While hiking around Moab looking for Utah junipers, Konnor and I came across a number of neat deciduous trees I was not familiar with. My favorite was the singleleaf ash, Fraxinus anomala. The species, a member of the olive family, is an anomoly among ash because it has a single rather than a compound leaf. […]
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Pinyon pines
Last weekend Konnor Jenson and I visited Moab, Utah, to scout for junipers. As both of us have a deep appreciation for pines, we found – to no one’s surprise – pines! Pinyon pines have a number of characteristics that are great for bonsai. The needles are small, the branches are nimble, and when grown […]
Of candles and cones
Looking across my benches last week I was struck by the very different speeds at which my pines were opening up. The differences seemed larger than usual this year. And I can’t blame pot size, fertilizer or the weather – not for the most part anyway. The majority of my five-year-old pines had candles and […]
Where does the first branch go?
At our last Bay Island Bonsai meeting, Boon had us complete one of my favorite exercises. He passes out a worksheet with the trunks of trees and has us draw in the primary branches and the outline of the tree. Pine, Pine, Azalea, Pine? It’s a super exercise that forces one to think about what […]
Bonsai Focus
Patience, perseverance, and humility can help us become better bonsai artists – so long as we have good teachers. Their lectures, workshops, demonstrations and guidance form the core, for many of us, of our bonsai knowledge. For inspiration, perspective and reference, we can thank the publishers. For more than 10 years, René Rooswinkel, as Publisher, […]