I’ve seen a number of places offering Bonsai Talk or Bonsai Forums about the internet. The trouble with them is that everyone has different opinions about the way to do things and often a talk turns into an argue. Different countries have different views on the way to manage and care for bonsai so It’s often a good idea to try things for yourself and use trial and error.
If in doubt, talk to your bonsai…
I am a frequent visitor of Min Hsuan Lo’s blog. He is probably my favorite bonsai artist and definitely one that I look up to for inspiration and ideas. He has written a few posts showing many pictures of fine bonsai from the Taiwan Bonsai Creator Association’s 11th annual exhibition. It took place between the 5th and 7th of July 2008.
Looking through the many amazing photos of the trees they all seem so perfect and almost unreal even.
I tried to pick the best part to post on here for you to look at but they are all as good as each other. So here are the full list to the photos:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Make sure you check back his blog often because he does some very neat stuff there!
I’ve been watching an interesting program on TV called the trees that made Britain. I think it’s a repeat, but it’s new to me so that’s good.
The program is currently being broadcasted on UK TV Gardens on cable and sky. It explores the way that these trees were such a major part of the history of Britain and what they were and still are used for. If you can’t find it on TV you can probably find it on the internet somewhere.
I have found a very interesting website called “Pooktre Tree Shapers“. It is the concept of growing a tree into a shape so that it can be used as something. They have some amazing looking chairs, tables and mirrors on their site.
It looks like a good idea. Why not give it a try?
In winter it can be hard to identify trees correctly with the absence of leaves. I had this problem earlier in the week when I collected 4 yamadori specimens but could not tell what species they were. I searched the interweb high and low for pictures of “bare twigs in the winter”, “dormant branches pictures”, “pictures of trees with no leaves”.
But it was all without any luck until I found this interesting site which identifies winter trees for you. Curiously is on the “Northern Ireland Fungus Group” website.
All you have to do is follow the questions and have a twig from the tree handy to look at while you are on the site.
I’ve discovered a fascinating bonsai artist called Min Hsuan Lo. He is from Taiwan and employs many interesting techniques I haven’t seen described before. A lot of the things he does seem very extreme to me but always seem to turn out very nicely. His ficus in particular are amazing.
Have a look at The Bonsai Blog Of Min Hsuan Lo
I’ve just stumbled upon a funny site called Bonsai Potato… Some of the ‘bonsai’ actually look quite good.
I have found a website called Woodlands for Sale which sells woods around the UK. It seems like a very interesting prospect and I think the main purpose of it is to get owners that love trees and woodlands to take care of them. Quite a few of the woods for sale have obligations such as taking care of the woods or helping the young trees grow to maturity. (more…)
Books are the best thing since sliced bread. But ebooks are the latest and greatest invention. They give us so much information at the touch of a button. But are they really a better resource than real paper books? There are great bonsai books out there just waiting to be snatched up as both ebooks and paperback books. Let’s look at the differences. (more…)
I watched live earth for quite a long time yesterday. There were some amazing bands on there. However the presenters seemed to miss the point of it all. Especially in the UK they seemed to be debating the fact over whether globabl warming was real or not and not how to stop it. There wasn’t even any videos encouraging us to turn off taps and light switches. I think the first encouragement video was about 10.00pm that I saw. (more…)