This magnificent Japanese beech (Fagus crenata) received the coveted Kokufu prize at the 88th Kokufu Bonsai Exhibition (the oldest and most prestigious bonsai exhibition in the world). Aside from its unique power and beauty, this tree provides a perfect example of what great ramification looks like (made even more obvious by the bright rusty-red leaf buds). The photo is from the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. Identification and other details were provided by Bill Valavanis.

Here's the original shot 



This photo is from our first Bonsai Bark post. January 26th, 2009 So we're just past our tenth anniversary and it went by without any notice. Oh well...

What we won't let go by without notice is... We finally threw the switch and now you're on our brand New Website! (Bark is embedded in the new site). I hope you like it and as an added bonus we're offering 10% off on everything for orders 50.00 or more. (you need to put the sale code, LAUNCH in the box when you checkout)

A three year progression on a Himalayan juniper (Juniperus squamata) by Josef Burschi

We’ve got new Before & After for you. This time with an intermediate stage between the before and after. There is a small caveat however. The tree is a Tanuki* (Phoenix graft).  I think most Japanese bonsai artists frown on Tanuki, or at least they don’t value them as much as other bonsai. But the tree looks good, so I don’t think it’s a big deal. You can see this tree and some other good ones on Josef Burschi’s fb timeling

After

Cropped for a better look at the trunk

Cropped even more. In addition to the deadwood, you get a good look at the living vein

More deadwood

The artist at work

*Tanuki (Phoenix graft) is when you attached a living plant to a piece of deadwood in an attempt to make it look as though it’s one plant. When it’s well done, it can be difficult to tell a Tanuki from other bonsai with deadwood

That's Ryan Neil's hand (Bonsai Mirai) posing for a professional photo with a very large root-on-rock planting. Here's his caption: "In the studio today with @hornbecker shooting for the Artisans Cup promotional material" (from 2015). He doesn't say what the tree's are. If you'd like to see the uncropped original, it's here

We’re on a bonsai forest binge these days, so let’s keep going. Though it’s questionable if you’d call these rock plantings forests, they do share the multiple tree and some of the landscape features you’ll find with more conventional bonsai forests

Three robust Shimpaku junipers on a rock. From the Omiya Bonsai Museum

Empire Bonsai's caption says "Buxifolio Bonsai forest, planted on a rock, by Luisa Alfaro." The Buxifolio part is a bit of a mystery. Buxifolia (with an a) is a species name, but without the genus, it could be any number of things. The leaves look tiny, so we'll try Neea buxifolia.

Juniper penjing

I borrowed this photo from a Bonsai Tonight post on Penjing. As usual, I'm impressed with the choice of material and the quality of photos on Bonsai Tonight and this one is no exception. For more detail, there are several very good closeups just a click away.

This rare 400-year-old Shimpaku juniper was due to be entered in a Japanese competition this month

Theft of anything is always shocking and doubly so when the missing objects are irreplaceable, one of a kind living items. When and if they are ever found, missing bonsai might be badly damaged or even dead. And the chances of ever finding them are often slim

Here’s an except from  our source WENY News (courtesy of  Eugene Sekulow) …
“A bonsai thief has stolen seven… trees worth at least 13 million yen ($118,000)* from a garden space in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo.

“The loot included a rare 400-year-old shimpaku tree, a star of the bonsai world, which was due to be entered in a Japanese… competition this month…” 

“The prize shimpaku alone was worth over 10 million yen ($90,000), according to Fuyumi Iimura, wife of the bonsai master who crafted the trees.”

Here’s a link to rest of the article and here’s a google link to several pages of articles on stolen bonsai.

*I’m always a little wary of precise value placed on bonsai (especially if insurance claims are about to be filed). No bonsai has a fixed value. At least until someone buys it. When that happens, you could say the purchase price is  the tree’s value at that moment

This is perhaps the strongest Flowering cherry we've featured in our ten years of posting. Its muscular trunk, aged bark and profusion of lovely flowers make for an impressive showing

Good Flowering cherry bonsai seem to be few and far between. In our ten years of posting (about 3.500 posts), we’ve only featured three flowering cherries and I’m not sure about one (here’s one,  here’s another  and here’s the one I’m not sure about). We found this one on Michael Bonsai fb timeline, a steady source for quality bonsai photos

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Close up of the trunk from the opposite side. That appears to be a piece of bark sticking out on the right. The white looks like a lichen of some sort

The other side. It sure does look like a piece of bark. It seems a little strange that is was left on the tree, but I suppose it tells a story. The fingers give a sense of scale

Cherry blossoms!

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This magnificent mixed forest is by Saburo Kato, who was one of the original old masters of Japanese bonsai. You can find it and other remarkable trees in his timeless classic Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai. You can also find some of the moist comprehensive how-to bonsai instructions anywhere

Continuing with our forest theme, today it’s four now famous forest plantings by one of Bonsai’s Grand Masters, Saburo Kato.

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This remarkable slab planting shows how much drama and power one strong tree can add to a forest. It's also a good example of what you can do with ground cover to enhance realism and beauty. Though the original, which appeared in Bonsai Today* issue 23,  doesn’t say, it might be safe to guess that it's also by Saburo Kato. The trees look a lot like Ezo spruce (Picea glehnii), a specialty of Mr Kato's

Forest, Rock Planting and Ezo Spruce Bonsai
By Saburo Kato
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This very large forest was on display at the 2017 World Bonsai Convention in Japan. Like so many other Ezo spruce forests, it was originally created by Saburo Kato. The photo was borrowed from Mark Fields, one of our lucky friends who made the trip to Japan.

Same forest, different perspective. Both this photo and the one above include people, which helps show just how immense this planting is. The photo was sent to us by Felix Laughlin, who is, in addition to being another lucky friend, is the President of the U.S. National Bonsai Foundation.

Close up. Realistically sized ground cover is an important piece in most great forest bonsai. This photo was also taken by Felix Laughlin.

The Remotest Hill, Mr Kato's most famous Ezo spruce forest from the cover of his internationally renowned book, Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai. Here's Mr Kato's caption: "Ezo spruce (Picea glehnii). Sixty years ago I often traveled with my father to Ezo spruce in the large virgin forests on Kunashir Island off the cooast of Hokkaido. I selected the finest material to create this bonsai entitled The Remotest Hill."

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Before and after,three years later. Masahiko Kimura 'The Magician' styled this Ezo spruce (Picea Glehnii) planting with a high mountain stand of conifers in mind

Continuing with bonsai forests from the last two days…
Looking at the after forest above, you might notice how the trees on the outside lean out in search of sunlight, which is what you would expect in a natural stand of trees (more on this below)

You may also notice how Kimura enhanced the feeling of age by removing or jinning about half of the limbs (this is most evident in the intermediate to after photos below). Trees tend to shed limbs as they age. This is especially true of trees in forests where there’s competition for light; with more growth at the tops and edges and less in the shaded areas where branches tend to weaken and even fall off.  All three photos in this post are from Bonsai Today issue 26*

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Freshly planted. Kimura started with inexpensive untrained trees. The placement of each tree is carefully thought out to create a natural and harmonious feel. We'll discuss some of the concepts behind placement in future posts. Meanwhile, an excellent book on the subject is Saburo Kato's Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai

The Magician
The Bonsai Art of Kimura 2

This intermediate stage is one year after planting (below) and two years before the top photo. It's quite powerful at this stage and I suspect most of us would be delighted to have a forest like this exactly as is. Notice how each trunk is wired and all are almost perfectly straight and vertical. One of the next steps will be to bend and lean the outer trunks and make more subtle adjustment to the inner ones

I like the photo just above but Kimura wasn't satisfied. So many trunks so close together and straight up wasn't quite right. In fact only the main tree is perfectly straight in this photo. In nature, each tree that pops up after the main trunk, will grow out a bit in search of more light. This process continues all the way out to edge of the forest

Forest, Rock Planting and Ezo Spruce Bonsai
By Saburo Kato

Closeup of the lower trunks and ground cover

Much of this post is from 2009, our first year blogging. We featured an updated version last year and added a photo and revised the text today. I hope these changes are helpful 

*Thanks to Bonsai Focus for use of the photos

I stumbled across this European hornbeam (Carpinus betulas) by Walter Pall on his Bonsai Adventures blog. The shot looks like spring with some trees lagging behind others

Following up on yesterday’s forest post, here’s one that originally appeared here in 2014. I think it’s one of our best on forests and worth another look

Focal point. Without the dominant tree this forest planting by Walter Pall would be a lot less interesting. With the dominant tree contrasted with rest of the trees, the planting has a focal point. With that focal point  to organize around, balance, scale, a feeling of age and that more elusive quality we call interest, are easier to establish
Continued below… 

Same forest. Same time. Different backdrop. Walter usually shoots his trees with two or three different backdops.

Continued from above…
Balance. If you look at the silhouette of the whole planting you’ll immediately see how everything flows from the dominant tree, creating an overall sense of balance and harmony. This has a lot to do with the natural strength and dynamism of scalene triangles and something called The Golden Mean or Golden Ratio (Magic Thirds)

Scale. Notice how the large tree is in the front. Not only does this show off its size and power, it also highlights a sense of depth when contrasted with the medium sized trees in the center axis (left to right) and the smaller trees in the back. Rather than seeing these trees as smaller as they go back, we tend to see them as further away.
Continued below…

Contrasting these two shots provides a pretty good idea of how different backdrops effect our perception

Continued from above…
Age. When it comes to age, there are two types of natural forests: ones where all the trees are more or less the same age and size (for example a stand of trees that grew up after a forest fire) and an old forests with trees that show a mix of ages and sizes

This planting is a good example of the latter, with the main tree emphasizing and even exaggerating the contrast. You might even imagine that at one time the dominant tree stood alone and seeded the others
Continued below…

Same planting, fall foliage. You can see how the individual trees turn and drop on different schedules

Continued from above…
Walter Pall often shows several photos of the the same bonsai with different backdrops and at different times. I think this is a good idea, especially given that no single photo  can completely capture the power and dynamism of a good bonsai

One of the rewards of cold hardy bonsai