The pots holding the bonsai at Shinji Suzuki’s garden were often as interesting as the trees. We learned the story of a few of these containers – others we appreciated on our own. One glazed pot looked like it had been around awhile. There were chips, cracks, mineral deposits and other signs of wear. There […]
Pots
Pot selection follow-up
Thanks to all who attended this past weekend’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit. It was a fun event and I’ll have plenty to share about starting this Friday. Today I wanted to revisit last week’s pot selection exercise. I really appreciate all of the suggestions and wanted to respond before getting to the rest of the […]
Pot selection – exposed root black pine
One of my favorite activities relating to bonsai display is pot selection. I’ll be showing a young black pine at tomorrow’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit and the pot used for the past year isn’t exactly show quality. 13 year-old black pine in colander Here are 11 options for the tree. Some look great to me, others […]
Yaupon holly
A good rootball is fun to work with. This is especially true for varieties that produce fine roots like Yaupon holly. After removing the tree from its pot and starting to comb through the roots, I found it easy to sculpt the rootball into the exact shape I wanted. This makes repotting easy as the […]
Preparing a small pine for exhibit
Two years ago, I showed a young black pine at Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th annual exhibit. Shohin black pine – January 2012 The tree has continued to develop, so I thought I’d show it again at BIB’s 15th annual exhibit. Here’s what the tree looked like last week. January 2014 I brought the tree to […]