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Shopping for bonsai
I’ve enjoyed bonsai auctions for a long time. You never know what material will show up or how much it will go for. They are a great way to gauge the market for given trees within a given audience and...
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Air layering shishigashira at BIB meeting
The topic for this month’s Bay Island Bonsai meeting was air layering. It’s a fast way to create new bonsai – much faster than starting trees from seed or cutting. It’s also a great way to correct...
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Preparing a black pine for exhibit
Not long before last month’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit, Boon mentioned that there was room for more trees if I was interested. I looked around my backyard for candidates and found that one of my black...
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From landscape tree to bonsai – part 3
Last year I started working on a Japanese black pine that was developed as a landscape tree (here’s Part 1 and Part 2 of the story). This year’s work was less exciting than last year’s, but it made me...
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A project pine
I’m fond of referring to selected trees as “project” trees when the journey to become a bonsai is a long one. The black pine below has something resembling a bunjin feel – a euphemism, in this case,...
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Japanese plum before and after
This year’s work on a Japanese plum didn’t involve much more than minor cutback and repotting. Daisaku Nomoto trimmed the branches and I repotted the tree in the same pot. Japanese plum – before After...
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GSBF Mammoth Fundraiser 2013
This past weekend marked the GSBF Bonsai Garden Lake Merritt’s Mammoth Fundraiser – the annual auction and sale event that brings so many of Northern California’s bonsai enthusiasts to Oakland each...
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Repotting a Western juniper
It had been a while since I last repotted my Western juniper. Although the drainage remained good, I’d been anxious to repot since styling the tree last fall and deciding on a new planting angle....
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2013 Pacific Orchid Exposition
I had the fortune to attend the 2013 Pacific Orchid Exposition at Fort Mason, San Francisco, last month. Wow, what an explosion of bright colors and exotic shapes! This year’s theme was East Meets West...
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The colors of orchids
The 2013 Pacific Orchid Exposition included more flowers that were new to me than I could count. Here are some more of the standouts. Orchids on display at the 2013 Pacific Orchid Exposition at Fort...
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Shohin displays at BABA’s 32nd Annual Exhibit
The Bay Area Bonsai Associates held their 32nd Annual Exhibit this past weekend at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California. Roughly half of the trees in the exhibit were displayed informally...
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Bonsai displays from BABA’s 32nd Annual Exhibit
The Chinese quince below was one of a number of trees displayed at BABA’s 32nd Annual Exhibit last weekend. It was started from seed and completely developed by Jim Gremel. The tree’s coming along...
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Repotting a red pine forest
Late last year, I brought my red pine forest in to a workshop with Daisaku Nomoto to see about preparing it for show. To my surprise, Nomoto was more concerned with the way the group was planted than...
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Repotting a shohin azalea
My shohin azalea was long overdue for repotting. I’d wanted to change the angle of the tree for some time as the main branch was too large to bend and the exposed roots were pointing almost straight...
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Repotting 1 year-old black pine seedlings
Last year I tried two different approaches to planting black pine seedling cuttings – planting them in individual containers, the approach I’d most often taken in the past, and planting groups of them...
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Wiring 3 year-old black pines
Once black pine seedlings have developed a bit of a trunk, typically after two or three years, it’s time to start wiring. Following Daisaku Nomoto’s advice that young seedlings should develop slowly, I...
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Pine cutback basics
For as much as I’ve written about pine care, I haven’t said much about cutback. Cutback can be tricky as there are many reasons to remove or not remove branches in given situations. Different teachers...
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Developing young pines
Last week I wrote about starting trees along a path that would yield either large, medium or small bonsai (see “Wiring 3 year-old black pines“). I have a number of black pines that are now turning nine...
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Ikebana International – San Francisco Exhibition 2013
Maybe ten or fifteen years ago, I happened upon my first ikebana exhibit. I was surprised by how intrigued I was by the displays. Long familiar with flower arrangements, I had no idea how evocative and...
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Ikenobo, Ohara, Wafu and other ikebana on display
As I perused Ikebana International, San Francisco Chapter’s recent Ikebana Exhibition, I tried to guess the schools to which the different compositions belonged. I can’t say I had much success, but I...
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