Some bonsai are born great, others are made. Just because nature – or a nursery – doesn’t provide a tree with graceful lines or dramatic features doesn’t mean that it isn’t destined for greatness. Of course some trees are best left alone. Which is what many thought when they walked past the juniper pictured below. […]
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Preparing a display
A few weeks after this year’s BIB exhibit in January, I started thinking hard about what trees to display in 2010. Depending on the work a tree needs, twelve months is not always enough time to prepare it for exhibit. I’d been thinking about showing a large Sierra juniper or a large corkbark Japanese black […]
Learning the art of bonsai display
Two things define Bay Island Bonsai’s monthly meetings for me – Boon’s talks and practice displays. Sure, we get to see videos and slide shows, practice evaluating trees and complete various bonsai-related exercises, but the core of our bonsai theory is expressed through the talks and practice displays. We end each meeting by providing BIB […]
Summer ritual – decandling black pine
Japanese black pine bonsai entails a set of refining techniques known as decandling. At its most simple, it refers to the process of removing spring growth to encourage summer growth. At its most complex it involves more variables than I can address in a single post. Regardless the approach, the goals remain the same – […]
Sizing up candles
You’ve seen the pictures in the books and magazines. Before decandling your Japanese black pines, divide the new growth into four categories of differing vigor. Below that simple instruction one will find a photo that resembles the following: Spring growth as reported by the mainstream bonsai media Actual spring growth Our trees, however, tend to […]