In the run-up to this fall’s Pacific Bonsai Expo, I’ve been thinking a lot about evaluating bonsai. We’re working on a scoring system for the Expo judging panel and wanted to give everyone who’s interested a chance to test the approach out. For sample trees, I’ve selected images from the 94th Kokufu Exhibition held in […]
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Bonsai soil Q & A
Several years ago I wrote about bonsai soil in a post titled “All about akadama.” (If you haven’t read it, you can check it out here.) I continue to get questions on the topic so I thought I’d provide a few updates. Q. What is baked akadama and is it useful for bonsai? Baked akadama […]
Creating redwood bonsai: step 2
The first step when creating branches from scratch on coast redwood pre-bonsai is to stimulate lots of new shoots. Once this new growth appears, the next step is to trim the shoots on the upper portions of the trunk to begin developing compact branches (aka short internodes). (See “Step one” for details about starting the […]
Decandling and thinning a red pine forest
Late spring is a great time to decandle healthy black and red pines (see “Decandling” for details). It’s also a good time to thin dense areas or remove extra needles that didn’t come off in fall. Over the years I’ve found it relatively easy to decandle pines at the right time, but hard to do […]
Suggestions for studying bonsai with exhibit books
When I think back to my earliest memories of studying bonsai with Boon Manakitivipart, I remember there were Kokufu books everywhere. We’d look at them in the workshop, at lunch, and after dinner. They were a constant reminder of what was possible if we kept at it long enough. After studying with Boon for several […]