Shin-Boku’s Very Big Bonsai

Shinbokupine

This Weeping eastern white pine (Pinus Strobus ‘Pendula’) is from Shin-Boku Nursery in Wentworth NH. It’s pretty impressive as is, but if you wanted to turn it into a very large bonsai, you might want to cut off (or air-layer) everything above the large first branch on the left (the branch that’s about even with her left hand).

Shin-Boku Nursery
We mentioned Shin-Boku a few posts back when we were discussing some Cole’s prostrate hemlocks. It’s worth mentioning again if you like landscape trees that look like bonsai, as well as some great potential bonsai. Here’s a couple more trees just to give you an idea of what they are up to.

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Masters’ Gallery: Classic Bonsai of Japan

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This Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) is from Classic Bonsai of Japan (Nippon Bonsai Association: Kodansha America, Inc.). The Japanese name for yew is Ichii. It’s was said to be two hundred years old when this photo was taken. As you can see at a glance, it’s a very powerful old twin trunk tree with great balance and contrasting aged deadwood and bark that add interest and character. Also, it’s not highly refined in the way that some Japanese bonsai tend to be (go here, here and here for more discussion on this issue). Rather, its look is rugged and natural. Overall, it’s a worthy bonsai to kick off our masters’ gallery series.

Masters’ Gallery
This new series will focus on trees that I think are worthy of being called masterpieces. Though there are no absolute standards for determining the best bonsai, there are things you can look for. From both sides: things that detract from a trees power, beauty and character and things that give it those qualities. I look forward to reading your comments.

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Field Growing #9: Fall Transplanting #2

Wcrabcrop2Time to go back into the ground
I moved this crabapple into this Tokoname pot in the spring. I wanted to photograph it covered in fresh little red apples, but the birds ate them the morning I planned on shooting. It’s not really ready for bonsai anyway; the nebari needs more time, the scar needs to heal and more branching needs to develop, so I’m going to stick it back into the ground in a couple weeks (I’ll post a photo). As an aside, I just noticed how the companion plant’s pot (by Wendy Heller) mirrors the color and texture on the bark on the crabapple (a fortuitous accident).

Clip and grow
The visible scar is where I cut the tree down to its current size (to about 10″ – 25cm, from about 30″ – 76cm) when it came out of the field the last time. There’s another barely visible scar lower down on the back from the first major cut five years ago. This technique is called clip and grow.

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Contest #6: Bonsai Paintings Revisited

RoyLpainting

Roy Lichtenstein may have known painting but I’m not so sure he knew bonsai. The tree is strange, the pot is strange and too small, it’s in a place that makes no sense, even temporarily. Still, he’s Roy Lichenstein and he was rich and famous and probably wouldn’t have cared what I think. And, if he could enter this painting in our contest, (you can ignore the ‘paint by numbers’ idea if you want) it would be taken seriously. I borrowed the image from SoHo Art.

You too can become rich and famous
Well, rich might be a stretch, and famous, I guess that’s a stretch too, though we had over 10,000 visitors last month. Anyway, enter our contest. Paint, draw, digitally create, or whatever, something that relates to bonsai and you just might win a $50.00 gift certificate to Stone Lantern. Just do it! You’ll be glad you did. Just be sure to send it (digitally and in the comments below) by August 31, 2009.

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Jin & Shari #6: Carving an Old Hornbeam

Potterhornbeam

Here’s a great example of an English hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) that started as large tree that was cut down and carved. The artist is Graham Potter of Kaizen Bonsai.

Carving video by Graham Potter
If you are interested in carving as well as reducing large field grown trees, check out the video below. It might just open up an entirely new way of doing things for you and your bonsai.

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Green Workshop: Fall Transplanting Pros & Cons

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Time to repot. Morten Albek intentionally broke the pot to show this Cork bark Japanese black pine’s dense root mass. From Morten’s book, Shohin Bonsai (Stone Lantern Publishing).

Why transplant in the fall?
If you transplant in the fall your trees can take full advantage of the next growing season. If you transplant in the spring (that’s when most people do it), by the time the tree recovers, you’ve lost part of the growing season.

Why not transplant in the fall?
If you have an early winter and your bonsai haven’t fully recovered from transplanting, then you risk serious damage (or worse). If you rootprune heavily, the risk goes up. If you want to play it safe, fall transplant only those trees that need light to moderate root pruning.

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Field Growing #8: Old Cole’s Hemlocks

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A Cole’s prostrate hemlock (Tsuga canadensis ‘Cole’s Prostrate’) that went from nursery container to my back yard and then into this growing pot (it’s now back in the ground, no photo yet). I cut off about 75% of the original. Some of the deadwood is new, but the more faded deadwood on the trunk was already there. Photo by Amy Palmer.

Old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks
A couple years ago I stumbled across eight amazing old Cole’s prostrate hemlocks in nursery pots at Palmer Koelb’s Baker Valley Nursery in New Hampshire (Palmer also owns Shin Boku Nursery). Palmer loves Okatsune tools, so we worked up a trade and I brought them home and stuck them in some landscaped areas around my house.

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Back Savers #4: Suthin’s Shohin

Suthin16

Suthin Sukosolvisit shows some serious stuff (sorry) with this powerful shohin (small bonsai) display. This type multi-tree display is the way shohin bonsai typically appear in judged shows. Check out Morten Albek’s Shohin Bonsai to see the rules (written and unwritten) for shohin display.

Suthiin Sukosolvisit
I’ve long been a fan of Suthin’s. Not just because of his shohin (though he is best known for those), but because he shows mastery across a range of bonsai sizes and styles. Still, shohin is what this post is about, and when it comes to shohin, Suthin is one of the best artists around.

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Triple Take

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Look familiar?
My apologies if things seems a little redundant around here; this is the third time we’ve shown this Shohin Japanese black pine. Fortunately, it’s a decent little tree and worthy of one more look.

The mystery has been solved
The reason you’re seeing it now is that it hasn’t been attributed yet. That’s because we didn’t know whose tree it was. Now we do. Here’s the proof:

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Heat, Watering & A Bonsai Story

bt90-p044-02A set up like this will come in handy if you live out west right now. Back here in the northeast, we’ve barely had to uncoil ours so far this summer. This image is from our Juniper book.

I never miss Michael Hagedorn’s posts on Crataegus Bonsai. He’s always got something useful to say and he’s a natural story teller (check out Post-Dated – The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk if you’re from Missouri, or just a show-me kind of person).

Michael’s last two posts are prompted by the heat wave out west. One is a very timely tip on watering and the other is a story from his time as a bonsai apprentice in Japan.

Here’s a little teaser from the latter:
Yesterday’s ‘HEAT’ post made me remember a story from Japan…
My first year as an apprentice in Japan was a record setting heat wave. Temperatures reached into the low 100’s for weeks on end, and the humidity was wilting to those watering the trees… (go to Heat Story… for the rest of this post).

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