Membership has its benefits. This month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting featured a critique from Akio Kondo, a Kokufu prize-winning bonsai artist from Japan. Kondo sizing up a procumbens juniper by Peter Tea Kondo first visited California in 1996 to practice bonsai for a year after completing his apprenticeship to Kihachiro Kamiya at Kihachi-en. Kondo offered […]
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Project trees
One thing I noticed while visiting bonsai gardens in Japan – their “project trees” are pretty good. I found these junipers in Shinji Suzuki’s garden. Shimpaku This shimpaku is young and has only one branch – but what fun design potential! Fortunately these smaller junipers are easy to grow from cutting. And although they don’t […]
Three more from Urushibata
A juniper, a pine, and another pine from Urushibata’s garden: Shimpaku What stood out on this shimpaku was the extensive carving. I don’t know if it is still in process or if this is it. It will be interesting to see the tree in a couple of years when the foliage and deadwood are further […]
From the Daiju En collection
A few more photos from the awe-inspiring collection at Daiju En. Japanese black pine This large black pine has some of the best bark one could hope for on a pine. Pines typically develop rough bark or bark that break into plates. The latter is more valuable because it is considered attractive and is typically […]
Ooishi’s deciduous work
Ooishi’s deciduous work is remarkable – and not just because his trees look good. In most cases he created his collection from scratch, by air-layering, grafting and careful wiring and cutback over the years. Although I don’t know the ages of the trees below, Ooishi suggested that trees like this can be developed from cuttings […]