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Spring cutback on ume
Over the years, I’ve experimented with a number of approaches to developing ume. I’ve fully defoliated the tree in spring, partially defoliated it, and avoided defoliating at all. I’ve let it grow...
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Highlights from the Bonsai Society of Portland’s Farm to Table seminar
Last weekend the Bonsai Society of Portland held “Farm to Table,” an event that focused on techniques for developing field-grown material. About 100 participants from Oregon, Washington, and...
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Visit to Rakuyo, the bonsai garden of Andrew Robson
During my recent visit to Portland, Oregon, I spent the bulk of my free time at Rakuyo-en, the bonsai garden of Andrew Robson. Andrew started Rakuyo to focus on deciduous bonsai. Although I’d seen...
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Highlights from the Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai’s 25th annual show
On May 21-22, 2022, the Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai hosted their 25th annual exhibition at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. The event featured some fantastic satsuki azaleas in full...
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Bonsai Development Series #26: Focusing growth in a single sacrifice branch
For the last few years I’ve been pruning my young pines down to a single sacrifice branch. This slows growth but allows me to fit more trees on the bench. Decandling time is a good time to do this...
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Decandling field-grown black pines
One of the most fun stages of development is when the trunk has reached the desired size and the focus switches to improving branch density. The black pine below was field-grown at Lone Pine Gardens...
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Summer pruning young deciduous trees
It’s been a while since I last pruned some young quince and crabapples I’ve been growing from seed. By pruning in summer I can encourage them to produce new growth that I can wire in fall. Here’s a...
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Pruning shohin olive
Summer is a good time to prune olive bonsai. By pruning when the weather is warm, I can expect olives to produce new growth until the weather cools in fall. For two small shohin, cutback consisted of...
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Bonsai Development Series #27: Focusing growth on the lowest primary branches
After growing a trunk to the desired size, the next step is creating primary branches. And the bigger the trunk, the bigger we can expect these branches to be. The main challenge is that most trees...
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Wrapping up decandling season
I finished decandling my black and red pines about a week ago. And since I’d neglected to pull needles or thin branches last fall, I did that work too. (If you’re new to decandling, see “Decandling:...
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Suggestions for studying bonsai with exhibit books
When I think back to my earliest memories of studying bonsai with Boon Manakitivipart, I remember there were Kokufu books everywhere. We’d look at them in the workshop, at lunch, and after dinner....
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Decandling and thinning a red pine forest
Late spring is a great time to decandle healthy black and red pines (see “Decandling” for details). It’s also a good time to thin dense areas or remove extra needles that didn’t come off in fall. Over...
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Creating redwood bonsai: step 2
The first step when creating branches from scratch on coast redwood pre-bonsai is to stimulate lots of new shoots. Once this new growth appears, the next step is to trim the shoots on the upper...
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Bonsai soil Q & A
Several years ago I wrote about bonsai soil in a post titled “All about akadama.” (If you haven’t read it, you can check it out here.) I continue to get questions on the topic so I thought I’d provide...
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Kokufu scoring exercise part 1: coniferous and deciduous bonsai
In the run-up to this fall’s Pacific Bonsai Expo, I’ve been thinking a lot about evaluating bonsai. We’re working on a scoring system for the Expo judging panel and wanted to give everyone who’s...
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Kokufu scoring exercise part 2: multi-point displays
This week’s topic is scoring multi-point displays – displays that feature more than one bonsai within a six-foot space. This is the most common approach to displaying small and medium-sized bonsai,...
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Kokufu scoring exercise results
For those of you curious to learn which trees scored best in the recent Kokufu scoring exercise (see part 1 and part 2 for details), here they are! Large conifer – shimpaku juniper Large deciduous –...
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Pacific Bonsai Expo update
This fall’s Pacific Bonsai Expo is coming together quickly. As a result, all of us working behind the scenes wanted to share some updates so here we go! Volunteer signups are online now If you’d like...
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Bonsai stand conventions
Bonsai stands are small tables used to display bonsai. They’re commonly found in exhibits or in formal indoor displays. We rarely see them in the garden as few stands are built to last outdoors. Why...
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Planning a successful trip to the Pacific Bonsai Expo
The 2022 Pacific Bonsai Expo is only five weeks away! Here are some tips to ensure a successful visit. 1. Purchase Tickets in Advance Tickets are available for Sunday, November 13th at the Expo...
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