I’m fond of referring to selected trees as “project” trees when the journey to become a bonsai is a long one. The black pine below has something resembling a bunjin feel – a euphemism, in this case, for a tree with no branches along the lower part of the trunk. I removed the top half of […]
Bonsai Development
Bonsai Development posts form the heart of Bonsai Tonight. Learn about varieties like Black Pine, Shimpaku and Japanese Maple, techniques like Decandling and Grafting and Air Layering, and bonsai features like Deadwood.
From landscape tree to bonsai – part 3
Last year I started working on a Japanese black pine that was developed as a landscape tree (here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of the story). This year’s work was less exciting than last year’s, but it made me much happier. Why? Because I’m now committed to a design direction (i.e. I cut off most […]
Preparing a black pine for exhibit
Not long before last month’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit, Boon mentioned that there was room for more trees if I was interested. I looked around my backyard for candidates and found that one of my black pines had filled in nicely after the previous year’s decandling. I brought it to workshop to see if it […]
Air layering shishigashira at BIB meeting
The topic for this month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting was air layering. It’s a fast way to create new bonsai – much faster than starting trees from seed or cutting. It’s also a great way to correct defective roots as layering typically produces a good radial root base. Boon described for us two approaches to […]
Creating cork bark black pine
After doing some cutback on a corkbark black pine, I saved the clippings so I could do some grafting. Corkbark pines aren’t as strong on their own roots as they are on black pine roots. As a result, most of the corkbark bonsai we see are grafted. The earlier these trees are grafted, the better. […]