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 […]
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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 […]
Conifers at the Pacific Bonsai Expo
If seeing great deciduous bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Expo felt like a treat, seeing the conifers offered a different feeling. It felt like a great opportunity to catch up with trees, and species, that I don’t get to spend a lot of time with. Hemlock is the first species to come to mind. We […]
Deciduous bonsai at the Pacific Bonsai Expo
Back in March, when the submissions started coming in, Eric Schrader and I were thrilled by the quality of the deciduous bonsai. Deciduous trees, a group of species that includes maples, elms, and hornbeams, among others, are often under-represented in bonsai exhibits, particularly on the West Coast. They are particularly great trees for fall exhibits […]