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suddenly, acquiring the "right slab" becomes the challenge. Maintain high standards and find one.

Super photo--awesome tree!

Wonderful deciduous trees--I miss your naked larch. I just stashed mine and they sit very inelegantly awaiting winter work.

I have to say, with authority, Nicks work, his bonsai compositions, where 90% cool naturalistic bonsai trees. Those that were out-there, weird ones, often with non-tree themes, were the offspring of playfulness and boredom, often coupled with haveing oddball material. He really focused on the...

I think I have come to accept, at least when it comes to visual arts, that the term "rule" is overwrought. Rules are just shorthand for what-is. To a pure artist, rules are self- evident and not really rules at all, they don't refer to them, they refer to what is in front of them, they refer to...

"I can take a dead dog and hang it from the horn of a rhinoceros standing on a barbecue and it will be art", Actually, this would be pretty amazing--one could wonder if the dog was dead before or from the horning--however if it was a dead rhino, or a plastic rhino, the dog clearly was dead...

Here are a few bad pics of a few collected juniper horizontalis I promised .

I know you were disappointed and all, but your story immediately struck me as hysterically ironic and intensely poetic: "Just last month I went to a bonsai club meeting, it consisted of about 3-4 people, nobody brought any trees, we just met at a park bench and they talked about how long it's...

Actually, there are a few English words for bonzo, none have made it into Webster yet, but soon, here are a few: Wontiki, Blabulona, Standork, and Fontasaurus, just to name a few. These have been coined over time by obscure rural practitioners. Here is how they are used, "I am working late dear...

Maybe the crux of this conversation about rules of design is less about,"how to" and more about "why". Some folks are keen to ascend to a mark, they compete a lot, they strive to a certain excellence, they work hard, when in their gardens they look about at objectives and creations, they get...

Ok--now that azalea justification is just flat weak. Every time I see a pine tree azalea I cannot escape its contrived odd-ballness. The Japanese competition books are full of elegant and mysterious azaleas that are dark and captivating--they seem so at ease.

I have thought a lot about the trajectory of this tree art thing here in the US. I think that the focus on teaching codified styling rules and a set aesthetic has really set things back in the past, and today. Teaching great tree care, the instillation of health, the vast nuance of care and...

Such an amazing poem--and so ripe and perfect commentary to the subject at hand.

Being the future tree will be built off smaller sprouts one should encourage these next year. Depending on happiness, a summer pruning of heavy wood might be able to be done--further encouraging small branches. soft loose wires doinking the sprouts down can be done right away next year...

Super material. The great challenge with this style is setting the lean and being very deliberate about how you crown relates to it--it all about the balance of the composition. This will define whether it is mundane and run-of-the-mill or exquisite and nuanced. In the verts I really like the...

I like the nice casual upright form. It is not a hyper-dynamic form that can justify and handle the normal WC mane so I may be tempted to change the foliage out. If I were inspired and had this tree I would focus on increasing vigor and adding green then back graft Hinoki on it (see Lenz...

Looks like you plan on grafting on something.

Sorry, Fall is intense work time for me and being poor and a single provider, I leave in the dark and get home in the dark. My wife actually waters and checks on the trees. The pics you have shown are very nice--getting a root system will be the challenge I bet.

As I soon put trees to bed will see about getting pics. The variety that is available to me is a glaucous variety, essentially a wild blue rug juniper.

Extraordinary material in probably extraordinarily difficult environs. Much of the potential success in collecting junipers in this situation is finding an amazing tree with a collectable root system (probably rock pocket). There is no sense in collecting anything but really good stuff due to...

Daily watering means moss for me can and does grow everywhere, in any soil, in any exposure, given time. Transplanting moss works too. Finer soils tend to grow moss easier. Bad water can hold off its growth off as can too much fertilizer.

Irish moss (sangina) is a freaking scourge and will quickly take over and choke up my soils. I try to eliminate it from my collection by hawk-like weeding--it spreads like wildfire--and is bad. Liverwort only forms on really old soil or really badly draining things in my environs so it's not s...

My Jack pines are pinus banksiana

I bent the first 3/8 of an inch of the tips of a standard fork to do soil surface scratching with--I wish it was a bit wider but it works well. I also wish I had some softer tipped ones like little spring rakes for soil surface cleaning and -demossing chores. this years rains have me beating...

Buy only to regraft.