A couple years ago my partner Barbara and I visited Bjorn Bjorholm's Eisei-en where Tom Bjornholm (Bjorn's father and an accomplished bonsai artist in his own right) was kind enough to give us a complete tour while Bjorn was out of town. It was, to say the least, an eye opening and inspiring couple of hours.

To sample Bjorn's (and Tom's) wares we've got a few photos from Eisei-en for your enjoyment and inspiration. We lifted them along with the captions from Facebook and all italics are quotes from Eisei-en.

"Itoigawa Foliage grafted onto Rocky Mountain Juniper. This was the first tree Bjorn ever grafted years ago during one of his return teaching trips from Japan. Now in the collection of Tom Bjorholm."

Quoted directly from Eisei-en Bonsai on Facebook.

Again quoting from Eisei-en, "Fused Trunk Trident Maple. Originally built by Doug Phillips in California nearly 40 years ago, it has been in development at Eisei-en since 2018. The nebari spans nearly three feet across and all of the branching was built anew after coming to Nashville. It will soon make its way further south to a private collection in Texas."

"There are many behind-the-scenes projects at Eisei-en that never really feature online or in videos, such as this Juniper grafting project in which Itoigawa foliage has been grafted onto a fantastic Prostrata trunk.

"Learn all about these techniques on the Bonsai-U video platform at Bonsai-U.com!"

"Pines looking royal after a heavy rain at Eisei-en".

The trees below have no caption attached, but it's incredible to admire the before and after photos.

Before

After

Before and...

After

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Gallery Sources:

Eisei-en Bonsai

I found these trees at Bonsai Boon* (Boon Manakitivipart) on FB. Here's Boon's caption, "Good show. 般社団法人 日本盆栽協会 Nippon Bonsai Association. 第３回 翠緑盆栽展 その３" No translation is offered, but I think you'll find that the trees speak for themselves. 

In case you don't know him, Boon is a well-known and well-loved bonsai teacher and friend to many. Including several of North America's most advanced bonsai artists. 

Today we'll feature a few impressive junipers from a Nippon Bonsai Association show. 

This first tree is a full cascade juniper with some mind bending deadwood, a single living vein and a lush, well balanced crown.

Aha. Here's one that would stand out anywhere. In spite of the massive, demanding power of the deadwood, the living foliage manages to hold its own and flow together with the deadwood in a way that brings it all together.

Another noteworthy juniper from the show. This time with more obvious living veins.

Surprise! If you've been around bonsai for a while, you most likely know about viewing stones. They're called Suiseki  in Japan and are often seen in bonsai venues there. 

One more powerful Juniper. Maybe we'll call this one 'The Dancer.' The strong and complex nature of the lower half of the tree is well balanced by the heavy lush crown.

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Today's feature tree would stop traffic if it could walk down the street. It's hard to know how much of the magnificent deadwood is the result of the forces of nature over time and how much can be credited to well chosen carving tools in skilled human hands, but it's probably safe to say that both played their part.

Couldn’t resist today's two magnificent bonsai. Both express mastery when it comes to carving deadwood and both belong to David Benavente—a long time favorite here on Bark. David doesn’t mentioned the varieties and I won’t bother to guess, I've been burned one too many times

Close up for a better look at the trunk with its remarkable deadwood and its all important living vein.

Another great Benavente tree.

Again with some very impressive deadwood.

We've got some Horst Kaltenbrunner beauties for your bonsai enjoyment.  Horst's  caption for this photo reads: European spruce that shows its naturalness.

Andrea Maier wrote that this Horst Kaltenbrunner tree is a Beautiful sylvestris in a antimayer pot. You'll get no argument from me.

Looks like the same Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) that's above. Only from other side.

Horst identifies this one only as a pine.

Horst's caption: Pinus Mugo, collected in Austria two years ago in our mountains, removed the topsoil. Now in the training bowl in pure substrate powered by Ibuki! We give him some years, it could be a beautiful tree!

After. This impressive Taxus baccata (English or European yew) was posted by Arsenio Mondo Zen—as were all of today's photos.

Before . Here's the caption (translated from Italian): "How far we've come together with this rate of Gianluca, and so much more to go. From a not very expressive material, with the right techniques and the right time, you can achieve great things. Just believe it."

"At Mondozen Bonsai Club."

Arsenio's Trident maple after defoliation and some pruning.

Before. Time to get to work!

Arsenio and friend.

A European (Larix decidua) from our archives. When the photo was taken, at least four years ago, it belonged to Walter Pall. The pot is by Derek Aspinall.

American Larch (Larix laricina - aka Tamarack) by Larch Master Nick Lenz. In addition to being one of our most accomplished bonsai artists, Nick was a skilled and innovative potter. So you might imagine that the pots was also his handiwork.

Another American larch by Nick Lenz. This time in full fall color. BTW, this tree is massive. Much bigger than it looks in this photo.

The Guardian of Laments is Giacomo Pappalardo's name for this magnificent old European larch (Larix decidua).

European larch by Will Baddeley.

Judging by the fall color on this wild larch, I'd say it's a Larix decidua (European larch). American larch's fall color tends more to bright yellow rather than this rusty orange. Though the color does change some as the fall progresses.

A couple months ago, I visited New England Bonsai Gardens, my old nursery, for only the second time since I moved on in 1999. Fortunately, Ashley was there to give us (my friend Barbara was with me) a tour. Unfortunately we couldn't spend all day which might have given us a chance to see  everything. Still, we saw enough to be very impressed. If you haven't been there (or even if you have) I highly recommend you make time for a visit if you're ever in New England. 

As an unexpected bonus Ashley introduced us to Andrea Meriggioli, a highly accomplished and very friendly young bonsai artist from Italy who happened to be there for few day teaching and working on some trees. 

I had to do a double take for this one from New England Bonsai Garden on FB. Here's their caption, "Two of NEBG's finest enjoyed a fantastic day with Martha and her team filming for an upcoming episode of her show (the date is TBD).

Congrats to Pete & Kevin for this incredible opportunity. "We will be sure to let everyone know the airdate once we find out."

One of dozens of bright spots at NEBG.

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Got a few photos today from our friend Dave De Groot. He's the author of Principles of Bonsai Design and much more, including a long stint as the previous curator of the Pacific Bonsai Museum. So you might say he's a big deal in our bonsai world (though I don't think he would say that).

One of the many things I enjoy about Dave De Groot's posting are his commentaries. I think we can learn a lot from accomplished bonsai artists that take the time to explain what their thinking is as they work with their bonsai.

"I had to hurry to get my Japanese maple thinning done before it gets too late. Here are two examples: First is a grafted green leaf maple (in need of cleaning) that is very robust and has a coarse growth habit. Because of that, it has been completely defoliated with the dual aim of encouraging interior budding and shorter internodes on second growth.

"The second example is a coral bark ('Sango Kaku'). This is not as robust, but I still want to encourage interior budding and branch ramification. In this case, only alternate leaves were removed.

"I recommend a bud shears... rather than a standard thinning shears... for leaf thinning. Its slim design allows it to get between and into branches easily, and the short blades help avoid cutting more than the leaf intended."

"One of my bald cypress bonsai was originally topped by beavers, and the resulting re-growth inspired me to design it in a typical deciduous tree form with ascending branches. This is actually a form bald cypress often take in urban landscapes where they are mature and not shaded by neighboring trees.

We are near the northern limit of growth for bald cypress, due to our relatively short growing season and cool summer nights. As a result, I have started thinning new growth very early in the season, before the tree has invested a lot of energy. Unsightly lumps form on branches very quickly where clusters of new shoots emerge, so thinning early is important. Also, thinning later in the season after the tee has invested a lot of energy in new growth seems to set the tree back, and recovery can be quite slow. Photos are the tree last week after thinning, and then closeups of a branch before and after the thinning process."

"My white wisteria is still very much in development - I'm letting it go a bit wild to increase the size of the trunk - but for one week a year, it deserves to be seen (and smelled)."

"My Windblown Chinese elm with Spring foliage."

Here's a good shot of what lookes like a Shimpaku juniper or close cousin (Kishu or Itoigawa). This and all the trees shown here are by Mariusz Folda.

It's been a while since we featured Mariusz's work. He's a long time favorite. Take a look and you'll see why we can't go too long without returning to his trees and gardens.

This impressive monster looks like it might be a Japanese white pine. Mariusz and plenty of other bonsai artists don't always identify their trees on FB, but some like this one are fairly obvious.

A little taste of late spring color, This azalea (most likely a Satsuki variety) would be a powerful bonsai with or without its flowers. Nice pot too. Mariusz is also a potter so perhaps this one is his.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this pine before. The clusters look like five needles, so Japanese white pine might be a good guess.

Here a lovely twin trunk deciduous tree with familiar looking leaves. We'll leave it at that (your guess is as good as mine).

Another deciduos tree. This time with compound leaves.

One of many excellent pots by Mariusz from his FB photos.

And a little piece of his garden. Scroll down for a link to more by Mariusz Folda.

Ten years ago or so, we'd see Marc Noelanters' bonsai seemingly eveywhere, but not so much lately. Until recently that is, when I stumbled upon the extraordinary forest planting below.

Marc Noelanders' only comment with this extraordinary mountain forest planting is, "On request some pictures of a demonstration that I did a few years ago."

The trees. Marc says nothing about the type trees he used, but Cryptomeria (Japanese cedar) comes up twice in the FB comments and based on how they look in this photo, I'm on board with that. 

The pot, slab, base or whatever you want to call it. There's no mention of the artist, but I think it could have been Marc. 

This photo of Marc was taken at the demo. 

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