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tradition is but a springboard—from there, bonsai is limitless
from the blog
Bonsai Integration
A couple weeks ago I posted about a Yellow Cedar, and got a few comments which said it wasn’t integrated. Which is a great critique. Because it isn’t. And I teach integration. Let’s use this Cedar as a sacrificial example, and compare it to others that are well-integrated. And then I’ll explain why I’ve not […]
An Important Distinction: ‘Decandling’ and ‘Breaking’ Pine Shoots
This is an edited post from 2016 on a topic I get asked a lot—deciding whether to break or decandle a pine. For starters, let’s define decandling and breaking— Breaking (or pinching) means taking part of the shoot off, usually with fingers, as the shoot is extending in early to mid-spring, and before the needles […]
A Yellow Cedar Gets Potted And Reset
This collected Yellow Cedar, Callitropsis nootkatensis, came from Vancouver Island, BC. We designed it six years ago, and in the following photo essay we transfer it from a box to a pot, and adjust the branches. Patch and Masaki removed the Yellow Cedar from the box and began exploring the root mass. We hoped it […]