Working on old or neglected bonsai is one of my favorite tasks. At a recent Bay Island Bonsai workshop, an old Japanese maple grove got the works. The owner is working to make something of these old trees whose roots have fused together long ago. Japanese maple grove The project is not inspired by wonderful […]
Japanese maple
Repotting a Japanese maple
Back in winter I took a few photographs of an air-layered Japanese maple getting repotted during a Bay Island Bonsai workshop. Combing out the roots – Japanse maple ‘sango kaku’ The new roots are well established. The next step is to get them to fuse while improving the ramification. Jeff, the tree’s owner, kicked off […]
Maples!
The Bay Area Bonsai Associates (BABA) held their 28th annual show at Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California, this past weekend. The show included a good number of maples. Some of my favorites belonged to local bonsai enthusiast Jay McDonald. Jay is active in a number of clubs and has contributed greatly to the local […]
Ooishi’s deciduous work
Ooishi’s deciduous work is remarkable – and not just because his trees look good. In most cases he created his collection from scratch, by air-layering, grafting and careful wiring and cutback over the years. Although I don’t know the ages of the trees below, Ooishi suggested that trees like this can be developed from cuttings […]
Ebihara Technique
It’s summer and everything’s growing gangbusters so I thought I’d mix things up a bit and write a few more posts about my trip to Japan this past February. These photos were taken in Ebihara’s garden and provide clues to how he achieved such great results in so little time. I’ll leave the details to […]