Ta-da! The unveiling of the Portland Bonsai Village logo! And since we now have a logo (designed by Jane Pellicciotto)—and there is some vague reality to this wild idea—the time is ripe to tell you a bit more about what is planned for the Village…

For those new to the idea of the Village, it’s a group of bonsai professionals in the Portland, Oregon area who rather like it here and want to share it with others. Most particularly, we’d like to share our backyards, our bonsai art, our teaching, and our love of community with you. And we have several ways to share that with you, all linked together by our Village Tours.

On a Tour you’ll be off on a grand leafy adventure—sort of like a winery tour but with great bonsai. The Tours link one professionals’ nursery to another. You’ll get to choose which studios or nurseries you’ll…

Since I seem to have come down with bronchitis and don’t feel very well, I thought I would look through old photos today and review some of our favorite bonsai trees that we have seen over the years. All of these trees in this post are from Japan.  There are a number of trees in America that we love as well but I don’t have enough energy to sort through those today!

Stay healthy!

Japanese Bonsai Trees

I have been sent this article to publish from my friend Owen Reich who is studying at Kouka-en in Osaka, Japan. It’s an in depth study of Mizu Goke and the benefits to bonsai.

Upon my arrival to study in Japan, one of the first things I noticed about the bonsai here was that the surface of many of the trees were covered with chopped sphagnum moss. My broken Japanese questions were answered with a smile, as mizu goke is an integral part of bonsai care here at Kouka-en and other nurseries in Japan. Proper watering is the most important cultural practice for bonsai and any edge you can get should be considered for use.

Mizu goke means water moss, referring to the environment sphagnum moss naturally grows in. To avoid confusion, mizu goke will be referred to as “moss” and green, living moss as “live moss”. You should never…

The ability to cut a piece off of a plant and then reattach (graft) it back on to itself or another tree is nothing short of miraculous. Grafting is an invaluable technique in bonsai as it allows the artist to determine the location of each branch on the tree. It also allows the artist to replace the foliage as I talked about in an earlier post on approach grafting.

The success of a graft depends on two things, proper technique and proper aftercare. I’m always trying to understand both of these aspects better and had the opportunity to ask bonsai pro, Ryan Neil about his grafting technique.

This year we have about 7 displays in Taikan-ten, the Bonsai exhibition which focuses heavily on the art of display, held annually at the Kyoto Art Museum.  Although I am unable to attend this event, I was able to help put together some nice displays with the team a couple days before the start of the show.  As always, being in the same room as my teacher and the Tokonoma (display alcove) was a fun day full of learning and trying to understand or even shed a little light on the deeper meaning manifested within each display.  So what is the point of Bonsai display?  Yes, to show off how awesome our tree’s have become, of course.  However, when we think about formal displays that exhibit multiple components (scrolls, accents, etc) we need to firstly acknowledge the season.  Since Taikan-ten is held at the end of Fall in Japan, most…