Spotted in the Wild
Historical Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and RSS posts previously curated by the club (2017–present). Not authored by the club — preserved here since the original source feeds no longer carry this history.
Cutback on field-grown dawn redwood
For the first time in years, I have a dawn redwood in the garden. It was a favorite species of mine growing up but I’ve only worked on them as bonsai here and there over the years. After working on one last week, I’m…
How To Decide The Height Of A Bonsai
A reader asked for an explanation of this sentence from a previous post : “With any tree, thick trunk or thin, follow the taper of the trunk and where the two lines of the sides meet, that’s roughly where your tree…
A visit to Walter Pall’s garden
One of this year’s highlights was getting to spend time with Walter Pall in his garden. After joining his master class for a few days in Zorneding, Germany, I headed to Walter’s garden to record him talking about his…
Fall Work On Satsuki Azalea
You wouldn’t think Japanese Black Pine and Satsuki Azalea are similar in any way. And yet the common techniques for Black Pine and Satsuki are mirrors. In spring we trim the new growth. In fall we simplify the robust…
13th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo 2025
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Formal Upright White-out Exercise: Part III
Our formal upright design series wraps this week with comments on each of the 9 remaining design options. To orient again around the options, here’s Joe’s thumbnail layout. 7 was covered at length in Part II . 1. This…
2026 Shohin School registration open
A couple of years ago, Andrew Robson and I hosted a Winter Shohin School in Milwaukie, Oregon featuring headliner Daisaku Nomoto from Japan. The event is coming to Northern California next month! The 2026 Winter Shohin…
A Visit to Hoshu-in Bonsai Garden
The only Zen garden in a Buddhist Temple is located in the Daitoku-ji Temple complex in Kyoto, Japan. It is quite close to the world-famous Daisen-in garden. Now photos are allowed! The Hoshu-in Bonsai Garden which…
Bonus Images
YES I did!…. still in one piece!
Highlights from the 2025 North American Bonsai Pottery Competition
After a long hiatus, the US again has a juried bonsai pottery competition. After an initial pair of events in 2001 and 2002 and a follow-up in 2015, we now have an updated competition sponsored by the American Bonsai…
A Visit To Daiju-en Bonsai Garden– The Suzuki Family Pine Bonsai Dynasty– Pioneers Of Black Pine Bonsai
Today we visited the Daiju-en Bonsai Garden of Toru Suzuki, third generation bonsai artist. Saichi Suzuki (1902 – 1991) Toshinori Suzuki (1925 – 2007) Toru Suzuki (1954 – Takuya Suzuki (1984 – The Suzuki family is one…
The 2025 45th Japan Bonsai Taikan Exhibition– Part 3 Kunio Kobayashi Bonsai Demonstration
For me the highlight of this exhibition was the bonsai demonstration by Kunio Kobayashi on Saturday morning from 10am to Noon, EXACTLY. The admission charge for this exhibition is less than US$10. This time, like last…
The 2025 45th Japan Bonsai Taikan Exhibition– Part 2
The exhibition opened today at 8:45am with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Unlike other openings only two short welcoming speeches were made, in Japanese of course. Then we proceeded with cutting the ribbon welcoming…
Formal Upright White-out Exercise: Part II
Part I was a white-out exercise with an Ezo Spruce, asking, which branches would you cut off, if any? Thanks to all of you who offered your favorite options. It’s a complicated tree with a lot of possibility and many…
The 2025 45th Edition of the Japan Bonsai Taikan Exhibition
The 45 th edition of this national level exhibition is being held on November 21-23, 2025 at the Miyako Messe in Kyoto, Japan. This is one of my favorite exhibitions in Japan because the bonsai are commonly displayed…
A Visit To Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum
On the way to Kyoto for garden tours and the major Nippon Bonsai Taikan Exhibition this coming weekend, we stopped and enjoyed the warm hospitality of Mr. & Mrs. Kunio Kobayashi at their Bonsai Museum. Located in the…
My Second Visit to Omiya Bonsai Village & More
Masahiko Kimura Studio Today’s tour was visitation to the private studio of Masahiko Kimura, the great and innovator of unusual, fine bonsai. His garden is always changing and on today’s visit I noticed a great number…
My First Visit to the Omiya Bonsai Village… this trip, but not the last.
Kora Dalager, my tour organizer and leader, Dave Steele and I arrived last week to attend the 100 th Anniversary of Omiya Bonsai Village ceremony last week, before our formal tour begins tomorrow. Dave and I had a…
100th Anniversary Omiya Bonsai Village Commemorative Ceremony
After the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, which leveled the region, bonsai artists in the destroyed Tokyo needed to relocate. They selected an area near Omiya, north of Tokyo with clean air, good water and among a grove…
Formal Upright White-out Exercise: Part I
A white-out exercise is a fun way to explore design options. It helps see a new design without needing to cut off a branch. This Ezo Spruce was designed in 2016 and has since filled out. It’s a skinny-trunked tree, and…
October Bonsai Projects
Here’s a handful of October projects and what we did with them. A Vine Maple that has variously been called “ The Boot ” and “The Moose,” so both footwear and quadrupeds are represented in my garden, depending on who…
A New Home For A Japanese Maple
This Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, is from seed, not a cutting, graft or air layer of any special cultivar. It was grown in a field for about 8-10 years, then container grown and trained for about 30 years. The mature…
A few Private Bonsai Collection Visits In San Juan
A couple of week ago I had the honor and pleasure of teaching at the Tropical Bonsai Symposium, sponsored by Bonsai Shohin Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The previous two blog entries have photos from that beautiful…
A Quick Guide to Black Pine Fall Work
A bonsai truism is that in fall we get to clean up the mess we initiated in the spring. And for pines, this mess is most apparent for the multiple flush species, like Japanese Black Pine. Black Pine will regrow from a…