Covering bonsai soil with moss is a great technique for indoor exhibits. Covering your bonsai’s bark with moss is almost never a good idea. Moss weakens bark by keeping it moist. For trees on which bark denotes age – Japanese black pine comes to mind – moss can quickly ruin a tree’s appearance. In autumn, […]
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Preparing for winter
I’m lucky – I live in an area that doesn’t get too cold in winter. This makes late fall, winter, and early spring the busiest time of year – a time filled with cutback, needle-plucking, wiring, and repotting. I was thinking, this afternoon, of what I can do to make my pines as vigorous as […]
BIB practice display
The practice display at this month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting comes courtesy of Jim Gremel. The wonderful itiogawa juniper is one of many Jim has grown from scratch. Itiogawa juniper It’s shown, below, with a colorful pyracantha – a great variety to exhibit this time of year. If all goes well, the berries will last […]
East Bay Bonsai Society’s 48th Annual Show
The East Bay Bonsai Society will always hold a special place in my imagination as it’s the first bonsai club I joined. I had recently met Boon Manakitivipart who had invited me to visit a few local bonsai clubs. EBBS quickly became my local club. Through their monthly meetings and workshops I began to learn […]
Most ancient forest
By far the best Bay Island Bonsai field trip of the year was our visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California’s White Mountain range. The slow-growing Bristlecone Pines are a marvel – and this is the best place to see them. Along the Methuselah Trail alone, 11 of the 19 known 4,000+ year-old […]