This time of year, I pay considerable attention to the olives in my collection. I have let them blow out their aggressive growth twice this year; Spring and Summer. The pushes of growth generate a huge amount of leaves and long spikes of growth that strengthen the tree. I even reworked a small olive I
Boxwood can be one of my favorite trees to work on. I enjoy the leaves, bark and trucks. They are also a tree I caution students on because of the amount of work they can take. I only collect and work on one of these in my own collection. I would never have more than
In February, at an auction in Oakland, CA I bid on a tree near the end of the auction. It was not that interesting of a tree mind you but the pot was a completely different story. When at an auction it is important to look at all aspects of the item up for bid.
Temperatures and sun exposure this year is just weird. You may have that feeling too. Weather patterns are not at normal and some of us are beginning to worry about what summer will bring; hot and super hot temperatures? Who knows. In any case we need to pay special attention to our trees right now.
I am often asked if I ever wire a tropical tree in my collection and I say, certainly. I do all my wiring on these trees early in the season because as summer comes these trees grow so aggressively that I would have to check them every few days for wire cuts. These trees shown
Re potting and refining trees has been the theme this Spring. Many were already done but there is always refinement and assessments required. Today I have been working on some early tropical tree re-potting. With the tropical trees; I wait for the soil temperatures to be sustained above 50 degrees to start their work. I
Normally, I wait a few more months to tackle major olive work. I wait until evening temperatures are steady above 50 degrees. This year’s weather has been a bit bazaar and I have movement in most species that I would not expect including my olives. I have a had a client olive hanging out on
Weather in northern California has been inordinately wet this year. Temperatures were unstable for a bit in February and had halted a great deal of re-potting. Anything I re-potted I would have to be protect from low temperatures and freezing so my plants did a lot of bonsai shuffle for a few weeks. Then, all
Distribution Pinus nigra is a tree of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. The majority of the range is in Turkey. It is found in the higher elevations of the South Apennine mixed montane forests ecoregion in southern Italy and the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion in Sicily. There are remnant populations in
Checking on trees is a year round task. We recently went down into lower 30s requiring some plants to come indoors. Now we are back in the 50s and having a blessed rain. The trees are loving it. I have a new tree in
I have been fussing with this Chinese Quince for about 5 years now already and I have fixed many problems with its base and now concentrating on the top. I had structure wire on this tree for the second time; this time for over a year and I learned how to do it so it
The Sierra Juniper was re-potted to the new pot as Master Mitsuya had desired. He wanted this tree to move to a more feminine pot and I compromised on a rustic feminine pot. This one is artisan crafted special edition and give the tree a very delicate look as he had seen it to need.
I recently ordered a new light studio to shoot bonsai trees in. It came with several colored backdrops but I wanted to shoot in white to discover any issues it would be present. Sadly, what the vendor said was large and pictured in their advert is not really very large at all but it will
I had planned all year to get to the Golden State Bonsai Federation Convention 41 in Sacramento. This was going to be a historic even with the return of Master Yasuo Mitsuya after an absence of 10 years. He would be joined with Bjorn Bjorholm, Suthin Sukosolvisit. These headlines were joined by Mitsuya’s students. So
As the seasons change, I like to access how far the trees have developed in any given year and plan for the upcoming year’s development. So far I have reviewed some of the major trees in the collection that had considerable work done on them this year. The most challenging species for my location are
Doing club demos requires research and planning but the bring rewards to the membership and even to self. I recently had the opportunity to do a demo for the San Mateo club, SBBK, on the subject of tropical material. I introduced species many had not seen before. It is always good to help “change minds”,
This week I visited with my creeping fig tree. Years past I have let the figs ripen and fall off but that weakens the tree going into Fall and Winter. It was time to harvest. I remove most of the figs; leaving only those for ornamentation purposes. Moving around the garden, I also checked in
Nice hot day here in Santa Clara. I had re-potted most of the tropical trees before a demo I recently concluded. Now it was time for the final ficus and the last of the summer trees. The Ficus Microcarpa Shohin is one of my prized tropical trees. It has been in the little shohin pot for
Projects consumed the morning on the 4th of July. Not feeling very festive for so many reasons that I will not discuss in my blog. On the docket this morning was a shohin Japanese Black Pine and a client Boxwood. After participating in an on-line training session about shohin black pines last night I was
Daytime temps here in Santa Clara are reaching upper 80s to mid 90s now. Work in the garden starts to slow down since most plants start shutting down in the 90s except for the tropical trees that begin to flourish as long as there is good humidity. Here in CA I have to create the
Purchased this cork oak from a nursery in southern California in 2009. It was in a standard nursery pot from a bonsai grower. When I got it home I was shocked to see that its roots were mostly 4 plus inches below the soil level with a stick in between with only a few small
Daimyo Oak 2018 The Daimyo Oak is the king of my collection. It has such a provenance. Seed carried from Japan by a club member and planted in 1960. Fifty-eight years ago this was an acorn. It was styled by that club member and then upon his passing, donated to the Bonsai Garden at Lake
Today I revisit my little tropical collection to plan for the summer design work. I will be doing a demo in July and need to get these trees planned for that period. Descriptions are on the tree photos. If you notice a white material on the leaves; that is from the high mineral content of
Right now I am handicapped with a hand injury and lingering issues from sickness. That give me time to catch up on some stories and ask others to move trees around so I can putter about for a while. This past weekend the local bonsai club asked if I would demo the creation of a Saikei;
It is show time next weekend so there is a lot of final cleanup and show display stand testing. We preset all the trees with a stand so we know we have the correct ones for the display. Not too large, not too small, the correct color, correct tree placement. As usually I do not
This stump has been in training for over 10 years. The past 3 years has seen a massive change in how it is pruned and shaped. The carving was completed and now the branches are thriving. This will go to show in its new Gremel pot. As this tree develops it will take on more
I have a Sierra Juniper that has been in training since 2009 that will make its first show appearance. Is is perfect and national show worth; oh heck no, but it has been an effort of love and desire to see where the master who set the design fulfilled. This year, Master Mitsuya will come
Here is late January I needed to re-pot a client black pine. The original pot was just too tight so I was off to Japantown to get a new one. The idea was to create more room for finer roots and provide some more space in the pot. Although I would normally use a rectangle
Since the USA government experienced a closure I used the time to visit a client and work on some trees. I had seen that many had become over grown during the Fall last year. I started working on the pines. Two pines here. One with a lovely movement and the other a bit chunky. The
This little client trees has been developing from a cutting for the past 8 years. It has developed a considerable root mass and significant foliage to begin to style. The grow pot it was in is not a good container so we went of to Japantown in San Jose to get something more fitting. The
Today, we had the opportunity to reinvent an old tree. Seven years ago a client’s collection came up to the Bay Area from Southern California. The collection was in dire straits have been neglect due to the owner’s poor health and the client wanted to save the trees. I am so glad she chose to
This year I used my pygmy cypress as a Christmas tree in the house for a week, decorated with lights and a few balls. It was full and shaped like a typical Christmas tree. However, now that those days have passed by for the year, the tree needed to move back outside. While inside the
It has just turned 2018, and the winter tasks are in full swing. Re-potting, wiring, and deciduous tree development is in process. Today I started preparing the Daimyo Oak for its 58th year. Wiring must be applied carefully especially to the younger fleshy branches. The larger branches are still quiet movable. I am adjusting the
It has been a very colorful year in Santa Clara. We normally do not get to enjoy such color in our trees where I live. As the leaves are now falling from all the neighborhood maples, liquid amber and such I settling into a different mindset. The year comes to and end. Most of the
Sometimes you just have to feel like a proud papa. Today is peak of season for this wonderful old tree. Many years it never gets a chance to show off it colors. This year green, red, yellow graced the view every day thanks to the current weather here. Now, the Daimyo Oak reaches peak and
Christine W. got this wonderful olive stump at the GSBF convention workshop in Sacramento a year ago this weekend. So in honor of that special time, we set a date to take on the project and carve it to distinction. First issue was the the sheer height of the tree. It could not fit in
Often when we dream of working on bonsai we see ourselves surrounded by master class trees hundreds of years old, wiring and refining branches, enhancing deadwood, or returning to shaping of the foliage. However, much of the work we do for clients is rescue work. Let me paint this story for you: Client has inherited
October 1 brings a noticeable change in light on the trees. Soon the focus of work will change to re-potting but I took this day to catch up on some trees that were in grow phase. There was the Peruvian Pepper tree trunk that has been in development for years, trying to find the correct
This is a typical wonderful day here in Santa Clara, CA. Lovely afternoon to work on trees. Late September is the final time to set up my olives for winter growth. I had one last olive stump to open up. Originally the base of a 6′ tall wild growth, it has been reduced over the
Today was one of those sick days you have to go outside and work on trees. Many of the shimpaku junipers were let grow to recover from a bad year past. Between too much heat, sun, and stress most suffered. So this year they were in grow mode to recover. However; we got some brutal
Today, I had the opportunity to work for one of my long time clients. I have worked for him for about 5 years on a small collection of trees that were purchased from Kusamura Bonsai Club show sales tables. When I started working on them they were not in good shape. The owner had purchased
The heat wave here in California broke today leaving humid heat in the upper 80s. That is perfect time to sneak outside and re-pot those trees that still have time to settle in the warm Fall heat and prepare for winter. Trees that love work this time of year are boxwood, olives, ficus, and subtropical
Today temperatures in the SF Bay Area, Santa Clara region, peaked at 101 in the shade. Temps reached 108 degrees. For my bonsai friends around the bay, remember to cool down those pots. You may have to water twice a day in some areas of full sun. Humidity is only 14% where I am so
This month all my tropical bonsai have been thinned and cut back in anticipation of the next growth spurt. The tropical collection is substantially deduced in foliage, removing old larger leaves so that we can get smaller leaves and more ramification. Olives have been worked much in the same way this month. Best to remove
This summer we realize a project that has been in our dreams for years. We needed to replace old rotting bonsai benches and need to have more space for the trees. So, an ex-coworker of mine that retired, started making benches for her own family and I asked if she would be interested in my
This morning I sat down to wire a fascinating tree. This Sierra Juniper, purchased in 2008, at a REBS bonsai show vendor table has development so much in nine years. I purchased the species as a trial to see if I could grow it where I lived. It was to be a unique species in
We have concluded our 2017 show and I wanted to post some draft photos of my small tree display. More to come later as I work on the photos. Thanks to our photographer, Sabrina Huang. In the coming weeks I will be working up the best photos for publications. These are just draft teasers.
Spent the morning putting final touches on the trees for show this weekend. For details on the show you can find us at http://www.kusamurabonsai.org, on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Kusamura-Bonsai-Club-376175737222/ or Kusamura Bonsai Club Annual Show! June 24 – 25 Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto Show Hours: Saturday-June 24 (Noon to 5PM). These some
Kusamura Bonsai Club usually has its annual show in April when temps are cooler and trees are at their Spring finery. This year; however, the show is June 24/25. It just so happens that the temperatures in the unpredictable California weather pattern this year have gone over 100 degrees for several days. Trees take that
Today the King of the collection takes his throne. I have been getting the Daimyo Oak ready for show at Filoli Estate and Garden Flower Show. The show will take place on June 3-4 at Filoli located in Redwood City. Be sure to check out the club mini-show to be held there in honor of
