Home

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. 

Here’s a handful of October projects and what we did with them. 

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 bark is an indication suggesting age.

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 exhibition of unique tropical species trained for bonsai. The group arranged for me a couple of unique garden visits.

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.

After the post about birds in bonsai display I received a note from a friend. She reminded me that there’s more to display than location and season, and that birds (and animals) have personalities and presences that spark an emotional response.

Attending regional events like the US National Bonsai Exhibition is a good way to gain an understanding of the work happening within a given community. At the National, the community showing trees represents a big swath of the US. As a result, it features a lot of great trees.

We tend to think of fall color in deciduous trees in clear terms. The fall leaves of Gingko are yellow. Those of Red Maple are red. Except, sometimes the Red Maple has yellow leaves.

As the days shorten and the air turns crisp, a quiet transformation begins. At the moment, colours are slowly shifting here in the Kisetsu-en bonsai garden.

The long-needled pines like Ponderosa and Austrian Pine tend to grow large end shoots with many needles. Selectively trimming needles off can help balance shoots, weakening strong ones and strengthening the smaller ones.