On Root Rot
Roots are our main business. Naturally, we tend to be preoccupied with the green areas that we organize with scissors or wire…but really, top notch leaf, needle and shoot health is only possible with lots of healthy roots. Root rot is often the result of low soil media oxygen levels, as water saturated media can […]
Repotting Trick: The Plumb Bob
A familiar dance at repotting time is excitedly getting a tree out of the pot, carefully working the roots, locking it all in with wire, adding media, and standing back only to realize the trunk is leaning 10 degrees off. You swat your forehead. Or, you are being careful, and have stood back, made adjustments, […]
An Oft-Forgotten Repotting Clue-
Deciding to repot or not is often fraught with angst. Do we do it this year? Maybe next year? Considering the clues can help you decide. Maybe you know a tree with slow water penetration, that one might be ready for a repot. Try driving a chopstick into the soil on another one, near the […]
Trident Forest Re-imagining—
Several years ago I came across this older trident forest being sold at a bonsai nursery, and was interested in its relaxed, natural-looking lines. The trunks all looked about the same size, roughly, and I suspected we’d be fiddling with it some day to correct that. Earlier this spring we finally got around to correcting […]
Potting up a Hemlock-
Some of you may remember the restyling of this large, old Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana, a few years ago. This spring the wooden box it was living in was replaced with a low ceramic rectangle. The following is a photo essay of this final step in the progression- This was the hemlock in December 2014, before the […]
Confusion Over Fall Repotting-
I’ve noticed over the years a lot of puzzlement over the correct time to repot. Much of the confusion stems from placing too much weight on the exceptions to spring repotting. There’s a simple way of looking at it that might help decide when to repot. Ron Weasley pulls up a mandrake When we repot, the […]
Jonas Dupuich on Akadama-
I rarely do this. In fact, this might be the first time, to reblog something. But, I have a reason. I think Jonas Dupuich’s post on Bonsai Tonight about akadama is a very clear, inclusive, and informational LONG post that anyone who is curious about this weird and wonderful stuff should probably give a careful […]
Bunjin #2: Lodgepole Pine
Second up in our tale of two bunjin is this Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana, which I collected in the fall of 2013. It’s almost assumed that wire is used when styling a pine. But here’s one that didn’t need any. It was styled by simply removing what wasn’t already interesting… This photo is from the fall of 2014. The box is tipped […]
A ‘Cliff Bonsai’—Western Hemlock Styling
We often think of cliff or rock faces being the place where cascade bonsai get their inspiration. And they do. But there’s another commonly seen growth habit in those steep, rocky areas… I collected this Hemlock, likely a Mountain / Western hybrid according to Anton Nijhuis, on Vancouver Island several years ago, where, coincidentally, it was […]
Photos From Recent Seasonal Classes-
A smorgasbord of photos from the 2016 Winter Seasonals, featuring a lot of new students and a fair number of new trees, too- For more info about the three day Seasonals, check out this page: https://crataegus.com/seasonals/ Enjoy the photos!
Michael Hagedorn 