progression

This kurume azalea was one of several I collected from the front yard of our first house in 2000. This one really caught my eye, double trunk, decent crawling nebari, and a great double trunk. I dug it in '00 or '01. Ths '02 image is the earliest digital photo I have. Somewhere, I have one...

I posted a sneak-preview of this on a different thread, and decided to start one that will hopefully run for some years to come. This is is a shimpaku from Brent Walston; among his first and largest, and has happily moved South! If it has a good winter, I may start some training this spring...

Looks like the ume may flower this year. I worked on it with Peter in April, let it grow out all spring, then wired it mid-summer. After the leaves fell, the buds just kept swelling; the thing just doesn't go dormant. The flower buds are the swelling buds, flanking the smaller leaf buds...

Since you asked...and since I keep decent records... Littlehip Hawthorn, Crataegus spathulata 1999, winter, a few months after moving to Birmingham, I went into a nearby woods to scout some collecting sites. I found this hawthorn growing in an area that appeared to be a seldom-used dirt...

Continued from the Announcements Forum so we can see updates over time... Here are a few shots of the JBP he started down the road to bonsai last weekend. The basic structure is there, we just need to thicken and add movement to the straight section of apex, and hold back some of the growth...

I started a couple small ROR tridents on some nice dark stones I collected up in WA about 12 years ago. They've been sitting on my benches for years, never quite suiseki, but too nice to just toss aside (obviously, since they've moved with me half-a-dozen times). Last year I decided to strap...

Here is a stock plant I bought in fall '08, worked down the roots pretty hard in spring '09, and stuck it into a big wooden box and forgot about it for a couple years, except to layer a couple branches out of it. Yesterday I noticed it was pushing growth pretty hard, so I decided to repot...

So here is a project I've been working on since '06 and I'd say I'm at about the halfway point. This is a Zelkova that belonged to a friend, given to him from another friend, who styled it with Ben Oki in the 80s or 90s. Neither of them were satisfied with how the tree looked, but since it had...

So I got this shimpaku for Christmas in 2008. It came from Brent at Evergreen...good things always come from Brent. Since I hadn't spent much time with junipers, I decided to save it for a workshop and try to learn a little about their training in the process and so I brought it to a Kathy...

Looking over this J. Maple and considering removing the lower-right branch...it started as a sacrifice and I got used to looking at it. It's pretty thin, but I do like the full look it brings when the tree is in leaf. So...what do you think; keep it or cut it? I'll also post a photo of...

Al, I love this idea! I've been working on trees for quite a few years, and have never once had a trident maple in a bonsai pot. I've always figured that they were so easy to grow, that I wouldn't have one unless it was a damn good one. I have several trident maples in the ground, and so...

David, New Thread...Glad your Zuisho is looking good. Mine is growing pretty well this year, candles were about 4"-5" long and are fully open now. A small, second flush is pushing. Somehow, it seems that last year I had less foliage growth, but the trunk about doubled in thickness. This...