Sierra junipers have become a favorite variety of mine in recent years. They grow vigorously and often feature deadwood with undulating movement and exciting jin. The Members’ Choice award for large conifer at Bay Island Bonsai’s 19th annual exhibit went to a Sierra juniper. It’s a fantastic tree. Members’ Choice Award – Sierra juniper Great […]
Search Results for: pine
How to use a bonsai jack
“Bonsai Jacks” are tools designed to bend heavy branches and trunks. They allow us to make these bends incrementally – and safely – by twisting a threaded rod. The best way to describe their use is with an example, so let’s start there. Here’s a pine styled by Daisaku Nomoto with help from Boon Manakitivipart, […]
Bonsai Development Series #3: Evaluating field grown material
There’s a lot to try to keep in mind when shopping for field grown material. It can be easy to focus on the lower part of the trunk and think, “This looks nice, I can fix the rest later.” The fix may not, however, always come easily. At a glance, the pine below has a […]
An approach to organizing a bonsai garden
I often spend time organizing the garden toward the end of the year. I’ve found it’s far easier to keep trees healthy when growing similar varieties under similar conditions. For trees in development, I organize by variety, age, and type of pot. For years I grew trees in colanders on the same benches as trees […]
From landscape tree to bonsai part 5
Six years ago, I started working on a large Japanese black pine that had been developed as landscape material. Japanese black pine – 2012 Over the years I reduced the tree to a single cascading branch (for the full story, see links to parts 1-4 below). Black pine – December 2017 Several years ago, the […]