Scouting.

April 23, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: | Leave a comment

I am always on the hunt for new material. I don’t necessarily want a bigger collection, but I do want a better collection. I try to sell a tree for every tree I buy or dig. I get rid of the tree with the least promise and replace it with something with more promise. Simple in theory but difficult to put into practice. Somehow the collection always seems to be growing bigger, pun and all.

I Australia we don’t have the yamadori available to dig that other countries have. Unfortunately we don’t really get the snow loads or really have the altitude to produce the volume of material such as the deadwood junipers you see in europe, Japan and the united states. Some native material can be found with nice features but I tend to think that our native species should be left to grow in their natural environment for all to enjoy. It would take hundreds of years for nature to replace them in those alpine ecosystems so I think it’s a little selfish to want to take that for yourself. As a result, i look for introduced species to dig of which there are many.  Elm, Oak, Hawthorn, Pine, plum and olive are just a handful of the species that are strewn across the country. Most of these species become a weed once they establish themselves outside of private gardens and farms.  Being interested in Pines I tend to focus on areas around timber plantations where self-sown escapees can be found.

A nice place for a walk.

Autumn is the season I like to scout these plantations and ear mark potential trees for collection in early spring. I choose autumn for a number of reasons. It’s not too hot so I don’t have to water the trees at home as carefully which means I can go away overnight without worrying. It’s also not too cold so walking around the forests for a few hours without heavy jackets is possible and then of course autumn is also a good time to scout for other things as well……

Most of the areas I walk into are good for numerous thing that I am interested in. I look for bonsai material, fishing spots and also mushrooms.

A little on the large side but interesting movement for its size when compared to its bolt upright neighbors.

I have been into a number of forests already this autumn and have not found any trees worth digging yet, but i did find a lake worth fishing and most of the trips we have come home with mushrooms!

A nice bonus from a day where no dig-able trees were found.

Most of the young pines i find could be easily grown from seed with better movement and better roots so I don’t bother digging them. What I look for is movement and old bark. Bark only happens with time so by digging trees with good bark you are putting yourself ahead of the game, and if you find good bark and good movement you have found a tree worth digging.

It seems others also like this spot, unfortunately it seems they don't like it enough to clean up after them selves.

Even though most fo my outings don’t produce trees they do get me out of the city and into fresh air and great views. Hopefully in the coming months I am able to get out some more and collect some mushrooms, catch a fish and maybe even find a tree worth digging. I always enjoy the trips away even if you come home empty-handed, the day never feels like a waste.

A nice view.

If the scouting trips don’t reveal and trees worth digging I do have a couple earmarked from last year that I might try to liberate.

Korean Bunjae Museum Part 3.

April 17, 2012 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , , | 1 comment

This is the final post about the Korean Bunjae Museum in Seoul (Part 1) (Part 2). The following photos are from the largest green house on the site which was mainly filled with the trees belonging to the owner of the Nursery.

There were literally thousands and thousands of bonsai inside the huge green house.

A glimpse at some of the trees.

All the trees were sheltering out the winter under cover due to the low temperatures the area experiences. As a result the green house was quite cramped, In a strange way this was quite good as you really had to hunt around to look at all the tree.

One of the wings full of bonsai.

Throughout the collection there were many trees that were a little unusual. Some of these unusual characteristics were due to the fact that they were collected trees and others were grown in ways I was un familiar with.

An exposed root forest.

One such tree was this exposed root forest. I can’t remember seeing a tree like this before and as a result I spent a good amount of time in front of it soaking it up.

Some of the other trees were unusual due to their size, which in some cases was outright huge!

A massive hornbeam.

I couldn’t help but wonder how much time it must take to maintain a collection of this size.

A few pics of some more of the tree are below.

For those travelling through Seoul or thinking of visiting i can thoroughly recommend it. I would actually love to come back some time not in the heart of winter to see the trees in leaf and outside the green houses on display. The day we visited the owner of the nursery was not around but instead his daughter was looking after things.

She had just graduated from a Bonsai University degree and spoke near perfect english. She had many ideas for how she would like to promote bonsai within Korea in the future and I am sure she will achieve them.

So if you are ever in Korea I think a trip to the Korean Bunjae Museum is well worth the effort.

Korean Bunjae Museum Part 2.

April 12, 2012 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , , | 1 comment

It’s been a busy few weeks so I apologise for the lack of posts. Hopefully I can post a bit more regularly now.

This post I will share a few more photos from the Korean Bunjae Museum. You can see in my earlier post, some of the amazing man-made stones that were on the outside of the massive green houses in which the bonsai were sheltering from the sub-zero winter chill. In this post we will explore one of those green houses.

Inside the green house.

What was interesting about this nursery was how it was run. In the Japanese nurseries I have visited the trees that were living within the nursery either belonged to the nurseryman or a customer but nearly all the work was done on the trees by the professional nurseryman.

Here in the Korean Bunjae Museum, hobby growers could rent bench space and grow their trees as they liked while enjoying the luxuries of a nursery such as misted green houses, regular watering, and a professional grower on site to call on for advice and or lessons etc. It seemed like a really good system and one I could see working well at other places. To imagine the ease at which you could take holidays without having to organise someone to water or without having to move the collection to a friends backyard makes this nurseries system seem like a great idea.

Now just because the growers in this green house were hobby growers it didn’t mean the trees were of a sub standard level. In fact there was a whole range of standards of trees many of which were very high leveled.

Some amazing Nebari!

The tree above was one of the first to catch my eye with its excellent root spread. I am sure that most of those roots will fuse into a solid plate at some stage but for now the individual roots look amazing!

Thee tree in the round.

And I guess I couldn’t make post about a Korean bonsai nursery without having a picture of a Korean Hornbeam.

A nice hornbeam.

A more feminine hornbeam.

There was also no shortage of junipers.

Juniper

What was particularly interesting was all the raw material that was growing between the more finished bonsai.

My wife posing with a large hornbeam in-the-making

A trident maple (I think, maybe a korean maple of some type?) with a thread graft.

A few more pics and in the gallery below.

The next post will be on the second, larger green house which is where the Korean Bunjae Museum collection was sheltering out the winter. It was a huge space, packed with trees so stay tuned.

Korean Bunjae Museum.

March 13, 2012 in Bonsai Shows, Nurseries and Events | Tags: , , | 2 comments

During our recent stay in Japan we managed to get a couple of cheap flight / accomodation packages so we could spend a few days in Seoul. The purpose of the trip was for my wife to stock up on Korean cosmetics  (Korea is a shopping mecca for the Japanese) but I managed to squeeze in a quick visit to one of the local nurseries, The Korean Bunjae Museum.

The Korean Bunjae Museum

This visit was my first experience with korean bonsai so I wasnt sure what to expect. What I will be covering in this post is what initially grabbed my attention.

We visited in the middle of winter. Most of the lakes in the surrounding parks had frozen and the top daytime temperatures were not even making it above freezing. When we first entered the nursery I wasn’t sure we were at the right place. I could hardly see any bonsai! We soon learnt that the whole collection was sheltering in huge greenhouses for the winter but that’s a whole other post.

What caught my eye was some huge rocks with trees planted upon them that were assumingly too big to be moved inside for the winter.

One of the massive rocks.

After spending some time with the owners daughter she explained that the rocks were actually all man-made by a close friend of her fathers. Now I don’t know about you but I think these are some of the best fake rocks I have ever seen! Even up close I couldn’t tell they were not natural.

Another rock and planting.

An upright rock with a small pine perched a top.

This last rock was my favorite. It was large rock that had a great little hornbeam forest on top of it. It made me wonder just how difficult it must be to trim it and keep it looking so good.

A small forest on top of one of the rocks.

A close up of the forest.

I will have a few more posts from this nursery as it was full of interesting trees and was run quite differently to the Japanese nurseries I was familiar with so stay tuned.

It is well worth a visit if you are ever in Korea. Their web page can be found HERE and their facebook page can be found HERE

 

shochikubai

February 27, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: | Leave a comment

Shochikubai is a type of planting sold at New years time in Japan to bring good fortune for the coming year. The below example was one a friend had bought and was on display in their apartment when I visited.

Pine, Bamboo, Plum.

Shochikubai (松竹梅) is a chinese reading of the japanese kanji: matsu (pine), take (bamboo) and ume (plum). The pine represents strength, the bamboo longevity and the plum stands for beauty and optimism. Around the New year you would see these pop up at businesses, department stores and homes across Japan.

This is probably the closest Japan comes to ‘Mall-sai’, although I think that this pine has a lot more promise than any I have seen for sale in shopping centres here.

How long these plantings survive outside of the new year period is hard to say, my friend’s planting is still alive but I am not sure for how long. They don’t have a history of green thumbs and they live in a small apartment with a small balcony, not ideal bonsai conditions. Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing any really established ones anywhere else which might suggest their survival rates are similar to the expected survival rates the mall-sai we get here.

No matter what the future holds for these plantings, I think that any year starting with a black pine bonsai is going to be a good one!

Antique Chinese Pot.

February 20, 2012 in Bonsai Pots | Tags: , | 2 comments

Below is a pot I picked up from Mr. Tanaka at Aichi-en in Nagoya. It is an antique pot and I think it is from the Nakawatari or middle crossing period.

I am by no means an expert on antique chinese pots (this is my first) but from what I have been explained Chinese antique pots are roughly divided into 3 categories. Huruwatari, Shinwatari, and Nakawatari. These correspond to periods of wars between Japan and China during which time many pots and other goods made their way to Japan.

Beautiful patina.

Ever since seeing the antique Chinese and Japanese bonsai pots in the  Kokufu exhibition catalogues I had wanted to own one. I was especially drawn to the white or cream containers that have become in some cases almost black from the layer upon layer of patina that builds up on them.

You can see the imperfect warped edges.

When I was pot shopping this last trip I had a rough list of pots that I was interested in buying. I had also made a deal with myself that I would buy usable sizes instead of falling in love with pots that would only ever be mantle piece ornaments like some of my previous purchases.

While visiting Aichi-en, Peter Tea and I searched the nursery for a pot that might fit my needs. We came up empty-handed after a 30 minute search. Peter then asked Mr. Tanaka if there was anything that might suit and he headed out to the piles of pots we had just searched only to return a minute later with the perfect pot in his hand.

A detail fo the glaze, patina and surface inperfections.

The pot I ended up buying was a good size for the bonsai I like to grow. I guess it would fit trees in the Chuhin range. Also being of this grey/ white colour I think it will go well with a range of different deciduous species.

The pot itself is full of imperfections and it is a little wonky. If you look along any one side you will notice that they are slightly off square and or bowed. I really like this. In most of the high-end Japanese pots the geometries are perfect so it is nice to own a pot that has some rustic character to it. I am very happy to own this pot and I hope to give it some use in the near future.

If anyone knows more than my basic understanding of Chinese antique pots or would like to make any corrections to my description please post in the comments. I am interested in learning more about these pots and the times that they came from so please comment if you know any more.

Trust Issues

February 13, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: | 3 comments

One of the things that surprised me in Japan was the apparent lack of theft. Now I am sure things do ‘walk’ from time to time but for the most part I never really saw any signs that theft was much of a problem.

I really loved discovering bonsai in plain view of the street on the walks I took around neighbourhoods of the various cities I visited.

Someones collection visible from the street.

Now I don’t know what the rest of the western world is like, but I am pretty sure that if I had my collection on display like this outside my house it would have been stolen within minutes of putting it there. Now Australia is not full of theives but we seem to have a much bigger problem with theft than what i could tell Japan has.

Someones collection of plants (including bonsai) occupying the space between their house and a public laneway.

Why is this? In the case of bonsai nurseries in Japan they rarely have more security than a low fence or wall to stop the theft of some very expensive trees. In Australia on the other hand one particular nursery has 3 meter high walls with barbed wire, cameras, security lights and they still have to chain down the expensive trees to prevent theft.

Bonsai in an Australian nursery.

And this seems to be the norm for nurseries in Australia. Steel cages, chains, electric fences, alarms and dogs are all common in Australian nurseries and yet are virtually non-existent in their Japanese counterparts.

I would love to be able to stroll the streets of Australian neighbourhoods and discover front yards full of bonsai like you might see in Japan. Perhaps you might meet the owners as they were watering or pruning and ask some advice while leaning on their front fence. This might be a bit of an idealised view but it is always nice to dream.

Sadly I don’t see this happening any time soon, as most people understandably keep their collections a secret and only invite a very small number of people into their gardens the fear that they may get knocked off one day. I feel that this really locks up (pun intended) both trees and knowledge to those few that are privileged enough to be allowed into growers gardens.

Sure at clubs and local shows you get to see some of people’s trees but it is often the works in progress at the back of these people’s gardens that are the really interesting material. It is often these works in progress that you can really learn from yet they often never see the light of day.

Are other countries like this? Surely these problems extend beyond Australian shores?

Cookie cutter Japanese bonsai

February 6, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: , | Leave a comment

I often hear the term ‘Cookie cutter’ thrown around from time to time when people are talking about Japanese bonsai. For those not familiar with the term, I believe it relates to people suggesting that certain bonsai seem to come from the same mould and or ‘cookie cutter’ which produces similar or same bonsai. Personally i think that the term often is applied by those who havent really got a good understanding of what is actually out there in Japanese gardens and nurseries.

Now there are a lot of mass-produced bonsai in Japan that are grown to a rough formula but these trees are not a good representation of bonsai in Japan as a whole. On the other hand there are a lot of trees that can seem similar at first glance on benches in nurseries throughout Japan but closer inspection reveals quite dramatic differences.

Cookie Cutter?

What was one of the biggest surprises to me when I first visited japan was the huge amount of irregular styles and forms of trees that by no means could be classified as what some people dismiss as ‘cookie cutter’. In fact most of the nurseries I have visited were full of unusual and or ‘different’ bonsai. I know that when you look through various exhibition books you see some unusual trees, but its only when visiting the nurseries that you actually get a clear idea of just how many irregular bonsai are being grown.

During my last trip i met with Peter Tea at Aichi-en and he explained what his Oyakata Mr. Tanaka had explained to him about unusual trees.

He said that unusual bonsai would always be worth less than ‘standard or correct’ trees during the developement stages. Once the trees reached exhibition standard however, the unusual tree would suddenly become much more valuable. There are many correct bonsai in Japan and most nurseries could sell you one. Unusual trees on the other hand are one offs and if a customer wants to buy one they must pay accordingly as they cannot simply go next door to get something similar.

Strangely we don’t get to see many of these types of trees in western magazines or literature instead these forms are associated with European and American yamadori. I was certainly surprised to see so many when I first travelled to Japan. Now I find that they are the trees that I gravitate towards when I arrive at a nursery.

Below are a few interesting trees that i saw during my travels that didn’t fit the mould (some of them look like they totally broke the mould!) I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Dramatic movement.

A close-up of the twisted movement.

A very angular exposed root style.

I wonder if this tree was grown or collected?

Black pines shouldn’t have shari? Well this one does.

I think you will agree that it works very well in this case.

Unusual?

A very non-conforming Nebari for a non-conforming tree.

Read more about this strange trident HERE.

Bunjin, Semi-cascade or a combination?

Interesting.

I like to look at trees such as the above and think about what they must have looked like pre-styling. Material such as this requires a high level of creativity to style into a well-balanced image and often results in trees that really stick in your head. I know that it is these types of trees that I always spend the most time in front of.

So next time you are out and about evaluating future material keep an eye out for the unusual, you never know, you might get yourself a bargain!

Soil sifter.

January 31, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: | 1 comment

Well, re-potting season is a while off here in Australia but while I was in Japan I did spot something that might speed up the whole process when the time does come around.

In one of the green houses at the back of Taisho-en I spotted a sifting machine.

I want one!

I have a small hand sifting set at home which takes me ages to sift enough material to do a hand full of trees. I am sure with a machine like this I could do the whole collections worth of soil in no-time!

From what I could tell it was a simple contraption with 3 sizes of mesh screens that gently shook to give you 3 graded sizes of soil and the unwanted dust simply fell through to the floor.

It might be a good machine for someone who doesn’t have a team of apprentices to do the sifting for them!

 

Apex positions

January 23, 2012 in General Bonsai | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Before I left for Japan a friend (who runs an interesting blog) asked me to take some pictures of bonsai from the side so he could get a good idea of how the trunk lines and apex were constructed.

He has begun growing some stock in the ground and was keen to see how the japanese constructed their trunks. So as I was snapping pics I sometimes remembered to take a few shots from different angles to show a more 3d view of the trunks.

He asked I photograph a wide range of trunks but I realised that the deciduous trees were the only ones that you could easily see the trunk movement and structure so those were what I focused on.

(Left image: front, Right image: Side view)

A medium-sized root over rock Trident maple.

Shohin Trident Maple

Another shohin Trident Maple

A shohin Japanese Maple

Looking back at the photos it is interesting to see just how far forward some of the apexes are. I guess this allows you to get a much more compact apex with many branches. If you imagine standing these apexes up you can picture that it would raise the height of the tree and also spread out the ramification in the top section creating a taller less dense image.

Looking over my own trees at home over the weekend I think that some of them could become more compact and dense from a simple tilting forward of their upper structure. It was a good exercise taking these pictures as I had seen hundreds if not thousands of trees over the years but have never really focused on this one detail. I think I will have to look over all my other photos and pick out individual styling details and see what they reveal.

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