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Nick Hopes is a very talented British bonsai potter and bonsai enthusiast. This interview was done a few months ago and was first released for members of Kisetsu-en. now shared with everybody. @Maidenhair Ceramics by Nick Hopes

Apprentice Patch Clark is back with a Japanese Black Pine. This is our sequel to A Juniper Makeover.

Thank you for your interest for the 2023 8th US National Bonsai Exhibition Commemorative  Album. I appreciate your order and support!

During the setup for the 2024 Pacific Bonsai Expo I saw a walled-off photography setup in the corner. At least, that’s what I thought it was, until I saw a second setup that I knew, for sure, was a photography setup. Now I wasn’t sure what the other thing was.

After reviewing the basics of how to assemble a shohin display last week (see “Award-winning display” for details), we can begin to spot differences in otherwise similar-looking displays and better understand what makes these displays “work.”

Thursday we have our monthly Live Q&A and some good topics ticking in for that. Be sure to join and bring in your questions too.

At this year’s Gafu-ten, the top shohin exhibit in Japan, there were many examples of what we might call “conventional contemporary shohin displays.” The effect, when scanning the hall, was that a lot of the displays looked similar.

They have an attraction, these lumpy knobs on trees. Several times I’ve stared up at a tree in a forest with a magnificent lumpy knob, and, after admiring it, wondered if it was the next to be stolen. The theft of maple burls have been reported on the news in Oregon and with redwood burls in California.

I’ve noticed, in recent years, more and more special displays at Japanese bonsai exhibits. I think of a special display as any approach to bonsai display other than the standard arrangement of trees and accents within an approximately six foot space.

I am on the way home from Africa. The first half of the trip was a birding trip in Gambia, and the second half was spent with friends in Senegal, one of whom works at the U.S. Embassy. We took a long road trip north from Dakar to the city of St. Louis, not far from the southern border of the Sahara.