Dominance In Azalea Flower Color
You might recognize this Satsuki from a post earlier this year. Now it’s blooming. While that may be reason enough to share it, one of the curiosities of Satsuki is also evident: flower color dominance. Satsuki before growth and blooming cycle, April 2023. If you look closely, the flower buds that set last summer are […]
Ponderosa Trunk / J. Black Pine Foliage: Decandled
Here are before and after photos of two decandled pines. The twist here is both trunks are Ponderosa Pine, with Japanese Black Pine foliage grafted on them. That hasn’t made any difference with the decandling technique, however. Before decandling. After decandling. This small Ponderosa Pine trunk had two Japanese Black Pine scions grafted on it […]
Part I: The Bonsai Imaginations of Pierre Leloup
Pierre Leloup visited the Crataegus bonsai garden last month, along with other friends from Quebec, Canada. Pierre is a designer whose interests range from Japanese gardens to commercial design. While talking of our various bonsai projects, Pierre brought out his phone and showed me some of his older bonsai. I tried to see them on […]
Accents That Bloom In Mid-Spring
Accents with commentary. Enjoy the photo essay- Lewisia cotyledon, common name, Siskiyou Lewisia. Native to southern Oregon, it shares its common name “Siskiyou” with a county, a mountain range, a lake, and a telephone company. The species has many cultivars. The fleshy leaves shrink to nubs in a small pot and hot pink is everyone’s […]
Juniper and Pine displays at Pacific Bonsai Museum
Just opened a week ago, the Avant-Garden bonsai show. This is yet another of the innovative shows by Aarin Packard of the Pacific Bonsai Museum. Eight artists were asked to submit pieces, “evocative compositions that challenge our perceptions of what bonsai can be.” Aarin asked me to submit two pieces to the show. He liked […]
Vine Maple Clump Revisit-
Almost exactly a year ago I posted about the creation of this Vine Maple composition. This post reviews its creation, shares a few tweaks applied to the tree since then, and ends with an “as it looks today” final photo. Where we started in March 2022: an old Vine Maple clump, collected and grown in […]
A Two-tiered Hemlock Presentation-
This Hemlock is a yard favorite of mine. Collected by the great Anton Nijhuis, the snaky set of trunks made me so snake-curious I had to buy it. We “potted” this Hemlock last week onto a stepped slab thingy. Enjoy the photo essay! This is where we began in 2020…with a raw, unstyled tree. In 2023 we […]
Bonsai and Glass at the Portland Japanese Garden
Last week we set up the bonsai display at the Portland Japanese Garden. While we putting up that display, another display caught our attention. Enjoy the photo essay! Our install team after loading the truck. Thanks Masaki, Erich, and Carmen! Bringing big bonsai up steps using the easiest method: lots of hands…with assistance from the […]
Pruning Decisions on a Satsuki
Several branches were removed in the annual thinning of this Satsuki. While shoot selection is best done in the fall, spring is pretty good for pruning branches. Long story short, we didn’t get to this one last fall, so did both operations in early April: large cuts at the same time as thinning. Not the greatest […]
Ginkgo Pruning and Wound Closure
Ginkgos are famously non-closing when they have large wounds. This tree’s development required a big wound, in addition to an annual trim. A young ginkgo with a missed fall pruning. Because these will be wired again it’s not necessary to make every cut so a bud is facing out. Also I think it’s more interesting […]