museum

115 years in training! This dignified old Zelkova serrata lives at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. It was donated by Yoshibumi Itoigawa and has been in training since 1895.
The photos in this post are from last year’s Autumn Arts of Nature exhibition at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington DC.
Yosa Buson (1716-83)
 
Sotdae. Kusamono: Pygmy bamboo (Pleioblastus pygmaeus) & Wild Ducks. Artwork created by Sam-Kyun Yoon. Inspired by a traditional Korean folk art called sotdae. Placing large sotdae at the entrance to a village is a very old Korean tradition still practiced today. The carved ducks atop tall wooden poles are thought to guard against calamities and disasters.

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Bonsai tree: Bonsai balance

There are few concepts more central to bonsai than “balance”. The California buckeye below strikes me as a well-balanced composition. The foliage, ramification, trunk, pot and stand all work well together.

California Buckeye – Aesculus californica

The photos here are from the Bay Area Bonsai Associates’ 28th annual show. Like so many good exhibits, it provides ample opportunities for thinking about balance.
The cryptomeria below is a favorite of mine. There are few good examples of the variety around, and only a fraction of these are shohin. When I squint my eyes and focus on the tree’s silhouette, however, I notice that the trunk is surprisingly thin. For the foliage to be balanced with the trunk, I would expect either a thicker trunk or thinner foliage – a subtle point for such a nice specimen.

Cryptomeria japonica

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Bonsai tree: Bonsai Drawing by Patrick Giacobbe

If you paid attention to our recent Bonsai Art Contest, you will remember that Patrick Giacobbe won first prize with his Graphite on Bristol board drawing. Here is another Graphite on Bristol board drawing that Patrick submitted.

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Bonsai tree: Grafting a Ponderosa Pine

I have been grafting smaller ponderosas with black pine and red pine for some time. Before I went to Japan I grafted a very small ponderosa with 10 Mikawa Black pine scions. So I had eight grafts on a small tree…and then when I styled it years ago, I only used two grafts to create the tree, and cut the rest off. People in my backyard have been surprised it is grafted as the black pine and ponderosa bark match so well.
The first photo: A few grafts on a bankan (twisted-trunk) Ponderosa pine. The scions are a black/red pine hybrid, which I chose for the thin Red pine-looking needles. This tree has a very Red pine feel to it. And ponderosa foliage on small and moderate sized trees just does not look good to me. I know for some this is controversial, but it does look a lot better than the ugly grafted trees we see with black pine base and white pine top. And it is a way to use the wonderful material we have in a new way.

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Bonsai tree: Wiring tricks and tips

We all know you can add curves to a branch that is too straight, but did you know that you can also use wire to shorten a branch that is too long?

Now it’s much shorter and much more interesting.
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Bonsai tree: Larch in a sphere

I had a fantastic weekend at this event, I exhibited this Larch in an unusual setting, part of the innovations display. Read more!

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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Bonsai tree: No name bonsai galery

Have you ever seen a trunk quite like this? A Kimura yew that we posted a while back has some gaps, but this one has more space than trunk. It would be good to see the tree close up to better understand exactly what the artist did and how the pieces come together somewhere around mid-tree. All the photos are by Hans Vleugels of Belgium.
We have seen lots of online photos that show trees without the artist’s names. Some, like the ones in this post, can be found on reputable sites, that for some reason fail to mention the artists. Others might have their reasons to neglect mentioning the artists. The worse are pirates who steal what they want without compunction. Others could be people who would like you to believe the bonsai are theirs. Some might just do it without understanding that it is unethical, that somehow anything goes on the web. Whatever, the reason, it’s bad form not to mention the artist. Or, if you don’t know who the artist is, you could at least say that you don’t know and mention where the photos is from.

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Bonsai tree: Rocky Mountain Juniper potting

This is what I call, only partly tongue in cheek, the ‘Lazarus’ tree as it had only large roots and no feeder roots when put in a box, and after 8 months in my backyard under a mist system, sprang back into life again. Every month I would dig a bit through the pumice and check for white root tips. Anything to give hope, but for months I was stymied. Then the darn thing woke up in the fall and grew those lovely fine feeder roots, and I opened a bottle of wine. It’s a nice tree, but sadly, I only had a Charles Shaw Cabernet. I will have to pay more attention to my wine stocking in the future.
The first shot is in the wooden box that I built, and then, noticing that it was staying wet too long, drilled a million holes through the sides to air it out faster. I had boards laying over the top of it to prevent rain and misting water from reaching the soil. Before there were growing roots it would take two months for the box to dry out. Which is plenty of time to rot roots…

And in a Yamaki pot. Big tree, big pot. This was potted during my March 2010 Seasonal. Late summer 2010, probably August when it has a few more long pointy shoots, it might be styled. If it’s ready. Read more!

Bonsai tree: Bonsai stories

What to do when a big branch in the front of the tree blocks your view of the trunk? Layer it and make a new tree. Last weekend’s Bay Area Bonsai Associates show featured both halves of a boxwood created by Ned Lycett. Here’s a shot of the main tree.

Boxwood bonsai

And here’s the branch that’s now a semi-cascade boxwood bonsai.

Boxwood and suiseki

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