Showing posts with label Bonsai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonsai. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Monday, June 7, 2021
Let's go on a Portland Bonsai Buying Trip @ Lee Cheatle's
In this video. We did a weekend trip to Portland to eat shop and hangout for a day. I was fortunate enough to stop by Lee Cheatle's place to buy some bonsai from him. What a treat that was.
How to Yamadori and Collect Bonsai in the forest of the Pacific Northwest
In this video I head to the forest of the Pacific Northwest with a couple of friends to yamadori and collect a few trees for life as Bonsai.
It was a great adventure to finally be out and about after being locked up inside for over a year.
My Biggest Dig yet! Scots Pine Yamadori (yardadori)
In this video I found an amazing pine that I dug out from someone's yard. Watch as I break my back to get this beast home.
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Tour of Pacific Bonsai Museum
Pacific Bonsai Museum
This collection boasts over 100 bonsai trees from China, Japan, Canada, Korea, Taiwan & America.
Phone: (253) 353-7345
Friday, May 3, 2019
Magnolia Bonsai Progression
I've been spending alot of time stalking local nurseries for Bonsai material. I found this Magnolia at the West Seattle nursery.
I liked the dual trunks and sexy curves on it.
2/17/19 - Here it is initially.
After some major branch selection and wiring.
Here's the plant in it's new pot. The moss came from my lawn embarrassingly. The north side of the lawn gets over run with moss.
4/22/19 - I didn't think I would get any flowers this year after all that chopping but the plant managed to give me one bud in April.
4/25/19
Puts a smile on my face to see it alive and healthy.
August:
I'm getting second bloom
8/10/19
I liked the dual trunks and sexy curves on it.
2/17/19 - Here it is initially.
After some major branch selection and wiring.
Here's the plant in it's new pot. The moss came from my lawn embarrassingly. The north side of the lawn gets over run with moss.
4/22/19 - I didn't think I would get any flowers this year after all that chopping but the plant managed to give me one bud in April.
4/25/19
Puts a smile on my face to see it alive and healthy.
August:
8/10/19
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
My 1st Bonsai ever. A Cascading Scots Pine.
I collected this little Scots Pine growing wildly in the greenbelt behind my yard back in February 2019. It was quite limber and I was able to really manipulate the branches quite a bit. I created a cascading style which would be interesting to see how it will grow out.
Nursery Stock to Bonsai: Flowering Red Scarlet Quince
Being brand new to Bonsai. It's hard for me to fathom spending thousands of dollars on a bonsai plant and possibly killing it or make a mistake in the styling process. So the idea of practicing on nursery stock is much more appealing and better way to practice on my Bonsai skills. If I mess up it doesn't hurt the pocket book as bad.
I was at nursery in Kent in February and found these beautiful Flowering quince, labelled Red Texas Scarlet Flowering Quince. They just look like dead bushes at the moment. But let's see what it can be transformed to.
After about half hr of digging through the pots I found this particular one with a sexy curvy trunk. Can you see it?
After following some guidelines on pruning deciduous Bonsai. I was left with this form.
First find the front the front of the tree.
Here's what it looks like after following these procedures.
I left a long sacrificial branch at the base of the trunk to help thicken up Nebari. It will be removed as the final part of the design.
Here it is in it's pot and outdoors to soak up some sun.
A few weeks later 3rd week in March 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
My Spruce Bonsai, 1st styling.
So I was hunting one of the local nurseries for Bonsai material and I encountered. A great Japanese Black Pine as well as a great looking neglected old spruce that has been there for some time.
Here's the tree after pruning off unwanted branches.
However, it reminds me a bit of a Christmas tree so I jined the apex and wired the branches to have that look of weighted snow on them.
I made good use of my son as a background. =) And here's the tree with it's 1st styling.
And here it is with a pot.
Here's the tree after pruning off unwanted branches.
However, it reminds me a bit of a Christmas tree so I jined the apex and wired the branches to have that look of weighted snow on them.
I made good use of my son as a background. =) And here's the tree with it's 1st styling.
And here it is with a pot.
My Baby Larch , Bonsai's in training.
Larch's are quickly becoming one of my favorite conifers. Why? it's like the best of both worlds. A Pine tree that shed's it's pines like a deciduous and has fall colors but it's a pine. How cool is that.
This baby larch is just starting to grow new pines for the spring. The lime colored new needles have such a vibrant glow about them.
This baby larch is just starting to grow new pines for the spring. The lime colored new needles have such a vibrant glow about them.
How graft Japanese White Pine for better Bonsai Stock
The Japanese White Pine has got to be one of the prettiest pine trees. It's a 5 needle pine that has a natural tendency to grow plumes of vertically pointed needles. It does this naturally and takes quite of training with other pines to achieve this type of growth.
I find these trees beautiful. However the problem with JWPs is that they do not grow easily from seed and do not air layer very well.
So most stock is from grafted material. However most grafts tend to be high on the trunk if it's nursery stock. Which can cause an unsightly nebari.
Below I've started my own grafts for a Japanese White Pine on some young
1st, I bare rooted the root stock to make them easier to handle.
1st, I bare rooted the root stock to make them easier to handle.
2. I then removed the lower branches.
3. I striped the JWP to the latest year's growth at the tip.
4. I rolled a doobie. Just kidding. The scion JWP has been wrapped in parafilm prior to grafting.
5. I made a cut on the root stock as low as possible to the roots.
6. I wedged in the scion JWP to the cut on the root stock.
7. Parafilm was used to wrap and adjoin the two pieces.
I managed to do 2 grafts.
Lastly, I put the plants back into their pots. My only concern is that I grafted a pine to a fir. I am not 100% sure if they are compatible. But we shall see.
Friday, March 8, 2019
My new Passion...
Bonsai.
But before I tell you more about this new hobby. I have to share with you, who has inspired me to do Bonsai.
My father.
My Father is the strong quiet type. He always seemed to know how to get things done. He never asks for help and has always been a reliable provider. He is an incredibly hard worker and very talented craftsman. I think I appreciate him now more than ever before as I write this post.
Let's go back to the 70s shall we? No not the days of bell bottoms and hippies but back to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Several years after the fall of Saigon in search of a better life for his 8 kids at the time (I'm # 6), my father came up with the resolution that we had to escape Vietnam's new communistic rule.
With his bare hands and limited tools, he literally built a large enough boat that helped our entire family along with extended family and friends to escape Vietnam. Some of you old enough may know the term "Boat People". I was one of those people.
After 2 failed attempts of leaving under the cover darkness we finally made it out to the open sea on the 3rd try. The open sea was a huge gamble. There was a no guarantee that we'd be rescued. Food and water was extremely limited, disease was rampant, storms flipped many boats and there was the very valid fear of Thai pirates that would pillage these boats for valuables. Many women were raped and men killed when they had the misfortune to run in with Thai Pirates.
Thousands died at sea but we were one of the fortunate few that were rescued by cargo ship passing by. We were dropped off on an island in Indonesia where we stayed for 2 years waiting for the proper paper work to enter the United States.
That's me with the yellow shorts with my father on the far left. I still remember that day on an Indonesian beach. It was the first time I tasted sliced bread. It was literally the best thing I've ever eaten at the time.
This photo was taken by an American missionary named Gaylord Barr back in 1981 of 2 my brothers (the 2 on the right) playing on the beach. It was by chance that we found it on a blog about Vietnamese refugees. This photo is pure treasure to me.
Narrowly missing the mount St. Helen's eruption, we were finally sponsored to come to the United States in 1982 by one of my relatives already living in the US. We landed and lived in Auburn, WA from then until 1989.
This is my immigration photo from back then. I was about 4yrs old in that photo.
A photo of my siblings and my mom from the early 80s. I'm in the blue jacket in front.
Let's fast forward to the late 90s. After some time in the Bay Area we moved back to Washington and my father began collecting bonsai's. He was a general contractor so he worked on various homes and had access to plants that had been growing in ground for many years. He was doing Yamadori before I even knew the word existed. He amassed a great collection through out the years, including a tree from Dan Robinson, world renown bonsai artist of Elandan Gardens in Bremerton.
Unfortunately he has fallen ill from several complications in his health. So about 7 years ago he gave most of his Bonsai collection my uncle. My sister kept 2 trees. Two Japanese Black Pines. One has gone to me and the other to my younger brother.
I may have to pay a visit to my uncle to see his collection so I can share it here.
Fast forward to today. This is a photo of my father at a nursing home with a handful of his kids and grand kids.
My sister who was also an avid gardener was recently diagnosed with cancer last year. She is battling it and things are looking very positive that she will beat this thing but her energy level isn't what it used to be.
She is an amazing artist and has created these crystals trees that I'm selling on Etsy to help raise money for her cancer treatment. Feel free to stop by and show your support.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/652248778/crystal-tree-33-on-agate-with-garnet-and
As such, it's been a tough year for my family but we're fighters.
I've taken over one of his Black Japanese Pine Bonsai I've been studying and learning as much as I can about bonsai so I can better care for this tree.
It may not look like much now but this tree means so much to me. It represents him, his legacy and I intend on caring for it with my best ability. It will outlive my father and maybe even me. That's the beauty about bonsai, it's a generational hobby meant to be handed down. We are simply curators.
The more I learn about Bonsai the more I fall in love with it. It's about taking the wild beauty of plants and controlling them to grow in the way we design it. It's living art. I get it now why he loved Bonsai's so much.
I re-potted the black pine with some new soil afer cleaning out it's tangled roots.
There you go, much better.
A bit of a hair cut to get rid of the long candles and voila. It got it's first haircut in years.
The only regret I have is that I wish I had gotten into the hobby while my father was still able to do it. It would have been an amazing experience to work on Bonsai's with my father.
This is one of my father's trees that has been growing unkept for the last 10 years.
But before I tell you more about this new hobby. I have to share with you, who has inspired me to do Bonsai.
My father.
My Father is the strong quiet type. He always seemed to know how to get things done. He never asks for help and has always been a reliable provider. He is an incredibly hard worker and very talented craftsman. I think I appreciate him now more than ever before as I write this post.
Let's go back to the 70s shall we? No not the days of bell bottoms and hippies but back to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Several years after the fall of Saigon in search of a better life for his 8 kids at the time (I'm # 6), my father came up with the resolution that we had to escape Vietnam's new communistic rule.
With his bare hands and limited tools, he literally built a large enough boat that helped our entire family along with extended family and friends to escape Vietnam. Some of you old enough may know the term "Boat People". I was one of those people.
After 2 failed attempts of leaving under the cover darkness we finally made it out to the open sea on the 3rd try. The open sea was a huge gamble. There was a no guarantee that we'd be rescued. Food and water was extremely limited, disease was rampant, storms flipped many boats and there was the very valid fear of Thai pirates that would pillage these boats for valuables. Many women were raped and men killed when they had the misfortune to run in with Thai Pirates.
Thousands died at sea but we were one of the fortunate few that were rescued by cargo ship passing by. We were dropped off on an island in Indonesia where we stayed for 2 years waiting for the proper paper work to enter the United States.
That's me with the yellow shorts with my father on the far left. I still remember that day on an Indonesian beach. It was the first time I tasted sliced bread. It was literally the best thing I've ever eaten at the time.
This photo was taken by an American missionary named Gaylord Barr back in 1981 of 2 my brothers (the 2 on the right) playing on the beach. It was by chance that we found it on a blog about Vietnamese refugees. This photo is pure treasure to me.
Narrowly missing the mount St. Helen's eruption, we were finally sponsored to come to the United States in 1982 by one of my relatives already living in the US. We landed and lived in Auburn, WA from then until 1989.
This is my immigration photo from back then. I was about 4yrs old in that photo.
A photo of my siblings and my mom from the early 80s. I'm in the blue jacket in front.
Let's fast forward to the late 90s. After some time in the Bay Area we moved back to Washington and my father began collecting bonsai's. He was a general contractor so he worked on various homes and had access to plants that had been growing in ground for many years. He was doing Yamadori before I even knew the word existed. He amassed a great collection through out the years, including a tree from Dan Robinson, world renown bonsai artist of Elandan Gardens in Bremerton.
Unfortunately he has fallen ill from several complications in his health. So about 7 years ago he gave most of his Bonsai collection my uncle. My sister kept 2 trees. Two Japanese Black Pines. One has gone to me and the other to my younger brother.
I may have to pay a visit to my uncle to see his collection so I can share it here.
Fast forward to today. This is a photo of my father at a nursing home with a handful of his kids and grand kids.
My sister who was also an avid gardener was recently diagnosed with cancer last year. She is battling it and things are looking very positive that she will beat this thing but her energy level isn't what it used to be.
She is an amazing artist and has created these crystals trees that I'm selling on Etsy to help raise money for her cancer treatment. Feel free to stop by and show your support.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/652248778/crystal-tree-33-on-agate-with-garnet-and
As such, it's been a tough year for my family but we're fighters.
I've taken over one of his Black Japanese Pine Bonsai I've been studying and learning as much as I can about bonsai so I can better care for this tree.
It may not look like much now but this tree means so much to me. It represents him, his legacy and I intend on caring for it with my best ability. It will outlive my father and maybe even me. That's the beauty about bonsai, it's a generational hobby meant to be handed down. We are simply curators.
The more I learn about Bonsai the more I fall in love with it. It's about taking the wild beauty of plants and controlling them to grow in the way we design it. It's living art. I get it now why he loved Bonsai's so much.
I re-potted the black pine with some new soil afer cleaning out it's tangled roots.
There you go, much better.
A bit of a hair cut to get rid of the long candles and voila. It got it's first haircut in years.
The only regret I have is that I wish I had gotten into the hobby while my father was still able to do it. It would have been an amazing experience to work on Bonsai's with my father.
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