Having a little fun yesterday, showing how NOT to prune your bonsai. Could be tempting to use an electric trimmer to shape the foliage pads. But it is not how bonsai is done. No shortcuts. Johnny Eslykke shows the delicate trimming of a 30 year old boxwood and each small twig is trimmed by cutting …
The annual bonsai event at the Danish Bonsai Society took place with Samba rhythms outside. More quit inside among bonsai in a rustique environment, at the cultural center Nordkraft in Aalborg. A great event with a lot of enthusiasm. Yannick Kiggen Yannick Kiggen from Belgium, giving lectures and a workshop with a lot of valuable …
One of the top priorities of the year, is preparing for the annual exhibition in Denmark. Preparing bonsai starts much earlier than the two weeks ahead before the exhibition opens. Cleaning pots and making small adjustments can be done right before the exhibition. Adjusting mosses too. But everything else needs careful planning weeks or months …
Kill your darlings is an old saying, when you have to discard something you love. I had to kill my old established award-winning Juniper, Juniperus procumbens. I have grown it from an ordinary nursery stock for more than 17 years. It became heavily infected by the Cedar-Hawthorn Rust Gall fungus years ago. Unfortunately impossible to …
One of my favourite things to do, is paying private bonsai visits at friends. Without needing to do anything else than relax and do some bonsai talk among other things. Yesterday I had two hours spare time in between actions, and called Martin Nielsen who lived nearby. I am not that often in the area, …
Always a treat to watch the new tender spring maple leafs open. Changing colour from reddish green to clearer green, showing subtle changes almost daily. Timing There can be some days or even weeks between pieces of the same specie starts the seasonal growth. Most is controlled by light and temperature. Or simply due to …
The past weekend I enjoyed doing Shohin workshops and a bonsai demo in Poland. Teaching brings great joy when students are engaged and wants to learn. Bringing forward the level of bonsai relies on good students asking lots of questions. I have now gathered knowledge through 25 years of mistakes growing bonsai. And mistakes are …
Four days in Poland at Bonsai green day´s takes an end. The PAB, Marek Gajda and all his helpers have done a great job including attracting a lot of visitors. Meeting old friends and making new may sound like a cliché. But this is how it works and makes it worthwhile traveling around the world …
Recently the Bonsai Focus magazine published the article of the Juniper chinensis styled for Bonsai Empire online Shohin course. I am really looking forward to develop this tree for the future. Normally I have a little resistance against these very uniform on a row developed bonsai imported in stacks. This one found it owns spirit …
The repotting season has started. Deciduous Shohin bonsai are lined up. Where repotting is needed it is executed now. It is time just before the leafs opens, showing full activity in the tree. Only trees that have a rootball making a health problem are repotted. Or when a new pot is a priority because of …
