This sweet little pine has been in the Puget Sound (Northwestern USA) area since 1989. It was collected by John Muth. Some of you might remember it from the 1992 cover of Bonsai Clubs International. I remember seeing it in a bonsai exhibition years ago in Seattle, sitting off in a corner, looking quite distinguished. Recently this tree passed to a client of mine, and we reworked it.

In 1992 fewer possibilities for the styling of this tree existed. Just a few unramified branches were present, as is often the case with newly collected Ponderosa. Now we have more complex branching options. It’s a good example of a Ponderosa that over time has done pretty tidy job of growing out branches and ramifying.

Early image of this Ponderosa pine, 22 years ago, on the cover of Bonsai Clubs International.

Before we started work on the tree.

Like the thinking in the…

In mid-July, Owen Reich and the Nashville club put on a tasteful show with high quality trees and accents. Here is a gallery from the show.
JRP Jane Kluis:

Kusamono:

Juniper:

Trident maple:

Ponderosa Pine:

ROR Trident:

Sage:

Shohin Rack, stewartia top, crab lower right, pyracantha lower left:

Shohin juniper:

Mike Blanton’s “Bucket List” juniper. A massive and incredible tribute:

Clump JBP:

Nice dwarf hinoki:

Azalea:

Bill’s shishigashira:

Trident maple paired very nicely with an interesting pot. This one was “on tour” this year, appearing in Nashville, Rochester, and Ashville!

More next week. Happy Thanksgiving, and ROLL TIDE!

Today we visited the top bonsai gardens and collections in the Nagoya area on our private bus.

Daiju-en Bonsai Garden

Toro Suzuki is the third generation proprietor of Daiju-en Bonsai Garden in Okazaki, Japan. His grandfather, Saichi Suzuki, was one of the greatest pine bonsai masters of all time and is responsible for the introduction of Zuisho Japanese five-needle pine and the Princess persimmon. His father Toshinori Suzuki continued in his father’s footsteps of training masterpiece bonsai and added Needle junipers to one of his specialties. Many of the now common pine training techniques for shortening needles came from Saichi and Toshinori Suzuki. Toro Suzuki is in charge of the Nippon Taikan Bonsai Exhibition which finishes today.

Toro Suzuki continues to specialize in Japanese black pine bonsai, but also has a great number of Japanese five-needle pine and Chinese quince. Dean Harrell from Virginia is currently studing with him along…

This year the autumn viewing season for maples has been excellent. A sign in our hotel indicates the stage of leaf coloring in several of the popular viewing areas. It looks like we visited Kyoto at the best time, too bad I did not have the opportunity to visit any of the gardens.

Last views of the 34^th Nippon Taikan Bonsai Exhibition

Sargent juniper, Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii ‘Shimpaku’

Only three shohin bonsai compositions this year were displayed. In early January there is a huge shohin bonsai exhibition which fills the entire building.

Shishigashira Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Shishigashia’

Japanese black pine, Pinus thunbergii. This masterpiece bonsai was created by Kenji Oshima and won the Prime Minister Award at last year’s Professional Bonsai Exhibition.

Even the suiseki were carefully watered. Note the cloth placed behind the stone to avoid moistening the valuable display tables.

Winged spindle tree, Euonymus sieboldiana

Red…

5.30am on a Sunday morning and for normal people if your not still out on the lash your supposed to be in the comfort of your nice warm bed but nope not this fella, I’m up dressed and ready for me Bonsai mate John to pick me up to drive for 2 hours up north for a day of learning at the hands of Bonsai Eejit.

Should be a great day 🙂

Oh and hopefully there will be crispy bacon and eggs with home made bread waiting on us … Dream on sham lol

The 34^th Nippon Taikan Bonsai Exhibition opened this morning after the traditional ribbon cutting ceremony. The show was well attended and the crowds continued to increase until mid-afternoon. Although anyone could take photos it was a bit difficult with people getting in the way. Also the yellow and purple backgrounds did not help with the white balance and different lighting.

Japanese five-needle pine, Pinus parviflora

Rock cotoneaster, Cotoneaster horizonatlis

Japanese yew, Taxus cuspidata

While setting up the exhibition I happen to notice a couple photos of my trees being assembled for a special exhibit. The photos were recognized but I wonder where they got them. So I asked and was told that Toru Suzuki asked for photos for a special World Bonsai Corner photo display. Then I remembered that I did send the photos months ago. Perhaps a bit of old age creeping up here, no just gracefully “maturing.”

Autumn In Kyoto

This morning a few of us visited a large flea market at the Toji Temple, which is near our hotel in Kyoto. We arrived early to avoid crowds, but were met with hoards of people including many foreigners looking and buying. Near the main entrance there was a large area with vendors selling flowers, plants, dried fruit and even bonsai.

It appeared as though anything you wanted could be found here, antiques, clothing (new and old), jeans, car license plates from Washington state, snacks, old books, antique scrolls and inserts, dishes, light bulbs, cutlery, tools, bonsai tables, stones and even pins! Lots of good stuff and we left fully loaded with goodies. We did not visit the snack shops….

34TH JAPAN TAIKAN BONSAI EXHIBITION 

Today was the set up and judging for the 34^th Japan Taikan Bonsai Exhibition one of the main Japanese exhibitions . Earlier…

One of the major events in North American bonsai is only 10 months away! The long awaited Artisans Cup bonsai exhibition will be held at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, USA on September 26-28, 2015. Our five international judges will be David DeGroot, Colin Lewis, Boon Manakitivipart, Walter Pall, and Peter Warren. And quite shortly, in a few days, a new Artisans Cup website will be up to give you details (and I’ll give you a heads up when that happens).

The 2015 Artisans Cup is going to be even better than ever so get your trees ready, choose your pots carefully, get perfect stands for them, think innovatively if so inspired, and then dust off the lenses on your cameras as we’ll need some nice photos. This coming spring Ryan Neil and I will be reviewing the entries and deciding which bonsai are in the show…

This morning was spent visiting the Shunka-en Bonsai Museum of Kunio Kobayashi in the Edogawa Ward of Tokyo. Fortunately, Peter Warren from England was at the museum and had time to show our group around explaining interesting details about the museum, containers and display, in proper English too.

This weekend Mr. Kobayashi is holding an exhibition of his client’s bonsai so all of the apprentices were busy cleaning trees and polishing the tables and containers. Trees were actually being placed as we enjoyed their beauty. It was interesting to me to watch three apprentices carefully place a Japanese maple bonsai on a display table as one took charge to perfect the positioning.

As in October, I noticed even more pieces of charcoal on the soil surface of many bonsai. Many of the pieces were quite large as well. Since many of the bonsai were transplanted in spring, it is easier…