Every year I try to wrap a blog post around the snarly issue of protecting our trees from cold. This year we’ll try a new approach, and take it in a few bite sized chunks, in a couple of blog posts.

Firstly, we need to bear in mind that the top of a tree or shrub is much more cold hardy than the roots. When we read about the ‘cold hardiness’ of a plant in a garden book, that designation is assuming the darn thing is the ground, where it’s supposed to be. The designation takes no heed of silly bonsaiists who will put it up on a bench. Roots are much more tender than their tops!

A lot of people don’t know this, apparently even a few snow sculptures…

Nextly… on the ground is a good first place to put a bonsai in cold weather, generally when it is dropping…

Kora Dalager and I brought 18 people for our exciting annual autumn bonsai tour to Japan. We have friends from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Kentucky, California, Washington, Puerto Rico, New York, England and Australia. A diverse group from around the globe with a wide range of climates for growing bonsai.

On Wednesday we took our private bus to Hanyu to visit Seiji Morime and his S-Cube Uchiku-tei Bonsai Garden. The name comes from respecting his teacher Uhaku Sudo and the garden where he studied for about 20 years Chiku fu-en Bonsai Garden.

As soon as we arrived he was anxious to show us his newest “prize” which is not open to the public. A few months ago he purchased the ENTIRE bonsai collection of the great bonsai philanthropist and promoter, Daizo Iwasaki. Mr. Iwasaki’s garden “Takasago-an” on Shikoku Island was one of the major highlights of our autumn tours. The garden…

The unusual warm weather has provided a longer than normal colorful autumn display in my bonsai garden. While large deciduous trees growing along the roadsides are bare, many of my bonsai still had foliage. Some of the Rough bark Japanese maples still are bright red.

I’ve been moving the bonsai around so they get maximum sun to promote bright autumn colors. The bonsai in semi shady locations remained green, while those in the bright sunlight were spectacular. Many of the trees were moved from the shady part into the sun to prolong the colorful bonsai. This year has been the brightest and most colorful I’ve seen in my fifty plus years of studying bonsai.

We photographed many more bonsai when they were at their peak color. Dry bark photographs best, so often the trees had to be protected in the garage so bark texture could be seen in the photos…

…or get smaller, to be more accurate.

When we style a juniper, very often the live vein changes in size. It’s normally an adjustment to foliage loss, or branch loss, both of which tend to happen during styling.

Most commonly, the sides of the vein will shrink, so that the vein will become narrower. Except on the very youngest of trees, a vein will never become wider. (This reluctance to cover a wound is why we don’t cut off a large branch cleanly to the trunk, as one might on a pine or maple, expecting it to callus and close up. A juniper won’t do that, so we make a jin).

Although it won’t widen, over time the live vein will grow more bulbous, growing out from the trunk. The top of this juniper shows an old live vein that has a rounded character to it. This is a very…

Halloween already! Seems like I was just repotting. When preparing for a class on display, I came across a few displays that were overtly themed, one can be credited to Nick Lenz:

A cheeky graveyard:

And a great Halloween-themed tokonome display:

Then in a Kokufu book, one that was subtly very dark. What do you think, intentional?

We’re big fans of The Walking Dead at our house. This summer, my daughter and I toured Senoia, GA, which was transformed into “Woodbury” on TWD, and currently hosts the set of Alexandria. It’s bizarre to stand on Main St. and remember the Governor’s horrific reign, and look down the street to see Alexandria’s wall that is central to this season…supposedly several states away, and in reality, less than several blocks away.

Kids don’t listen…

and if they survive the zombie apocalypse…they might not survive prison!

Why am I writing this in a…