Bonsai tree: More Bonsai from Scratch Winners

Mark Arpag’s Dwarf Hinoki cypress is the third place winner in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Mark’s prize is a $150 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. See below for before photo.


Judges comments

“Nice crown, I like the way wire is used at the top. Wire could be used on lower branches on the right to the same effect.” Excellent; some confusing foliage/branching between the trunks; also, subdivide low branch pad on the small trunk, it’s too large for the trunk size.”   “Couldn’t tell what we have from looking at the stock. Nice outcome.”  “Great overall flow. Could reduce the top left branch on the second trunk that grows into the main trunk.”

My comments

I like the overall movement, the crown and the way the branching on the main trunk helps create a sense of balance. I think that balance is thrown off a bit by the overly heavy branching/foliage on the right side of the second trunk. In fact, I think the whole second trunk presents problems, though in the long run, keeping it is probably the right choice. It will just need some serious work over time.


Third, forth & fifth places

We’ve already presented our first place and second place finishers. This post presents the third, forth and fifth place finishers. Stay posted for some honorable mentions to come.

Dan Burke’s Chinese juniper finished fourth. Dan will receive a beautiful Nick Lenz pot that was donated by Todd Hansen of Sanctuary Bonsai.

Judges comments

“Very nice – most creative. Top is a little heavy.” “Well done; bring more foliage forward in the top third to hide the circular bend near the top of the trunk.” “Nice shari/jin just above the base. An excellent transformation of a stock plant with several difficult challenges; including weak lower branching, poor taper and a difficult top section. Good job!”

My comments

Nice feel. I like the overall shape, the shari/jin near the base and the wiring job. It will be interesting to see if some taper can be developed on the trunk over time and if some of the weaker branches can also be developed. I’ll also be interested to see how Dan deals with the heavy bend near the top. Overall, I think he is off to a very good start.

Ferry Freriks Pfitzer juniper finished fifth. Ferry will receive a $75.00 gift certificate from Stone Lantern. Before photo is below.

Judges comments

Very good; key branch could be lower; jins a bit long perhaps.” “Handled very nicely. Strong and beautiful.” “Highly creative transformation. Bottom jin is a little distracting.”

My comments

This one struck me as one of the most creative solutions of all (one judge ranked this tree highest and it came in third for most improved). Based on the comments and my observations, what held it back is the over-reliance on jins; especially the bottom one, which I find quite daring, but also quite distracting (it looks unnatural, like it is just wedged into that tight spot created where the trunk doubles back, and it keeps drawing my eye away from the tree and down to the lower right corner of the photo). When I imagine it without that long jin and with more restraint on the other jins (a little cleaner foliage too), I see a most excellent and very sweet, compact, well balanced tree.

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Before photo of Mark Arpag’s Dwarf Hinoki cypress that finished third.




Before photo of Dan Burke’s Chinese juniper that finished fourth.




Before photo of Ferry Freriks Pfitzer juniper that finished fifth.

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Bonsai tree: Old News on the Pacific Rim

This stately Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) is from Weyerhaeuser’s  Pacific Rim Bonsai collection. The photo is from a gallery of Pacific Rim bonsai from Kahlua Bonsai on facebook. I was going to use this photo to start a post on Formal upright bonsai when, in the course of a little research, I stumbled upon an important piece of old news about the Pacific Rim Collection.

Better late….
Way back in April 2009 we featured a post titled Pacific Rim; a Glimpse of What You Can’t See. The Pacific Rim refers to Weyerhaeuser’s rather famous bonsai collection in Washington (near Seattle). The ‘Glimpse of What You Can’t See’ referred to the fact that the collection was closed to the public at the time. Turns out, that the collection is once again open. Somehow this piece of good news slipped by our rather faulty radar, so I suspect we’re a little tardy on reporting this.

The details
The Pacific Rim bonsai Collection is open weekly Tuesdays through Sundays (closed Mondays) year-round. Our operating hours are 10:00 Am – 4:00 PM. Federal Way Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma.

Photo gallery
A small sampling of some of the collection follows. You might notice that some text is cut off. If you are interested, you can visit the Pacific Rim’s remarkably well-hidden photo gallery to see what you’re missing.

Perfection.

Encore. This powerful old Sierra/Shimpaku juniper showed up on Bark almost two years ago in a post titled ‘The Bonsai Artistry of Michael Hagedorn Plus Freeze Dried Roots.’

59 trees!

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Bonsai tree: Bonsai Bark Weekly Wire #3

This photo of Kobayashi Nursery comes from Soh-Ju-En Satsuki Bonsai. I assume it’s Kunio Kobayashi (he’s won awards for Satsuki bonsai), but my research team (that’s me) is a little over-worked right now and is having trouble finding time, so we’ll have to leave it at that.

Do your tools look like this? If not, then here’s a hot tip on how you can make it happen: visit Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s most excellent website (he’s one of best) and then go to his Simple Sharpening Tools Method. I won’t say Mr. Cheng is on the cutting edge of tool care (that would be too easy), but I will say that it just might revolutionize your approach to the business of keeping your tools sharp.

Craig Coussins’ bonsai collection is up for sale. Craig is the author of Bonsai Master Class, Bonsai School, Totally Bonsai and other now out-of-print books (in the US at least). Craig has been an important teacher and friend to many in our bonsai world for 40 years.

The BCI Grand Bonsai Tour Japan is coming up soon (Nov 17-27).

Hinoki Cypress at the Chicago Botanic Garden Permanent Collection. Featured on the Midwest Bonsai Society website. In addition to a wealth of other useful information, they have an excellent regional calendar. Not to mention (to mention) one of the best designed bonsai sites on the web

The Phoenix Bonsai Society is hosting a Ben Oki workshop Nov 12-13 & Kathy Shaner Dec 3-4.

You don’t have to live in one of their 19 member countries to enjoy The European Bonsai Association website.

Here’s a site that that you might find useful. It features a few bonsai blogs (including this one).

Nothing new under the sun? How about this brand new wiring technique by Mr. Ken Fujiwara? It’s from the latest post on Peter Tea’s blog, Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en, Japan.

Wabi Sabi by Dan Barton. One of a whole bunch of great pots (and other stuff) on Dan’s website.

Foliage clean up by Michael Hagedorn. Has Michael finally gone off the deep end?

Twit bonsai? Going even further off the deep end, here’s how you can use Twitter to grow bonsai.

Speaking of Kobayashi (top of this page), we found this photo of his book cover on Bonsai Network Japan. Is anyone out their familiar with this book?

Stone Lantern (that’s us) recently purchased Haskill Creek Publishing from our friend and colleague Dennis Howke. It has been a pleasure working with Dennis the last couple years, and, the good news is, he’ll still be in the picture – he’s working on magically transforming all six titles into eBook format for us. We’ll keep you posted as the process unfolds. Meanwhile, we do plan on bringing the two out-of-print titles back soon.


 







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Bonsai tree: A Bonsai Snapshot in Time

One of the famous old ’Chabo-hiba’Hinoki cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa, Chabo-hiba) at Boston’s Arnold Arboretum. This one was dates back to 1787 and it looks like it’s still in the original pot.


Snapshot in time

The Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection (the first bonsai collection in North America that is still living), resides in Boston at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum. Aside from the fact that it’s very old and the trees (some of them, at least) are still alive, this collection represents something quite unique; a living snapshot of Japanese bonsai from 100 years ago. Well almost; nothing living is static and the trees shown here are no exception. Over time, they continued to grown and mature and were pruned and repotted by a long line of curators. Still, as far as I know, no major restyling has taken place since the collection arrived in Boston in 1913, and much of the original look and feel of the trees remains from that time.

The Remarkable Journey of the Oldest Bonsai in America

If you’d like to dig into the history of the Larz Andersen collection, I heartily recommend this excellent article by Peter Del Tredici, former curator of the collection. You could also check out this Bonsai Bark post from last year, or, best of all, you could visit the Arnold Arboretum. It’s a trip worth making for anyone who loves trees, large or small.


Another old ’Chabo-hiba’Hinoki cypress in a well-chosen modern pot. Some of the pots have survived to this day, but many were lost due to freezing.

Japanese maple cultivar in fall color (though I like the choice of pots on the other trees shown here, I’m not so sure about this one).

Japanese white pine.

A piece of one of the original Hinokis that was saved after an uninvited split in the trunk. For the whole story see Peter Del Tredici’s article.

Slanting Hinoki cypress.

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