When I found out I was going to Atlanta, I immediately made plans to visit Kenji Miyata’s garden. Kenji is a Japanese-trained bonsai professional who spent the majority of his career in the US, first in California, and now in Georgia. Kenji studied with Yasuo Mitsuya (Boon’s first teacher in Japan) where he learned black […]
Excursions
Excursion posts feature visits to bonsai gardens in the U.S. and in Japan, visits to the Kyoto's Most Renown Gardens, and trips into the mountains to see junipers and pines in their natural setting.
A visit to the Chinese Garden at the Huntington
After visiting the Bonsai Collection at the Huntington, I carved out time to visit the adjacent Chinese Garden. It was an eye-opening experience! Taking its inspiration from 16th and 17th century gardens in Suzho (near Shanghai), the 15-acre complex features a large pond, more than a dozen historically-inspired structures, and twelve different paving patterns. Liu […]
Visiting the GSBF Collection at The Huntington
Last weekend I had a fantastic visit to the GSBF Collection at The Huntington. I was in town for the Bonsai-A-Thon, the garden’s annual fundraiser, as a visiting artist sponsored by Joshua Roth (thanks, John and Michelle!). The garden much bigger than it was when I last visited (more than twenty years ago!) and there […]
A brief visit to Bonsai Mirai
I had the opportunity to visit Ryan Neil’s garden, Bonsai Mirai, last week. It was a perfectly beautiful day and the trees looked fantastic with fresh spring growth. Visiting gardens like Mirai gives me the opportunity to study trees that don’t grow in my climate and see different approaches to styling. It’s as much an […]
Takeaways from the second Shohin School Winter Seminar
Last month, Andrew Robson and I hosted a Shohin Seminar in Milwaukie, Oregon, featuring Japanese professional Daisaku Nomoto. Around fifty participants from seven states enjoyed two days of shohin education focused on how to create and display small trees. The event was a ton of fun and participants had the opportunity to shop from a […]