Maruyama Bonsai Nursery

Maruyama Bonsai Nursery
1423 47th Avenue
Sacramento, CA 95822
(916) 421-6888
yuzomaruyama at aol dot com

I received a tip last week that Maruyama Bonsai Nursery had a cryptomeria I might be interested in. Finding myself in the neighborhood over Thanksgiving weekend, I stopped by to take a look.

Maruyama Bonsai Nursery

It had been a while since my last visit. For those who haven’t visited, the Maruyamas maintain a good selection of training material, specimen trees, pots, tools, and soil. I was surprised by the number of collected trees they had in stock – something I haven’t often seen.

Collected junipers

They also have lots of training material like the shimpaku below.

Young shimpaku

Yuzo keeps a number of tropical bonsai, including the ficus below, in a greenhouse.

Ficus!

Fall was a good time for a visit in that I caught Japanese maples in fall color and a variety of brightly colored fruit.

Winterberry Beautyberry (ed. 12/19/2010)

Hawthorne

Some of the bigger specimens included white pine, black pine and juniper.

White pine

California juniper

Japanese black pine

There were plenty of young black pines as well.

Young pines

More intriguing was Yuzo’s collection of black pines growing in the ground.

Growing Japanese black pines in the ground

Inside I found a variety of training pots and show pots, both glazed and unglazed. Next to the room with the pots is a container with akadama, kanuma and pumice from Japan.

Bonsai pots

My favorite table in the nursery held Yuzo’s rock plantings. Yuzo has been making them for years – shimpaku, ezo, cotoneaster and even cryptomeria planted on stones with moss and miniature accents.

Cryptomeria rock planting

Well developed rock plantings in this style can look great – here’s an example from Sacramento Bonsai Club’s 64th Annual Exhibit.

Ezo spruce rock planting

After wandering around the nursery for an hour, I decided to pick up the cryptomeria I had come for. It was exactly what I was hoping – I’ll post photos when the work begins.