This past weekend the Redwood Empire Bonsai Society held their 34th annual show at the Memorial Veterans Building in Santa Rosa, California. Coast redwood The show is the largest in Northern California featuring over 200 bonsai on display. Cork oak California juniper The show requires a full day of setup and lots of help from […]
Search Results for: pine
When not to use colanders for developing young bonsai
I’ve been using colanders and perforated pots like pond baskets for years to grow pines. They’re great for developing roots, they allow for frequent watering and they’re easy to find. What they aren’t great for are developing deciduous bonsai – at least, not without proper watering. Most deciduous trees want a lot of water. Colanders […]
Selecting branches to decandle
Two of my young pines are almost – but not quite – ready to be fully decandled. The tree below, for example, looks ready, though you might notice that the upper branches are a bit far away from the relatively small trunk. Japanese black pine – 13 years from seed The upper branches have extended […]
Planting medium for shimpaku cuttings
A few months ago I started a number of shimpaku cuttings. Several different soils were scattered around the workshop so I tried some of each to see if it made much of a difference. I did a similar experiment several years back and found a huge difference between soils (see “Shimpaku cuttings” for details). This […]
Small trees at their best – shohin bonsai on display at the 2017 WBC
The shohin bonsai got a lot of attention at the 8th World Bonsai Convention. One of the most impressive was a shimpaku juniper with beautiful deadwood. Shohin shimpaku bonsai The shohin on display represented a number of different sizes and styles. The quality was high throughout. Jasmine bonsai White pine It was also fun to […]