Home

When developing material for bonsai, it’s best to avoid creating straight trunks and branches. Many varieties, however, naturally produce straight growth. This gives us two options: cut or wire.

I’ve been working on an old cork-bark black pine since 2004. The tree has improved a lot over the years, but it still has a ways to go. The main focus at this stage is increasing the branch density.

I fully defoliated a shohin Japanese maple about six weeks ago. Here’s what the tree looked like after removing all of the leaves.

Seeing a note on my calendar to finish decandling a pine, I headed outside and brought the pine below into the workshop.

The 45th Upstate New York Bonsai Exhibition was successfully held on May 19-20, 2018 at the Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, New York. Nearly 100 bonsai were displayed by members of the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York Inc. The Rochester chapter of Ikebana International presented a display of their flower arrangements. The Suiseki Study Group of Upstate New York also had a display their members’ stones. A bonsai demonstration was held on Saturday afternoon, while senior teachers from the ikebana society demonstrated on Sunday afternoon. A large sales area featured bonsai, pre-bonsai, display tables, tools, wire, supplies and more.

In general, we can expect black and red pines to produce a single flush of growth all year. If we remove this growth at the right time, we can expect a second flush to grow in the same calendar year.

Working on field-grown material a few years out of the ground is some of my favorite work. The main objectives for this early stage development are to heal wounds, create the upper sections of the trunk, and develop the primary branches.

Greenwood Bonsai Studio in Nottingham, England was established in 1978 by Harry Tomlinson. After Harry’s passing his two sons, Corin and Paul are the new proprietors and have developed the garden into the oldest and largest bonsai nursery and teaching studio in England.

I’m working on a number of five and six-year-old pines. Several look like the tree below, with vigorous growth on the top half of the tree and smaller shoots below.

The decandling season is starting earlier than normal for me this year. I’m looking to prepare a few trees for an exhibit in September but the pines in my garden usually grow through October and into November. By decandling early, I can increase the odds that a tree will look good in September at the expense of it looking slightly overgrown by the end of the year. (See “Overview of decandling” for details.)