Restyling a Historic Ponderosa (in a Metal Pot) –
Years ago a friend dropped off an old brake drum, an old rusted thing from a car, and said ‘Put something in that’. I was pretty amused and said I would, and yet it’s taken me a while to find something worthy of it. We finally did, this spring, and it was the first time […]
2,520 Degree Ponderosa Pine
Two years ago I collected this Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) with Backcountry Bonsai. It was tucked under a full sized tree, somehow eking out a very long life. Seven full rotations is 2,520 degrees of twist around the trunk…a bit of an eye boggler. It lay prostrate and un-inspiringly in its box until this fall when […]
New Design for an Awarded Ponderosa Pine-
This bunjin pine won the Ben Oki award years ago, and then showed up on the cover of Bonsai Clubs International in 1992. The two and a half decades since, under the stewardship of several owners, have proven that Ponderosa does eventually ramify. In the last few years, however, the lower branch has weakened—made worse […]
Red Pine Bankan Style in Development…
This pine has been sitting on the benches here for almost ten years without much happening to it, except for the transition from Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) foliage to Red Pine foliage (Pinus densiflora). And even after this wiring we ended a bit shy of where we want it. The grafts on the tree haven’t […]
‘Stampede’ Ponderosa Pine Styling…
There’s a story about the name ‘Stampede’. The Backcountry Bonsai guys enjoy naming the trees they collect, and having received several with memorable names I asked if this Ponderosa Pine had one. I only got an abbreviated version by text and maybe not the full story, but I gather it involved some galloping extraterrestrials or horned […]
Old Project Revisit and New Project Teaser…
This massive Ponderosa pine was repotted this week into its first bonsai pot. It had been in a box for about 6 years so the root growth was pretty impressive. We’d grafted it with Black pine a few years back. This photo is from 2015, perhaps some of you remember this, it was a graft […]
Bunjin Ponderosa Update
A couple years ago I did a post on a Ponderosa Pine bunjin, and I promised an update down the road. Here’s the ‘What became of that tree?’ post… This is where we started with the Ponderosa Pine in 2013, after some trunk cleanup and lime sulfuring. The long, twisted needles are the result of over-watering (Oil-Dri, […]
Black Pine / Ponderosa Frankenstein Bonsai
Well. I’m not sure what to call Black Pines grafted onto Ponderosa stock. Frankensteins? Frankies? Feel free to suggest… When I first started grafting Black Pine onto Ponderosa, I was unsure whether one could decandle them the same as Black Pine on its own roots. Before I went to Japan to study I grafted a […]
New Projects From Backcountry Bonsai-
A preview of some conifer yamadori trees in queue for styling in the next couple of years at Crataegus Bonsai. Trees are courtesy of Backcountry Bonsai, the collecting duo of Steve Varland and Dan Wiederrecht. These six trees are Rocky Mountain junipers and Ponderosa pines, although Steve and Dan also collect Limber pine, Lodgepole pine, […]
Historic Ponderosa Pine Restyling-
This sweet little pine has been in the Puget Sound (Northwestern USA) area since 1989. It was collected by John Muth. Some of you might remember it from the 1992 cover of Bonsai Clubs International. I remember seeing it in a bonsai exhibition years ago in Seattle, sitting off in a corner, looking quite distinguished. […]
