great material for shohin: oriental hornbeams

These are oriental hornbeams, Carpinus orientalis. They were all collected in winter 2008/9 and are perfect for shohin size bonsai. They have the smallest foliage of all hornbeams, almost like Chinese elms.

great material for shohin: European dogwood

These are European dogwood, Cornus mas. All of them were collected in winter 2008/9 and are very good size for shohin bonsai. This is a lovely species which has great yellow flowers in late winter.

great material for shohin: flowering ashes

All these are flowering ashes, Fraxinus ornus, which were collected in winter 2008/9. They are great shohin material. This species has the lovely habit to grow extremely small leaves easily. so also the foliage will be in proportion.

my garden in December

Last week it started to snow and now it continues to do that a bit every day. This is very good for the trees. It is much better than freezing without snow. I intentionally shovel snow over many trees outside now.

Back from California and Oregon

See about my adventures here:

Travelogues

Ichiban again

Recently I had the pleasure to visit Roy Nagatoshi in LA, California, and this is the result:

"In the very beginning it took me about a week to really get used to this. it is so different then what we had before. Now it actually IS the tool number one. I always use it and always have it with me. On some days I only use this tool. I work a lot with this, believe me, and it is still amazingly sharp after three weeks. Normal tools I have to sharpen ever other day."

Besides all the properties of Ichiban that have been advertised and been spoken about I think maybe the most important one has been overseen so far: A person who has a collection or a nursery will walk through the garden at least once a day and often several times a day. You know what happens: here is a little branch that is dead an should be cut off, here are a few suckers that need to be cut off soon, here is a little wired branch and the wire should be cut because it starts biting in, here is a thicker branch that needs to come off soon, here are stumps that are left over from spring and should go.
Well, what happens? Usually nothing, because one needs the right tools to do the job immediately. Or the bonsaiist goes back to the workshop and gets the right tool. Usually he will say 'I do this later'; 'later 'being a synonym of 'never'. Or he constantly carries four tools with him which ruin his pockets.
The answer is Ichiban. It is the perfect tool to walk the nursery and do the little jobs RIGHT THERE.

WP in LA on December 2 and Portland, OR on Dec. 5 and 6

I sure hope to see some of you on my upcoming gigs:

December 2 at at the Encino Community Center, 4935 Balboa Blvd., Encino, CA 91316
see: Sansui Kai

and December 5 and 6 in Portland, Or area. contact Jason Gamby or Randy Knight for participation in workshops.

Oregon Bonsai

Scots pine literati final design

Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, 95 cm high, around 100 years old, collected in Sweden in 2001,
pot by Derek Aspinall

the first tow images are as of a couple of weeks ago. After that I cut out some growth on the living crown, took off the jin and peeled the bark at the end a litle to get more of the reddish bark.
Now the tree is ready for the Noleanders Trophy. This will be the first serious judged exhibit for the tree.