I finished decandling my black and red pines about a week ago. And since I’d neglected to pull needles or thin branches last fall, I did that work too. (If you’re new to decandling, see “Decandling: an in-depth guide” for details.) Here’s what this work looked like on an 18 year-old pine. Before decandling After […]
Search Results for: pine
Bonsai Development Series #26: Focusing growth in a single sacrifice branch
For the last few years I’ve been pruning my young pines down to a single sacrifice branch. This slows growth but allows me to fit more trees on the bench. Decandling time is a good time to do this work because it gives me the opportunity to slow down branches that are gaining too much […]
Visit to Rakuyo, the bonsai garden of Andrew Robson
During my recent visit to Portland, Oregon, I spent the bulk of my free time at Rakuyo-en, the bonsai garden of Andrew Robson. Andrew started Rakuyo to focus on deciduous bonsai. Although I’d seen photos of the garden before visiting, nothing prepared me for the scale and scope of the collection. For starters, many of […]
Highlights from the Bonsai Society of Portland’s Farm to Table seminar
Last weekend the Bonsai Society of Portland held “Farm to Table,” an event that focused on techniques for developing field-grown material. About 100 participants from Oregon, Washington, and California enjoyed two days of education at the Milwaukie Community Center from bonsai teachers John Eads, Michael Hagedorn, Matt Reel, Andrew Robson, and me. Andrew Robson critiques […]
Conifers vs. deciduous bonsai: evaluating different species
For this fall’s Pacific Bonsai Expo, we have some judging categories for narrow groups of trees (Best Large Conifer is an example) and other categories (like Best Medium Bonsai Display) that include a broad diversity of species. For these latter categories, it can be difficult to compare species as different as pine and beech. One […]