On January 14-15, 2023, the Bay Area Bonsai Associates held their 41st bonsai exhibition at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. Here are some of the highlights, starting with the Best Conifer award winner from the Pacific Bonsai Expo. Grafted shimpaku Another tree you might recognize from the Expo is a large Coast […]
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Field-grown black pine progression – part 2
In last week’s post we left off in 2017 – about 10-15 years into the development of a black pine that was field-grown at Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, California. Here’s the tree two years later. March, 2019 Because the tree hadn’t been wired in several years, the large gap between the lower and upper […]
Field-grown black pine progression – part 1
I’ve been waiting a long time to share the progress on one of my black pines, and now is a great time for it! Let’s start with the back story. In 1993 – by coincidence it’s the year I started growing bonsai – Kathy Shaner started a batch of black pines from seed that ended […]
Introducing Shohin School!
Over the past year, Andrew Robson and I spent a lot of time talking about small trees. The result is Shohin School, an effort to promote the understanding and appreciation of shohin bonsai. Andrew setting up an all-deciduous display Our first offering is Winter Shohin School, a two-day seminar held in Portland, Oregon, on January […]
Small and medium displays at the Pacific Bonsai Expo
Let’s wrap up our initial tour of the Expo with some examples of medium and shohin displays. Given a standard exhibit space that’s six feet wide, it’s common to fill the area with two or more trees depending on their size. For medium-sized trees under 18″, we expect to see displays featuring two bonsai and […]