Finding the Line with Stick Figures
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
I decided to use the last of the three pines I recently bought as an exercise in how I find the line in a piece of material with multiple choices to make. Pines are very easy to work with, they back bud well and branch development is pretty fast once you get it established. Once established it’s just bud selection and maintenance. This is a small pine from Ed Clark out in Lindsey California and the tree is very healthy and full of options. I will identify the options, weigh the options and make selections based on which option is the best for the tree. There are many ways to do this, and I pro ..read more
Visit website
Fence Bench
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
This has been my first full year of retirement. It has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and medical issues. Rosie and I have worked thru them and we are excited for this new summer. Early in the Winter I started expanding my grow out area. It was expanding and I needed more room to house all the pots and larger tree growing out. It is especially hard since often times canopies are allowed to grow unpruned until sizes are reached on certain branches before pruning back. Having these sitting all over the yard and moving them to mow and water and prune other things is a hassle. what I ..read more
Visit website
Witches Broom
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
A term in the nursery trade to mean a “genetic mutation’. This is a mutation that occurs from environmental factors, chemical triggers and health factors in the plant that stimulates a mutation of the parent plant. It is how many new varieties of plants are found. These “witches brooms are grafted back onto parent stock and many times the genetic mutation takes on the mutation and grows on to become a new plant. This year in the garden I had the surprise to find one of my trees exhibit witches brooms on several branches. Not all of them but three of them. The tree is a normal acer buergerianum ..read more
Visit website
Updates 2020
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
So far this spring has been a roller coaster ride. Warm, then cool again, late rains, wind, chill, warm then cold. leaves have come out on some things, and been slow on others even of the same species. I have had some trident maples open leaves on half the tree and the other half’s buds are swollen but stopped when it got cold. I know it will all even out soon as the heat is ready to swoop in and begin the real Spring soon. The three large layers I took off almost two months ago are beginning to open now. The third one had the most roots of the three and seems to have opened much larger. The e ..read more
Visit website
The Bunjin Form
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
My Thoughts on Bunjin. By Jim Osborne “Bunjin is probably the most miss-understood of all the bonsai styles. Actually, it is not really a style at all but more of a feeling. All good bonsai should evoke some feeling in the viewer, and this is especially true with Bunjin. In most other styles, you look at the roots first, then the trunk. In Bunjin, you look at the trunk, the branches and roots come second. Bunjin is all about the trunk, in other words, the line of the tree. Bunjin can trace its beginnings back to China, over 1,300 years ago. One can easily see a kind of abstract shape in Bunjin ..read more
Visit website
My Thoughts on Bunjin. By Jim Osborne “Bunjin is p...
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
My Thoughts on Bunjin. By Jim Osborne “Bunjin is probably the most miss-understood of all the bonsai styles. Actually, it is not really a style at all but more of a feeling. All good bonsai should evoke some feeling in the viewer, and this is especially true with Bunjin. In most other styles, you look at the roots first, then the trunk. In Bunjin, you look at the trunk, the branches and roots come second. Bunjin is all about the trunk, in other words, the line of the tree. Bunjin can trace its beginnings back to China, over 1,300 years ago. One can easily see a kind of abstract shape in Bunjin ..read more
Visit website
A Peek into the Life of a Fanatic
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
Part of this story started 4 years ago in 2016. I decided to make a few stands. I was going to make them all the same, two larger ones and two smaller. One each for me and one each to sell off. They were going to be simple and bare bones. Mostly functional, with nothing fancy. All The cherry wood is cut and ripped into the correct widths. Again, very simple and just functional as far as displaying a tree. Here is where it begins to slide off the rails. My wife was getting pretty sick by now with the cancer and I did not finish one of the stands for a year. In that year I began putting togeth ..read more
Visit website
Making Room
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
This year has been a problem. It actually is a problem that is good to have. I have too many plants in training. I ditch them where ever I can, in between larger plants, on top of the soil of larger plants, on the ground, where ever. Today I built 16 feet of shelving on the fence and over the next few days will continue to build an even larger shelf for larger plants in training. All the stuff on the ground will move out for the new larger shelf. Seed trays will be stored under the larger shelf ..read more
Visit website
Got an Extra Week!
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
The weather turned cold again and everything slowed down. Many things that were already on the move stopped completely allowing Al to have a little more time. Most of the stuff I have done this week were things that could make it another year before repotting. Some of them were junipers that I always repot last. This week I intensified my work on cuttings, taking literally hundreds this year. I have a couple miniature privets that I picked up at House of Bonsai. They have been very good and producing lots of shoots during the year. As it gets to fall I always let some go for cuttings in late w ..read more
Visit website
How Many Pots?
California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker
by California Bonsai Art
4y ago
Trident Maple, Kims Bonsai, Phelan Ca. 2002 This was a replacement tree from a tree I bought at the 2001 convention from Benny. The tree died, essentially a cutting and they were not supposed to be sold. They were taken to the convention and he replaced the dead tree with my choice. I chose this Trident maple. My first trident larger than 1/2 inch. It was growing in a large plastic bonsai pot. 2004 This was the first ceramic pot for the tree. Some of the branches were elongating and making progress. The pot had a small bamboo trim around the middle of the pot. Unglazed and a rather cheap pot ..read more
Visit website

Follow California Bonsai Art...........Live from the Bonsai Bunker on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR