If you’re a fan of oak bonsai, you’ve likely heard of John “JT” Thompson. For those who don’t know JT, he’s one of the most generous bonsai teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’d seen JT’s trees in exhibits for years but I hadn’t seen his collection until last week when I visited to […]
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.
Visiting ancient Sierra junipers
Highlights from a hike to see some spectacular Sierra junipers.
Studying trees at the Koishikawa Botanical Garden
My recent trip to Japan included a morning at The University of Tokyo’s Koishikawa Botanical Garden. The garden got its start as a medicinal herb garden in 1684 when it was established by the Tokugawa Shogunate (learn more here). Today it’s a research facility with 4000 species in the living collection, 20,000 books, and 1,000,000 […]
Highlights from the Omiya Bonsai Museum’s garden
The Omiya Bonsai Museum’s garden area features a rotating selection of 40-50 trees from the museum’s collection. Many of these trees originally belonged to the Takagi Bonsai Museum. Over time, the collection has grown to become one of the more impressive bonsai gardens in Japan. The museum garden The garden is best appreciated from the […]
“Bonsai: Quest for Beauty” at the Omiya Bonsai Museum
The Omiya Bonsai Museum held an exhibit this winter featuring the work of Tomio Yamada of Seiko-en. “Bonsai: Quest for Beauty,” is the third exhibit in a series featuring the work of contemporary bonsai masters. From Yamada: It’s been over fifty years since the way of bonsai first called to me and I started creating […]