Bonsai tree: Weekly Wire: Bonsai Surperstar, FREE Fertilizer, Making Uro, Spring!

Goyo-matsu (Japanese white pine) from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum.

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FREE FERTILIZER! We are giving away our favorite fertilizer over on Stone Lantern.

Just for the fun of it (and to encourage you to place an order and to  feed your bonsai!)

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Happy white Easter from Walter Pall. This morning Walter posted a whole bunch of photos a lot like this. There’s even some scary photos that shows fully and partially leafed out maples covered with snow. Here’s the good news from Walter: “While I am posting these photographs it has stopped snowing and even the sun is coming out. It seems that this nightmare is over and has caused no harm.”

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Marco is coming to Montreal. Marco Invernizzi, Italian bonsai superstar, will be at the Vendredi le 4 mai, à l’auditorium du jardin botanique à 19 h 30 (that’s the Botanical Garden auditorium, May 4th at 7:30pm, for us linguistically challenged folks).

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Delicious! I think we posted something about this a while back, but now I can’t find it. Anyway, as you can see, it’s a mame bonsai pot. The artist is Horie Bikoh. The photo is from Albek Bonsai Studio, which is Morten Albek’s blog. Morten is, among other things, the author of our Majesty in Miniature, Shohin Bonsai.

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Restarting a Trident maple by Peter Tea. From bonsai pot, back to training pot.

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What’s a uro (besides an overpriced currency)? If you like to find out what a uro is and how to create uro on your deciduous bonsai, bonsai4me has an excellent post on the subject.

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Celebrating Spring (snow, rain or sun). New England Bonsai Gardens 25th annual Spring Members Day Celebration is coming very soon. And you don’t have to be a member to go.

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Bonsai Hungary blog

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In our last Weekly Wire I originally posted the wrong dates on this one. I corrected it soon after it was posted, but just in case: the dates are June 21-24.

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Much more than just corn, soy and pigs. The Iowa State Fair Bonsai Show will be held July 1 in Des Moines.

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Speaking of eccentric bonsai. From Cliff Chong’s photo album.

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Bonsai tree: NEW High Carbon Steel Bonsai Shears & FREE Fertilizer

3 NEW Stone Lantern high carbon steel bonsai shears. With this set, you’ll have almost all of your bonsai pruning tasks covered; from the very tip of the apex all the way down to the lowest roots. If you don’t need the set, you can buy them individually.

They’ll cut your bonsai and your costs

We are very high on our new bonsai tools. So high in fact, that we’ve decided to brand them with our Stone Lantern name. They look good, feel good, cut like butter and, perhaps best of all, the prices won’t bust your budget. Far from it. When I first saw these tools almost a year ago, I expected them to cost at least twice as much as they do. I’m sure you’ll be as pleasantly surprise as I was.

FREE Our Favorite Bonsai Fertilizer

We’ve got a little bonus for you…

Place an order of at least 25.00 with Stone Lantern and you will receive the following gift of Green Dream (our fertilizer of choice), from us to you:

1 8oz bag of Green Dream with any order from 25.00 to 50.00  (not including shipping)

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1 lb of Green Dream with any order from 50.00 to 100.00

2lbs of Green Dream with any order of 100.00 up (plus your 5% discount)

That’s all. You don’t have to do anything else. We’ll take care of the rest. However, don’t wait; this offer is for a limited time only.

Note: our warehouse will be closed the week of April 16th. All orders receive after 12:00 noon (U.S. EDT) April 13th will be shipped the week of April 23rd on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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Bonsai tree: A Levitated Bonsai Platform

After. A twin trunk Mountain hemlock that was collected, styled and placed on a very thin piece of plastic by Michael Hagedorn and friends.

It’s been a while…

…since we featured Michael Hagedorn (Crataegus Bonsai). This is partly because lately we’ve been focusing more on international bonsai than North American bonsai; and partly because if we do too much Michael, you might suspect there are kickbacks involved (Michael is way too clean for that; as for me…).

Mountain hemlock on levitated nylon board

I won’t say too much about the nylon board or the steps that were necessary to cause it to levitate. What I will do is show you three photos to whet your appetite and provide links to Crataegus Bonsai so you can satisfy that appetite.

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Before. Collected Mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana).

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What’s this?

Post-Dated is still the most enjoyable bonsai book I’ve ever read.

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Bonsai tree: Mountain Hemlock

Source: Bonsai Tonight

I recently added a new tree to my collection – a mountain hemlock. I haven’t worked with the variety before so I have a lot of learning ahead of me.

Mountain hemlock – Tsuga mertensiana

My first goal for the tree is to develop a healthy root base. To do this, I will bare root half of the tree and introduce the exposed roots to bonsai soil. I start the repotting by searching for the surface roots.

Hemlock – out of the pot

I’m in luck – large surface roots are sitting just below the soil line. The roots aren’t perfect, but they are healthy and plentiful.

Surface roots

After locating the surface roots, I removed all of the soil from the front half of the rootball. As I worked, I found two large roots that had been cut and since healed over.

Root callus

To encourage new root development, I cut away the callus on one of the roots. I’ll do the same for the other root the next time I repot.

Callus removed

As there were no large roots, I was able to fit the tree into a large bonsai pot. Here’s how I prepared the wires.

Pot ready to go

The tree’s large surface roots made tying the tree into the pot a breeze. Here you can see I protected the root with an automotive belt – a chopstick kept the wire from sliding closer to the trunk.

Automotive belt protects the root

Seeing the tree in a bonsai pot made me excited about the tree’s future – especially the deadwood near the base of the trunk.

Hemlock – repotting complete

Although the deadwood here is somewhat unusual, the formation is not uncommon among hemlock bonsai.

Deadwood near the trunk

From what I can tell, hemlock bonsai is becoming more popular these days. I hope so – I think it’s an attractive variety. For more hemlock fun, check out Michael Hagedorn’s intriguingly titled post, “Mountain Hemlock on Levitated Nylon Board.“

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Bonsai tree: Introducing Our Excellent NEW Stone Lantern Bonsai Tools

These new Stone Lantern stainless bonsai tools are truly remarkable. The quality is excellent the the prices are much lower than you would expect for such high performance tools.

We could easily call these Master Grade tools

I’ve owned a set of these for a year now, and can say with absolute confidence that these are first rate tools. It would not be a stretch to call them ‘Master Grade’ tools, but we already have Master Grade stainless tools and I don’t want to confuse the issue. Just suffice it to say that these are simply the best high quality bonsai tools for the price that I have ever seen.

Stone Lantern Tools

We are so taken with these wonderful new tools, that we’ve decided to put our name on them (by agreement with the manufacturer). Stay posted for our new Stone Lantern high carbon steel tools soon.

Individually, or by the set

You can purchase our new Stone Lantern tools individually, or by the set.

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Bonsai tree: Mountain Hemlock On Levitated Nylon Board

Yes, that is the correct headline… bonsai on plastic. I wasn’t too sure of it myself.

In the late summer of 2010 I collected this Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana, with my friend Anton Nijhuis in Canada, and potted it in a strange box that was sort of cantilevered up because the tree had been prostrate, growing through the mosses on bedrock. Digging through the moss uncovered a rather curious twin-trunk base that seemed like it would have to be styled in an unorthodox way, so naturally I wanted it. A year and a half later the box was full of roots, and the time seemed right to complete this weird idea of mine.

I’ve always wondered about alternatives to stone and prefab slabs. They tend to crack or break just when a show is just being set up; their timing is truly impeccable. Also, a bit ironic given that I used to be a potter, I’ve been drawn to the idea of making nearly invisible platforms, in place of a ceramic container. In other words, something supporting the tree that is really not an element in its presentation. So the idea of an inconspicuous, impervious, strong support had me pondering for a while.

Like many of my creative endeavors, I quiz everyone I know. ‘So, I have this idea… how would you do this if you wanted to do that?’ And you end up with a collage of ideas that you edit and orchestrate into a complete vision, sort of like an orchestra conductor or movie director must do I suppose. With an assortment of weird tools, bolts and ideas the March Seasonal students and I spent more than a day cobbling the thing together, and it was great fun—- Thanks Roger, Gary, John and Konnor!

Mountain Hemlock before styling.

Styled, but before the potting experiment...

Right side view---tree swoops far to the rear before coming forward.

A full box of roots in 100% pumice, one and a half years from collection.

Tree out of the box in position on the nylon board, with a sketch of the platform design in ink. The fragile rootball is held together with cheesecloth. Lots of moving around at this point with an unwrapped rootball would have destroyed it. Gary or Roger's legs, I think... sorry guys, I am not attentive enough to identify your boots or belts. Thanks to both of you, though! There was a fair bit of holding things in position that day.

Konnor Jenson, my intrepid periodic apprentice, filing the edges of the board. Sporting a knit hat, he looks like a diehard Portlander!

The plan to hold the leaning muck wall in place. We did not take a shot of the twine that we wove between the chopsticks, offering a bit more support. The bolt heads you see are the top side of our levitation idea, with round end caps underneath serving as inset 'legs'.

Mossing the surface; disembodied nose courtesy John Kahlie. He passed the mossing test with flying colors and will be relieved to move on to lichen in the next Seasonal... Just kidding, John!

The final design. The small accent plants near the base are heather and a curious evergreen penstemon, for those interested in the smaller elements. The moss may eventually grow over the edge of the platform, hiding it, at least that is the hope. This tree had an odd bend in the right smaller trunk, and I thought the addition of a cantilevered wall on the right side would marry well with that, sort of like a second bad note hit in a jazz piece that you think, 'Well, that guy must have intended that, so maybe it works.' In any event, this tree needs filling out a bit. The buds are swelling well in my greenhouse and it will be in there another month under a periodic misting apparatus. Just like it got naturally on Vancouver Island...

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