Bonsai tree: There’s Something About Shohin

Itoigawa juniper by Michael Hagedorn. Michael is one of our favorite American bonsai artists. If you haven’t visited his site (Crataegus Bonsai) this is as good a time as any. BTW: Michael is the author of Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk a fascinating read, bonsai or otherwise.

The advantages of Shohin (small) Bonsai

On the back of our Stone Lantern book Majesty in Miniature; Shohin Bonsai (by Morten Albek) it says “When compared to large bonsai, Shohin cost less, take less time to develop, take less space, are easier to move, and are less apt to be over-watered. Perhaps best of all, Shohin-bonsai are a delight to behold.” I’ll second those observations (I wrote the original, so why not?).


This small Viginia creeper by Harry Harrington (bonsai4me.com) is designed to show off the spectacular foliage.


This is the second time we’ve shown this Spiraea japonica (also by Harry Harrington). There are a couple reasons we returned to it: first, it’s a very sweet tree, and second, how many Spiraea bonsai have you seen?

Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai. Published by Stone Lantern. Retail 24.95, our low price 14.97.

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Bonsai tree: Digging Around Pays Off

You can find this monarch of bunjin pines and other great trees on Michael Hagedorn’s Crataegus Bonsai website. This one is from the 2004 Taikan Ten show in Japan and is part of an article called Japanese Shows that Michael posted in 2008 (the caption says White pine; however, it looks like a Black pine to me).

Digging around

Sometimes digging around through old material pays off (if you call 2008 old). I found this powerful, stately old pine (above) and several other magnificent trees while digging around Michael Hagedorn’s postings on Crataegus Bonsai. It’s part of a posting called Japanese Shows that features trees that Michael worked on while he was an apprentice in Japan. Here are two to whet your appetite. For the rest you can visit Michael’s site.

Michael’s excellent book

If you haven’t read Michael Hagedorn’s excellent book (Post Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk) on his experience as a bonsai apprentice in Japan, this is a good time to get your hands on it – Stone Lantern is currently running a big book sale.



This Itoigawa juniper is from Kokufu ten, the most prestigeous show of all.

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Bonsai tree: Shimpaku Juniper Bonsai

This tree is by far one of my favorites I’ve had the opportunity to work on in Japan. It’s a grafted Itoigawa Shimpaku Juniper on very old Sonare (Juniperus procumbens). The tree was originally purchased from a nursery in Kyushu by a customer and brought back to Himeji several decades ago. The tree has never been shown at an exhibition, but I’m hoping this’ll change in the near future.

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Bonsai tree: fine wiring a shohin Itoigawa

Spent the day Sunday with bonsai friends, a great time to fine wire , wiring is fun when you have good friends to chat to, this itoigawa is coming along nicely.
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