I'm running out of superlatives. How about... 'somewhere north of magnificent.' My only question is, could the pot be a little bigger? By Hsieh, Shun-Chin of Taiwan

Continuing with spectacular Ficus bonsai…
Though the Taiwanese aren’t alone, a large dose of creative bonsai energy seems to be emanating from that unique island. And it’s not just Min Hsuan Lo and Cheng, Cheng-Kung, they have plenty of talented company. If you want some evidence, check out the Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibitions. 

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A little change of pace. The tree on the right (Hibiscus tiliaceus*) has the mark of Min. At least the Min Hsuan Lo many of us have come to know. The Crape myrtle in full bloom provides a touch of wildness and color. From the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition 

Powerful, unique and full of movement, though knowing our audience, I imagine some may feel that the foliage is overly groomed. Premna microphylla by Yang, Chun-Cheng

Trunk, branches and pot of the tree at the top of the post

Finest Tropical Bonsai & Finest Accent Plant. The tree is a Tiger bark Ficus (Ficus microcarpa) by Hoe Chuah. I've cropped this lead photo to show just the tree (a photo showing Soon Chuah's companion is just below and a photo of the tree with the companion is below that). The first three photos in this post are from Bonsai Empire.

Continuing with our 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition theme from yesterday and our Ficus bonsai theme from the day before.  And of course, our encouragement for you to visit the 6th U.S. National next month

A family that does bonsai (and companions) together, wins together. Hoe and Soon Chuah were double winners at the 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. Hoe’s Ficus is a strong and perfectly well-balanced, even regal bonsai, and Soon’s companion is a simple wonder of subtle complexity.

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This closeup shows Soon Chuah's prize winning companion (a photo of the whole display is below). This what can happen if you spend ten hours on one small companion planting (see Hoe's remarks below).

The whole display. Two prize winners in one shot (shot by Oscar Jonker of Bonsai Empire)

When I asked for the companion’s varieties I got more than I bargained for. Again here’s Hoe: “Soon gave me the list, there are 16 kinds of herbaceous plants and weeds planted on this 8″ wide lava rock.

Polka dot
Oxalis (Purple shamrock)
Australian violet
3 kinds of Sedum
Ilysanthes grandiflora
Pink knotweed
Pennywort
Mazus reptans
Wild strawberry
Angel plant
Portulaca
and 3 unidentified weeds.
Moss

 “These combinations allow the kusamono to show different colors and flowers for spring, summer and fall. Large leaves were trimmed regularly to reduce the size such as the purple oxalis from ~2” to nail size. I took her 4 months of constant pruning to reduce leave size to look like miniatures.

One more thing, all these plants were mixed to give it a “natural” wild meadow look. They look like random plantings but actually took her 10 hours to create the combination so that they blend in to look as wild and natural as possible.”

 

Here's a photo that Hoe sent me. It was shot by bonsai photographer par excellence, Joe Noga

This award winning dwarf Japanese garden juniper (Juniperus procumbens 'Nana') belongs to Creighton Bostrom of Waxhaw, North Carolina. The photo is from the 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. You can find it and all the other trees in the Exhibition Album. The same goes for the 4th Exhibition (the albums for 1, 2 and 3 are out of print)

Thanks to Bonsai Empire for the photos shown here (and for identifying the varieties and the owners). They just made my job easier. And of course, thanks to Bill Valavanis and all the kind folks who put together the previous U.S. National Bonsai Exhibitions and the albums that go with each one. And for working tirelessly to put together the upcoming 6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

North American bonsai is on a steady upward curve and there is simply nowhere else that comes close to U.S. National when it comes to seeing and being astounded by some of the most powerful and exciting bonsai anywhere. If you haven’t made your plans yet, it’s not too late (September 8th and 9th, Rochester NY). See you there!

We will be there!

with our Roshi Tools, Bonsai Wire, Green T Turntables, Bonsai Books,
Field Grown Larches and much more
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and if you can’t make the show visit us at stonelantern.com

Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum), Ed Lauer, Zebulon North Carolina

Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus), Ron Miller, Melbourne Florida

Another award winner. Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens), Jason Eider, Seattle Washington

Close up of Creighton Bostrom's Juniper

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The sheer power of this magnificent tree places it in elevated company. It's a 50cm (20") tall Ficus microcarpa by one of our favorite South American bonsai artists, Nacho Marin of Venezuela. The pot is by John Evans of the USA.

Yesterday we featured a Ficus from Taiwan, so picking up that thread… and because I’m still on  mini-vacation, we’ll take the quick path  This one originally appeared here in May, 2015

Though this post was inspired by Nacho Marin’s powerful Ficus (above) and though Nacho is South American, when we start looking at Ficus bonsai we seem to circle back to Taiwan 

This must be one of the greatest Ficus in the world, which is really saying something considering how many great ones there are. It's by Min Hsuan Lo (Min doesn’t give the variety, but does say there are details in his book, Bonsai Journey). You don’t see many defoliated Ficus (they are broad leaf evergreens, so whenever you see one denuded of leaves, you know that it has been recently defoliated). The absence of leaves allows you to better see the structure and fine branching, both of which are exquisite.

Even without the caption there’s no doubt this powerful tree is a Ficus. If there are two bonsai varieties Taiwan is famous for, they are Ficus and Taiwanese Junipers. Here’s the original caption: 2014, with Chinese-style bonsai exhibition award category: gold medal species: Ficus bonsai collection: Liu Jingyan. 

Ficus microcarpa by Huang,Ching-Chi. We originally featured this magnificent bonsai in a post titled Fantastic Trees, Fabulous Pots. I guess you can see why. It originally appeared in the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website.

Abstract bonsai art. I think there's a temptation to judge trees with elaborately carved deadwood. But maybe it's best to just appreciate the skill involved and not worry about too much deadwood or whether the result look like our sense of what's natural or not. Not to downplay the importance of bonsai the look like trees in nature, rather to appreciate the vast variety of approaches and results in our wonderful world of bonsai

Yesterday we featured Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s colorful side. Today we’ll touch upon his famous Sidao carving method and some results. Hopefully this will peak your interest. If it does, you can visit his website for more

Cheng, Cheng-Kung's Sidiao method in a nutshell. There's a lot more where this came from.

Just another Shimpaku with lots of deadwood? Well, maybe, but there's something unusual going on with the way foliage is configured

There a lot going on here. Movement, power and perhaps artistic freedom and a sense of relaxation (with getting too anthropomorphic about it). Is there anywhere else to go?

Cheng, Cheng-Kung's magnificent Ficus with its lovely old pot, has nothing to do with the Sidiao carving method. Just thought I'd throw it in because it's such a masterpiece bonsai

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It takes a strong tree to handle a pot like this. This Pistacio (Pistacia chinensis Bunge) has at least two features that qualify: its muscular trunk which works well with the depth of the pot (deep pots with thin trunks just don't work) and its lushly hued full crown which contrasts with the pot's brilliance.

Today is the first day of a short summer vacation. We’ll try to keep Bark going by employing some favorites from our archives. This one is from January, 2016 (with a couple revisions today)

The trees shown here are all Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s creations. Cheng is famous for his Sidiao method (a technique for creating and enhancing deadwood – more on this tomorrow), but today we’ll show his more colorful side.

We’ve featured Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s bonsai several times here on Bark. You can also find his bonsai and Sidiao technique featured on his website, on facebook and in dozens of other places on the web.

One of two brilliant Satsuki azaleas featured on Cheng-Kung's web gallery.

 The other one.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum Linn).

A story of time and human artistry. This shot (looks like a Japanese white pine) is from Kunio Kobayashi's famous Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Edogawa, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan.  When I first saw it, I was sure that it's from the tree below. After closer examination, I'm not so sure. All the photos in this post are from the Shunkaen Bonsai Museum fb timeline

The Shunkaen Bonsai Museum was founded by the great bonsai master, Kunio Kobayashi. Here’s what Mr Kobayashi wrote about the museum…
“The Museum was built with the ambition to spread Japanese culture, especially Bonsai in a new way to the rest of the world. I wanted to show both the beauty and the severity of nature that is hidden within Bonsai, even just a little glimpse but to a great number of people from around the world. With that thought in mind I was successful in creating this beautiful museum.”

Unlike the photo above, it's clear this one is from the tree below

Great tree,with several distinctive features. In addition to the trunk with its wonderfully intricate deadwood, holes and ancient bark, there's that crazy branch on the left. There are other notable features as well, but enough said for now

Before and after by Salvador De Loy Reyes. He calls it The Monk, but gives no other information, including no species (looks a lot like a Shimpaku juniper) or details of any kind, though you might guess it was originally field grown and purposely twisted to look like an old Japanese yamadori (bonsai collected from the wild). Without seeing the other side of the tree, it's almost impossible to follow the live veins in their delightfully chaotic movement up the trunk

Yesterday’s post featured three trees that were ready to be reviewed and retouched by Salvador De Los Reyes. Today it’s a before and after by Salvador. The kind of before and after we often refer to as maintenance, where an already established bonsai is brought back to (or beyond) its previous splendor after a period of unfettered growth (benign neglect). Often this requires trimming, some wiring, and cleaning and highlighting the deadwood and live veins (we featured another maintenance B&A with a delightful play of live and dead wood, just the the other day).

Before. It's all there. Just waiting for someone with the skill and some time on their hands to bring it back to what you see just below

After. I love the way the live veins standout against the deadwood. Together they created a puzzling abstraction. Not exactly like a tree you would find in nature. Especially with the wood cleaned up and enhanced this way

This impressive old Olive must have taken a long time to carve. Assuming that most of the deadwood was carved by human hands (with some power tools' help of course). Either way, it's masterpiece (though there's still the sacrifice shoots on the lowest branch, which will look a lot better when their work is done and they are removed). Speaking of the lowest branch, here's Salvador De Los Reyes' caption with this tree... "Vamos a dar mas fuerza a esa rama de abajo," and here's my translation... "We are going to strengthen the lower branch."

The photos of the three Olives and the Spanish text in this post are borrowed from Salvador De Los Reyes. Here’s his introduction to these trees… “Esta mañana he estado revisando y retocando algunos de los acebuches de la colección de Manolo Vargas.” And here’s the translation (mostly machine this time)… “This morning I have been reviewing and retouching some of the olive trees in the Manolo Vargas collection.”

I cropped the photo above for a closer look at the trunk

No caption with this, so we don't know what Salvador has in mind. Though you might think that some more carving could work. Perhaps on the pile of roots and lower trunk?

"Nos queda rehacer la mitad del árbol... jejeje literalmente."  Here's the machine and me working together... "We have to redo half the tree... hehehe literally." I'm not sure I get the joke, except maybe mitad is a play on words. Perhaps referring to the middle as well as half?

Here's that middle section that needs some work

Sweet! I thought you might like to see this. It's Carl Morrow's Trident maple in a very well chosen and appropriately sized pot (Carl sent photos in an email, so no links)

Last week we featured a Robert Steven critique of a Trident maple that belongs to Carl Morrow (Size Matters & Small Is Beautiful). It was a repost of a one we originally did in September, 2010. Carl took Robert’s advice and repotted the tree into a smaller pot, though not the same pot Robert used in his simulation (it’s hard to find simulated pots!). As it turns out, I think this one is a better choice. BTW, Robert did make other important suggestions that also influenced Carl’s treatment of the tree

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Closeup of the trunk and nebari

Carl's before shot and Robert's simulation (from 2010 and reposted last week). It makes sense that Robert would create a smaller version of the same pot. The important point is choosing a pot that emphasizes the tree rather than distracting from it, and size is one of the keys