About a year ago I received a small olive with an unusual feature – the lower part of the trunk didn’t seem to be alive. The tree continued to grow, but slowly. An even bigger problem was that the trunk swelled a couple of inches above the roots making the tree a poor candidate for […]
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How to judge a bonsai show – highlights from the Minnesota State Fair
Last weekend I had the opportunity to judge the Minnesota Bonsai Society’s annual show held at the state fair. An amazing crowd of 225,000 people attended the fair that day, and many of them lined up to see the bonsai on display, a club tradition dating back to 1975. For those who are curious about […]
Timeline for preparing bonsai for exhibit
Years ago, I remember pulling trees off the bench for their final prep ahead of a Bay Island Bonsai exhibit when I started thinking about what trees I’d show the following year. We had a rule in the club that we couldn’t show the same tree two years in a row so the planning typically […]
A brief visit to Bonsai Mirai
I had the opportunity to visit Ryan Neil’s garden, Bonsai Mirai, last week. It was a perfectly beautiful day and the trees looked fantastic with fresh spring growth. Visiting gardens like Mirai gives me the opportunity to study trees that don’t grow in my climate and see different approaches to styling. It’s as much an […]
Early spring work
If you ask me what my favorite time of year in the garden is, I’ll say early spring, right after repotting. It’s the one time of year when everything looks good and there’s little work to do. Or so I used to think. In recent years, I’ve found that spring is a busy time for […]