One of my favorite species for bonsai is Ezo Spruce… Although we don’t have the wonderful collected Ezo that the Japanese have, sometimes one can find cutting-grown Ezo that are often p…
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A great december workshop – http://wp.me/p76RuC-a9
Saturday workshop
If you are in the Dublin area and into bonsai, this is the place to be this Saturday. A young up and coming club keen to progress bonsai in Ireland.
The club are holding a workshop this Saturday 26th November.
It’s free for all new comers, it is starting at 10am going on till 3 or 4.
It’s going to be held in the Mounttown Community Facility,Mounttown
As always bring along a tree or 2 to work on.
Hope to see you there
2016 Autumn Japan Bonsai Exploration– Part 5
Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition– Part 2
The exhibition opened this morning after the ribbon cutting ceremony. Initially the show was packed, and then slowed down as the day went on, like me. Yesterday I walked (hobbled with cane actually) 2.9 miles photographing and watching (learning) during the judging.
There were a large number of foreign visitors today from Germany, France, England, Italy and Canada too! Jerry Rainville studied bonsai with Hiroyoshi Yamaji about 40 years ago. I remember meeting this giant of man when Chase Rosade and Lynn Porter visited Shikoku Island to see pine bonsai. He was originally from Montreal and had a bonsai store with Arthur Skolnik. Jerry completed his studies in Japan, married his Japanese sweetheart and settled in the Vancouver area of Canada where he has a large scale bonsai nursery. Jerry returns to Japan each year to help another one of his teachers, Koji Hiramatsu…
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2016 Autumn Japan Bonsai Exploration– Part 4
Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition
The Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition is the largest bonsai exhibition in western Japan held in Kyoto, just down the street from the Heian Shrine. Professional bonsai artists select trees from their clients who want to display. It’s kind of easy to have a tree accepted for this exhibition, much more than the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition, which is highly judged. Entry fees are similar, $500 and $1,000 spots, depending on the size. So actually there is a wide quality range of bonsai in the Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition. This year there are some pretty awesome bonsai. Each year the quality seems to go up. I can’t figure out where all these beautiful bonsai come from. Very few are repeated and the top winners from the Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition are also displayed here.
Set up and judging day are on Friday this year, which is quite interesting an…
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Bonsai stolen in Japan
Workshop with Ian & Phil
Originally posted on futterwithtrees:
A good day was enjoyed by all who attended the workshop taday in Newtownards. The venue, Ian’s garage, was freezin’ as usual but there was plenty of heat generated between banter and work. I brought a…
Tenerife – Hotel Botanico
This retirement lark is good. I had a last minute holiday recently to Tenerife and the Hotel Botanico. I can not praise this place enough, a top notch Hotel and Spa.
The usual photo on the way in.
Arrival at the hotel.
View from room.
Great rooms
First ever letter with a wax seal lol
Mount Teide from the balcony.
The Hotel gardens were special.
The spa and hotel pool areas.
Great food.
and to top it all, the hotel had it’s own Bonsai collection ! They hold a workshop for guests every Tuesday morning but sadly that was my day or arrival and departure, so I missed it.
I never recommend hotels to people as everyone has their own tastes, but this place I would recommend to anyone. Gandalf was even staying there 🙂
Bending with shari
A while back three collected tosho which had been grafted with itogawa shimpaku foliage came to the nursery. They came from a nursery not too far from here but, they had been commission grafted by Iura-San some time ago.
They were sold as a group, at one price. They were only bought to sell as business tree’s to buy, style and sell quickly.
All three tree’s were raw and it was a first styling they had since being grafted.
Two of the tree’s were chunky and were pretty much just a case of bring branches down and make pads. I did these first but, haven’t posted about them.
The third tree was of the least value being a more skinny bunjin.
As you can see from the photo’s the material has some interest but, is rather boring especially in the middle section.
My idea to in fact solve this issue…
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2016 Alabama Bonsai Society Spring Show part 5! What we learned
In addition to the work that is done on the trees to get them ready to show, behind the scenes work is done which rarely shows…unless it’s done wrong.
We’ve historically done a good job with tables; extending the legs with PVC pipes to bring them up another 15″ makes a big difference. Tablecloths, felt runners, and sojii screens transform the space into a great exhibit hall venue.
This year, Kathy Shaner helped us take it up another notch. I served as grunt labor just to stay close to the tips and tidbits she’s always offering to those willing to listen. She’s a great and experienced teacher. Here are a few thoughts that stuck in my mind.
Make straight and even rows:
Make a big statement at the entrance!
Arrange trees to point directionally toward the center of the row.
Arrange smaller trees as 3-point displays. Even if they’re not…
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Bonsai Eejit 