The East Bay Bonsai Society recently held their 49th annual show at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California. It was another good show for EBBS with a fun mix of varieties, accents and suiseki. Below are photos from the show with a few comments about balance. For comparison’s sake, here is a link to […]
Search Results for: pine
More fall decandling
Last summer, Akio Kondo visited California to work and to teach bonsai. During a Bay Island Bonsai workshop, Kondo made an interesting suggestion for improving one of my pines. The tree looked great from a distance, but he quickly noticed that the tree had no interior buds. Without interior buds, the tree had no future. […]
Fall decandling
I decandled one of my black pines this week. I can’t say it makes much sense on the surface, but I have reason to believe good will come of it. I gave this a try at the suggestion of Akio Kondo. In a couple of years I’ll know more about the technique – for now […]
Bonsai soil
I’ve been spending my free moments sifting bonsai soil for the past few weeks – a bag here, a bag there. I know that I have a lot of trees to repot this winter and I don’t like to start the soil-making process from scratch when I’m ready to repot, so I’m getting started while […]
What’s in the trunk?
I was struck, at the recent Redwood Empire Bonsai Society’s 27th annual show, how the trunk of each bonsai set the tone for the rest of the tree. The roots, branches, and foliage each take their cue from the trunk, and if there is too big a difference in quality between any one of these elements […]




