Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

Pot selection – exposed root black pine

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One of my favorite activities relating to bonsai display is pot selection. I’ll be showing a young black pine at tomorrow’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit and the pot used for the past year isn’t exactly show quality.

13 year-old black pine in colander

Here are 11 options for the tree. Some look great to me, others less so. A couple of my favorites are either a bit too small or a bit too large. Any favorite combinations?

Pot 1 – scalloped sides

Pot 2 – Chinese antique

Pot 3 – nanban style

Pot 4a – Reiho

Pot 4b – same pot from the other side

Pot 5 – drum pot

Pot 6 – shallow dish

Pot 7 – nanban

Pot 8 – flower-shaped pot

Pot 9 – square pot

Pot 10 – Bunzan

Pot 11 – square pot

To see the final selection, come to Bay Island Bonsai’s 17th annual exhibit this weekend or stay tuned for upcoming posts from the exhibit.

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Comments

  1. Hello Jonas, The Yamaaki pot #1 will look good if placed higher in the pot. #2 appears to be made by Bonsai, not antique Chinese. The Reiho #4b wood also look good.

  4. Gonna go with the first pot 8 (there are currently 2 pot 8’s), the flower shaped one. Lots of good choices there, I just like the small bit of stability the wider lower pot offers. One of the nanbans would be my second choice.

  8. Very interesting, thanks for posting.

    I think the square ones don’t fit the overall design.

    I Think shallow pots enhance the exposed roots better, the deeper ones don’t work so well.

    My favourite one is Pot 4a – Reiho : the spot on the front is not too distracting, it looks like an imperfection rather, and lead the eyes upward, first the roots, then the canopy.

    Alain

  13. #8 in that the lines of the flower pot work with the lines of the exposed roots, a nice melding. I also like the depth of #8.

  14. I feel better with pot #1, it seems to anchor the other end of the seemingly tenuous root network… must be the engineer in me…