Pacific Bonsai Museum "Natives" Preparation: Eastern Larch

Source material: 2017, January 8

          This is the second installment covering the five trees Bonsai Man Dan and I have prepared for an exhibit at the Pacific Bonsai Museum centered around bonsai of species which are endemic to North America (hence the exhibit name, "Natives"). I encourage anyone who is in the area to attend the opening celebration this upcoming Saturday, April 8th. I hope and expect the artist panel to provide plenty of enlightening bonsai discussion. Scott Elser, Michael Hagedorn, Randy Knight, Ryan Neil, and Dan Robinson were all invited to bring trees for the show and will be in attendance.
         Today's installment covers one of my new favorite trees in the garden (a title which admittedly does not hold much weight there, as I shamelessly have many favorites). This Eastern Larch (Larix larcina) was in the garden on one of the main paths - hiding in plain sight. Yet for the first 8 months of my regular visits to the garden, somehow I did not notice or appreciate this tree until Dan pulled it out for work. Things often go this way at Elandan Gardens as I am now somewhat numbed to great material. I regret I do not have as many pictures of our transformation on this tree as I would like due some lost data including before pictures (always very useful), a video of Dan's die grinder carving, close-ups of the foliage and carving, and other manipulations we did. Because of that, I would especially encourage you to see this impressive tree in person if you can instead of relying on my limited photos!

The mostly finished version captured on April 1, 2017.

Pacific Bonsai Museum "Natives" Preparation: Pitch Pine

Source material: 2017, April 01

          Over the past few months, Dan and I have been preparing five of his trees for an exhibit at the Pacific Bonsai Museum centered around bonsai of species which are endemic to North America (hence the exhibit name, "Natives"). I am excited to attend the exhibit's opening celebration this upcoming Saturday, April 8th, because it includes an artist panel with some big names who were invited to enter trees - Scott Elser, Michael Hagedorn, Randy Knight, Ryan Neil, and Dan Robinson. I once saw Michael Hagedorn during an unplanned visit to my local bonsai store and I may or may not have been mentally fangirling too much to say hello. Or maybe I just didn't want to interrupt his workshop. I will lie to myself and say it was the latter.
          The most recent tree Dan and I prepared was a special pitch pine (Pinus rigida) which needed moss on the soil surface and some needle thinning to bring it into order. The tentatively finished product can be seen below, though slight modifications may still happen before going to the museum. Compared to some of the other trees Dan is loaning for the "Natives" show, this tree only needed slight maintenance; the needle thinning was done in only a day. In upcoming posts about other "Natives" show trees, you will see some of the other tree preparations were more involved projects. I felt a little bit of extra responsibility on this particular day as Dan recently has had some health challenges and was not able to make it to the garden last weekend. Fortunately, one of his more senior students came and was able to give me guidance.

The Acer palmatum baobab bonsai

Source material: 2017, March 18

          Today at Elandan Gardens, Dan pointed out this unique maple tree he has been styling to mimic the African baobab. Dan wanted me to share this particular tree to get people's thoughts on the unconventional maple design.

One Sweet Bougainvillea

Source material: 2016, August 06

          Dan Robinson has collected and developed many rare, unusual, and gnarly trees over his 50+ year bonsai career, hundreds of which can be seen at Elandan Gardens. As will be explained in the near future by a new post, Dan's artistic style values the existence of some "focal point" on his trees. In most cases, that takes the form of a great trunk or some stunning deadwood feature. However, certain components of that focal point style can incite controversy among bonsai hobbyists. Some people are critical of excessive deadwood use - particularly on softwood species. Others appreciate Dan’s use of deadwood as an imitation of natural features on old and ancient trees. A unique bougainvillea featured in today's blog serves as a demonstration of his controversial - but naturally inspired - deadwood use on softwoods as well as an example of a unique focal point trunk.

Before pruning.

Testing - Birth of a Bonsai Blog

          The blog in its current form is an initial test - a work in progress. Over the course of the next few months, I will be retroactively making entries regarding my time spent learning from Dan Robinson, an American bonsai artist who has been practicing bonsai for 50+ years. If you want to follow my lessons from Dan Robinson and my other sources of growth as a bonsai artist, stay tuned. Thank you for reading!

Hi! I encourage you to leave feedback on trees or the blog whenever possible.