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. Michael Mitchell says

    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. AlexV says

    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. Alain Krizic says

    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. Fr. Wm. Tom Davis, OSA says

    #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. Todd says

    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…