You can’t have too many branches on ume – or at least I can’t. Getting ume to ramify has proved difficult for me. I made several grafts this year and fortunately most of them took. See “Ume – cutback and grafting” for details about the grafting process. My job now is to help the scions […]
Search Results for: pine
Summer at the Lake Merritt Bonsai Garden
On a recent visit to the Golden State Bonsai Federation’s Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt, a number of trees with scars caught my attention. The first is a Coast oak collected from Carmel with extraordinarily small leaves. The scar has completely healed over and how adds interest to the already gnarly trunk. Coast live oak […]
Evaluating bonsai
As we prepared to begin a judging exercise at this month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting, Morten asked a good question. It was something to the effect of, “Is the highest scoring tree the most valuable tree?” I knew the two were closely related, but had to think for a moment before coming to a conclusion. […]
Bonsai apprentices online
Like many bonsai enthusiasts, I’ve long dreamed about studying bonsai in Japan in a formal apprenticeship. After hearing tales from Kathy Shaner, Boon Manakitivipart, and Michael Hagedorn, I’m both excited by, and somewhat afraid of, all that the experience entails. Recently three more bonsai students began apprenticeships in Japan: Tim Gardner, Peter Tea, and Tyler […]
New bonsai tweezers
Many people who work a lot with black pine bonsai develop a special relationship with tweezers. Fall, winter, and sometimes spring and summer offer opportunities to remove copious amounts of needles from pine bonsai in later stages of development. I like tweezer work because it leaves pine foliage looking clean and even – balanced, in […]