by Gordon Van Wechel | Mar 31, 2021 | Bonsai
This is the time of year, late winter/early spring, when we get busy as bonsai enthusiasts. Mixing soils, cleaning pots, making sure we have enough wire on hand are all part of the season. It is also the time of year when people who have said to themselves, “one of...
by Gordon Van Wechel | Mar 17, 2021 | Bonsai
Sometime in the next few weeks, if the rain ever stops (!) we will all start moving our trees from winter storage to their summer homes. This can be quite a shock to a trees system, particularly for a tropical that has been indoors for the last several months and...
by Gordon Van Wechel | Mar 3, 2021 | Bonsai
Also known as “forest plantings,” Saikei are miniature landscapes. Using stones and seedlings on a tray or flat surface the artist adheres to the basic tenants of bonsai, but with a greater freedom in composition. It is a more natural interpretation of bonsai. The...
by Gordon Van Wechel | Feb 18, 2021 | Bonsai
When someone characterizes a bonsai as a formal upright or chokkan style tree a vision immediately comes to mind. Most of us see a pine tree with a uniformly straight vertical trunk, nicely tapered from the apex to the beginning of the transition to the root base. The...
by Gordon Van Wechel | Feb 3, 2021 | Bonsai
Bonsai is an art that stimulates the visual sense while reaching a deeper emotional level within the viewer. A good bonsai puts us in touch with nature; it makes us think about our relationship with other living entities and consider the forces that shape our...
by Gordon Van Wechel | Jan 20, 2021 | Bonsai
If you have a few bonsai trees then you know the feeling. You look at a tree and start to think about how you could improve the design: move a branch here, change the front a little to the left, or maybe an even more radical change. Even a tree styled by a well-known...