Just one day after landing in Tokyo a few weeks ago, five of us caught a train to Obuse, Nagano prefecture, home of my favorite bonsai garden. Garden courtyard The garden is beautiful in winter. Snow came late this year, but enough fell before our visit that the grounds were blanketed in white when we arrived. […]
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Living the bonsai life
I’m very excited to share photos from a recent trip to Japan. Here’s a taste. Large bonsai at Shinji Suzuki’s garden Before getting to that, however, I wanted to note, for those who haven’t heard, that I’m now doing bonsai full-time. I expect this year to be filled with a variety of fun bonsai activities […]
Medium is the new large
Bay Island Bonsai’s 17th annual exhibit featured small, kifu, and medium-sized bonsai. The larger trees got a break this year. Here, then, are the largest trees on display – the medium-sized bonsai. Black pine White pine Shimpaku grafted on Sierra juniper displayed with Boston Ivy Shimpaku grafted on Sierra juniper – great character Shimpaku saikei Dwarf Sawara cypress […]
Not too big, not too small – Kifu bonsai at BIB exhibit
Kifu bonsai don’t get a lot of attention. They are the trees that are a bit larger than shohin, but shorter than the medium sized bonsai. They are generally between 8 and 12 inches tall. The increased size allows for a bit more character and complexity than shohin trees, but they still work on a […]
Shohin bonsai at BIB’s 17th annual exhibit
The focus of this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit was on smaller trees – shohin, kifu and chuhin, or medium-sized bonsai. This meant a couple of things for members: there would be no lifting of heavy trees (easy), but we’d need far more trees than normal to fill the exhibit hall (tricky). Altogether, BIB members […]