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  1. Andrew Robson

    Coast photos Oregon!

    Judy, glad you were able to see my beech! Hope you had a nice visit to Portland, sorry I missed you!
  2. Andrew Robson

    Bjorn & Bonsai Empire's Advanced Bonsai Course

    I had a chance to view the Advanced Bonsai Course of Bjorn's recently, produced by Bonsai Empire, and wanted to share a few thoughts and impressions... The course is more expensive than previous Bonsai Empire courses, but for good reason. A lot of time was spent filming this course, which is...
  3. Andrew Robson

    Is Bonsai an Expensive Hobby?

    It's all about time... time is money in bonsai. Growing from seed, cutting, & air layers is a great way to do bonsai inexpensively.
  4. Andrew Robson

    Shohin Japanese Maple [#18]

    Just curious, what are you're evolving tastes and interests?
  5. Andrew Robson

    Trident Maple Material Arrived, Help requested

    Take a look at this post: http://thingsofwood-gary.blogspot.com/2011/12/trident-building-process.html
  6. Andrew Robson

    Loblolly plugs, what would you do?

    @garywood Is the expert! He collected this Loblolly many years ago, which I bought and initially styled last year with my friend Matt. https://www.rakuyobonsai.com/blog/styling-of-a-loblolly-pine I would put them in a mix of 60-80% pumice, or perlite if you can't get pumice, and 20-40%...
  7. Andrew Robson

    US Native Deciduous Trees (please share your photos)

    Red Maple (Acer rubrum) from my teacher Michael Hagedorn's garden. Grown not from a collected stump, but patiently over several decades from a seedling. https://crataegus.com/portfolio/portfolio/
  8. Andrew Robson

    Air Layering a Short Needle Pine, Southern Louisiana

    Shortleaf pine has good potential for bonsai, however pines don't airlayer easily. I'd recommend growing them from seed, and here's a great link to help you do that! https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/08/17/grow-japanese-black-pine-seed/
  9. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    That's like saying any potted tree is a bonsai, which is hardly the case...
  10. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    Actually most bonsai professionals would disagree with you. Assuming we are using volcanic soils (pumice, lava, akadama) the benefits of cakes is that once you want to stop fertilizing, you simply take the cake off, like after black Pine decandling. Furthermore, you can really fine tune your...
  11. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    The benefit of organic fertilizer cakes is that you can see what you're doing. If you just mix up one batch of liquid fertilizer in the spring and give it to all your trees, you're gardening, not doing bonsai. What's happening in that scenario is that some trees like black pines and tridents...
  12. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    O I disagree... having healthy trees is great, but there are different kinds of healthy trees. In bonsai we want healthy trees with controlled growth, and if we overfertilize we can end up making our trees too youthful, to the point where we can flake off old bark on conifers and abort years...
  13. Andrew Robson

    Miracle Gro

    For bonsai, especially old bonsai, miracle Grow is way too much nitrogen. Stay in the single digits. If you're looking for a great inorganic fertilizer, consider Dyna Grow instead of miracle grow. It's much more balanced and contains more micronutrients than I've ever seen on any other product...
  14. Andrew Robson

    I'm at Boon's this weekend...

    Adair, Your olive is looking great! Nice work! Also the Chojubai is cute! Nice trees!
  15. Andrew Robson

    Stewartia Monadelpha

    I don't see a tree that needs to be trunk chopped in your picture, just a tree that needs to grow. From your photos, my advice is to grow it one size larger than it currently is and work on developing branching. Also looks like you need to start working on the nebari. Next year I'd repot it...
  16. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    Certainly my biggest tree, for now...
  17. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    Some photos of my tree at the Portland Japanese Garden
  18. Andrew Robson

    Flowering Dogwood Help/Advice

    Dogwood has big flowers and big leaves. Yes the leaves will reduce some with time in bonsai culture, but they will still be pretty big. Therefore, you need to grow them into bigger bonsai. A yard is probably the height you want to shoot for, and then the trees will look in scale. As with most...
  19. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    It's exciting! Enthusiasm and appreciation of bonsai is spreading very quickly, and the quality of trees seem to be rising! I think we're on an upward trend.
  20. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    Thanks for sharing. I haven't seen these, but I'll look into it!
  21. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    Yes, this is one of those bonsai that actually look like a tree. That's one of the things I love about it. I'll get some pictures of it when it's at the gardens and post them!
  22. Andrew Robson

    Large European Beech

    It's good to have friends! Last week I repotted my European Beech with the help of several friends and students of my teacher, Michael Hagedorn. After several hours of pulling the leaves off this tree, we tackled the repotting in which we did a half bareroot. The tree was in a mixture of organic...
  23. Andrew Robson

    Bonsai Fundamentals Course

    Jonas from Bonsai Tonight wrote a review and said, "this course will likely provide at least some new information for enthusiasts of all levels." https://bonsaitonight.com/2017/03/14/review-bonsai-fundamentals-course-michael-hagedorn-bonsai-empire/
  24. Andrew Robson

    Bonsai Fundamentals Course

    Definitely a great course for newcomers to bonsai, beginners, and advanced hobbyists!
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