Today ends my 2 year journey to test the viability of turface as a substitute for akadama growing medium for sample bonsai in my collection. It has been recommended in club meetings and by cost conscious bonsai artists over the past few years as the price of Japanese Akadama has increased. Over the past year
Bonsai show time is a great experience. It is an opportunity to display the results of all the work you put in on your trees. We spend countless hours every year perfecting the placement of branches, feeding, protecting, watering and then it is story time. Time to tell a story with a tree of hard
Be sure to check out our trees at the Kusamura Bonsai Show in Palo Alto, California this weekend. I will have several trees on display and one special one featuring the redesigned Diamyo Oak, boxwood in-progress, and my Olive saikei. I will also display a client tree that I have been working for several years
Preparing a trees for show, whether it is an “in-progress” tree or a formal display is gratifyingly tedious labor. It is, however, a labor of love. To day I cleaned a boxwood that I was originally going to make part of a formal display realizing that it was not where ready for the stage. It
It is February and buds of many trees are starting to push already here in California. Roots are moving and buds pushing so that means it is time to re-pot many trees. The Diamyo Oak is a prize in the collection and is over 55 years old. It was last re-potted 5 years ago in
Silverberry 2015. It is cold outside with some near freezing temperatures so all the sensitive material moves indoors. It is a great opportunity to ponder tree styles and appreciate the years work. This tree has developed considerably over the past 4 years. The leaf size has been greatly reduced. I am still trying to figure
This year I slowed down the number of paintings to concentrate on a few distinctive pieces. All are original compositions that spoke to me. My latest painting is a Fall fruit inspired composition. I staged it with high intense lighting in studio and and photographed may arrangements. The final one created was the best composition
2014 was a year of letting trees grow and develop. I did get to show in two area shows. I have also enjoyed teaching/leading several workshops in my area. Here are some of the trees that showed this year.
Welcome to my new look. In 2015, join me to follow the development of bonsai, watercolor painting projects and more. Winter is here now and my trees have been all cleaned up. I am moving into repotting season so there will be pictures of trees at various stages of winter prep posted soon. I have
The proud owner of the SBBK raffled Ficus and I got to spend some time re-potting her new tree. Donna F. won the tree with a promise of my assistance for the transplanting. We found that the root mass was a beautiful fine mass with no large heavy roots. The pot we chose will be
artsofjc 