The bonsai at Elandan Gardens are displayed against the attractive backdrop of Puget Sound and the fantastical background of the gardens themselves. Dan Robinson has adorned the reclaimed land with stones, trees, and even deadwood collected from the mountains in an effort to create an experience that evokes alpine beauty. It’s a great spot to […]
juniper
Rocky Mountain Juniper bonsai
One of the trees displayed at Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th annual exhibit got a lot of funny looks. It’s a Rocky Mountain juniper, Juniperus scopulorum. Rocky Mountain Juniper It’s not exactly “show-ready” as we like to say – the tree is only a few years out of the ground and branch pads have yet to […]
Scenes from a Kondo workshop
I recently had the good fortune to attend a bonsai workshop run by Akio Kondo. In contrast to the last Kondo workshop I attended, this event was more pensive, more contemplative. My trees experienced no radical transformations. Instead, we spent time making plans for the future and talking about how and when to execute these […]
Witnessed in a recent workshop – grafting follow-up and junipers
You can’t have too many branches on ume – or at least I can’t. Getting ume to ramify has proved difficult for me. I made several grafts this year and fortunately most of them took. See “Ume – cutback and grafting” for details about the grafting process. My job now is to help the scions […]
Juniper pests
I’ve known for some time that a pest preys upon my junipers, but I had yet to see the creatures until yesterday. I poked around a bit and found the following. Caterpillar! I’d seen caterpillars in junipers before – nasty creatures that look like scale foliage and can eat through a tree’s new growth in […]