It had been a few years since I worked the roots on this trident, and a crossing root started to emerge that needed to be dealt with. Ryan Bell mentioned he was working on a similar root problem on a trident, where he was exposing the roots, and undercutting the heavy roots. The idea, similar to layering, was to grow new, finer roots from the cut site.

Last summer; July, I gave it a go. Excavating the problem root:

A little more was removed, then the area was packed with sphagnum moss:

The tree didn’t skip a beat, and on March 1, I dug it to work the roots. Here was what I found:

Look at those nice plump roots!

Because it worked so well, I marked another heavy root with a loop of wire to remind me where to make the cut. I want to keep the cut on…

Hello all and thank you for the continuing support of my outdated and neglected blog. For those of you who still care (or if you jumped ship and happen to see this I still love you) or if you’ve been left in the dark I hope to clear things up in this post. I recently (2 months ago) returned from an 8 year apprenticeship with my master Shinji Suzuki. It was an honor and great privilege learning from one of the best in the business and I continue to wonder how I got so lucky, but luck turned into hard work and now it is beginning to pay off here in California, the place I’m calling home for the time being. As a major transition thus far in my life, I hope you guys can forgive me for slacking off and not doing any posts since I’ve been back, getting…

I remember the days when moss was the enemy. The idea was that moss impeded water penetration, or kept the pot too wet. So it was a surprise when I was an apprentice that Mr. Suzuki encouraged moss to grow on the soil, and I discovered there were some advantages to having it there.

Shredded sphagnum moss on top of volcanic soil (akadama/pumice) at 1/8-1/4″ thickness, with shredded live moss added to inoculate. I often add ink to it so it’s not straw colored while the moss gets established. Be sure you use true sphagnum moss, not peat moss. Peat moss is rotted sphagnum, and tends to be water repellent when dry. The best sphagnum to use is sold often as ‘orchid’ moss, and is straw colored and is like a sponge when sprinkled with water.

If applied in the early spring around repotting time, a carpet of live moss…

The 2104 Nashville Regional Bonsai Expo will be held on July 12-13^th at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden, in Nashville, Tennessee. Over 50 bonsai from the southeast will be displayed along with kusamono.

Guest artists for the event are Jim Doyle, Young Choe and Owen Reich who also heads the event. In addition to lecture/demonstrations by Jim Doyle and Young Choe, two kusamono classes will be conducted along with a collected Engleman spruce workshop. A bonsai refinement workshop will also be offered. Jim Doyle will conduct a critique of the displayed bonsai and Young Choe will critique the kusamono.

Jim Doyle

Confirmed vendors for the sales area include: Fedducia’s Bonsai, Bellota Enterprises, MC Squared Ceramics, Glass Art by Jacob, Kusa Farm, Bonsai Unearthed, Lynnwood Gardens, Turnbull Creek Bonsai, Nature’s Way, The American Bonsai Society, Cedar Bog Bonsai, New World Horticulture and International Bonsai.

Young Choe

The general…

Only 20 days left to go before the first meeting of the Leinster Bonsai Club. You can even follow the countdown in the sidebar 🙂

We hope to have a good turnout at the first meeting at Ballbriggan Community Centre on 27th June @ 7.30pm. We have quite a few people already confirmed as attending.

Owen, John and Elisa all made the trip up the the NIBS School at the end of May and have set the ball rolling for a close working relationship with both the Northern Ireland Bonsai Society and the Munster Bonsai Club all under the umbrella of ‘Bonsai Ireland’.

Are you coming to the first meeting? If you haven’t been in touch already or haven’t been in touch for a while, please let us know if you can make it. We have about 10 so far confirmed via email and Facebook Page but feel free to