Seiwa-en Japanese Strolling Garden

Seiwa-en, the largest Japanese strolling garden in the western hemisphere, was built on 14 acres of the Missouri Botanical Garden, formerly "Shaw's Garden" (which many St. Louisans call it to this day) in about 1976. I have often wished for the opportunity to photograph the garden in all its seasons, and some day I may get the chance.


The 4.5-acre lake provides a heat sink in winter and a slightly different microclimate all year around, plus many scenic vistas throughout the garden.


Many different portions of the garden provide mini-garden views including raked gravel and stones, shaped Japanese black pines, lotus areas, and a tea garden, which is closed except during the tea ceremonies, which were sold out the entire weekend. Several years ago we were treated to a private "tour" by one of the volunteers, and as soon as I can find and scan the snapshots, I will post them. It's quite beautiful and intimate.

More to come.

St. Louis Japanese Festival--Bonsai Display

Labor Day weekend is the traditional time for one of the oldest and largest Japanese cultural festivals in the United States, in St. Louis, MO. It is held on the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Garden, home to Seiwa-en, the largest Japanese strolling garden in the Western hemisphere. The Bonsai Society of Greater St. Louis shares a space with an ikebana display. This is the tree that greeted visitors at the entrance:

Japanese white pine

The grounds of the entire botanical garden were thronged with people enjoying the food, drink, vendors, and gardens, and a great many visitors viewed the bonsai exhibit.


A couple more examples of displays at the show:

Collected Korean hornbeam

This is a very nice example of a multi-trunk collected tree. Here it is seen in full leaf.

Shimpaku juniper clump style (netsuranare-root-linked)

I got a close look at the base of this tree and really appreciated its natural appearance. If this wasn't originally all one tree, it's a great job.

Japanese black pine

I really like the potential in this tree. It is obviously in excellent health, and well cared for.

Japanese white pine formal display

I must say I like this tree, too. While it needs some thinning and adjustment, it's a great specimen.

There was a wide range of trees shown, both in variety and quality. Some of the trees would probably never be show trees, and others are beautiful specimens. But the folks are friendly and helpful and I enjoyed meeting some and getting reacquainted with others.

Mark Your Calendars

January 17 and 18, 2009 is the 10th annual Bay Island Bonsai exhibit and auction! There has never been a finer exhibit or larger collection of world-class trees from a single club in North America! Here's the dope:

January 17-18, 2009
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Centennial Hall, 22292 Foothill Blvd.
Hayward, CA

Show Brochure

Here are a couple of exhibits from 2008:



I was amazed, my first time out, to see that the sale area and auction areas offered opportunities to purchase trees that would have been show-stoppers almost anywhere in the country:


For the first time, Boon will be styling a very old Western juniper, which will be auctioned.

I'm so excited about this one. The club has honored me by asking me to act as auctioneer this year. It's going to be a great deal of fun, and I am grateful for the opportunity!

For more information, check out Bay Island Bonsai.

Waiting for Fall

It's been a cool, mostly wet summer here, nothing really to complain about. It's 65 degrees today, when we can fully expect it to be 40 degrees higher at this time of year. September is typically very hot, also. But here I sit with the house open and a beautiful breeze blowing through, so it's hard to be dissatisfied.

So why am I anxiously waiting for fall? I've done pretty much everything I can do to my trees for the summer, and am dying to get to the fall repotting/pruning/cleanup season. I have several trees that are ready for repotting, a couple of which are Japanese black pines, a big scots pine, etc. So I'm looking forward to a couple of fall workshops.

The pines classes started well, and the next installment is coming soon, so I am also looking forward to that.

And then of course, the first National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, NY! I'm looking forward to meeting some old friends for the first time!

Newest Pines Study Group activity

I must say it was an interesting evening. The beginners' Pines Study Group Online was well attended and spirited, to say the least. We'll have to put an end to that! Just kidding. Sort of. Not really. Well, a little.

We saw trees in all stages and at all levels, from just potted small nursery stock, to old bonsai that need restyling. I am truly looking forward to this ongoing study. The transcripts will soon be published into a public thread so all can marvel at the fact that anything got done. Wait. Ummm, so all can read and be enlightened! Yeah, that's it!

This was a tree shared by Jeremy, who felt a bit self-conscious about it. No reason to, really, it's a great tree to learn some horticultural techniques and styling techniques. It might end up surprising everyone.



This young JBP was shared by Andrew. It's a great basic tree with low branching and what looks to be the beginnings of a nice nebari. He plans on using the tall bit as a sacrifice leader. Of course I pointed him to Brent Walston's blog, BonsaiNurseryman. His posts on the choice of a leader and the use of sacrifice branches are very helpful for this type of tree.


Thanks to all who participated! Next Friday at 8PM Central Daylight time-the Advanced Class! Woohoo!

Pines Study Group Online

The fantastic folks at BonsaiVault and BonsaiVault Forum have made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They've made a chat room especially for the study of pine culture. They asked me to moderate that group, and it was a real honor. Here's a couple of screen shots of what's going on:



The unique aspect of this is that it is working on your trees in real time. You can post photos of your tree up to 10mb in size, so you are only limited by the speed of your connection. (I overcame my dial-up limitation by working from town with wifi). So it's a give and take as if you were in a classroom setting.

This is by far the most innovative use of these technologies for bonsai so far. Nowhere else on the web can you get real-time, cutting edge help with your trees! Millions of hits! More than anyone! Better! Farther! Faster! Sorry, I got carried away.

Here are a couple of samples of the photos that Irene posted in chat:

In addition to being a cutting-edge idea for disseminating information, we are sharing the most cutting-edge techniques for training pines, focusing primarily on Japanese black pines and other two-needle pines.

I encourage anyone who is interested to check out the pines study group at BonsaiVault.

June Candling

The last week in June tends to be prime time for candling Japanese black pines as well as other two needled pines (in the Kansas City area and environs). The reason we do this by the calendar is to prevent needles from getting too long.

Forget everything you have heard about breaking candles in spring, cutting them and leaving half, timing your candling by grouping them from strongest to weakest, etc. We cut all but the weakest ones all at once, and then pull needles to further regulate energy in the tree. The results are phenomenal. I'll be posting ongoing results of the trees I worked yesterday as they develop new buds, trying to share as much information as possible.


Here John Kirby is working on a phenomenal old twin-trunk Japanese black pine he brought with him. He believes it is two trees planted together years ago, as the shorter of the two is much more vigorous than the taller. He will remove more needles on the more vigorous trunk to hold it back and allow the taller tree to catch up. This won't happen as quickly if they are two trees on their own roots as it would if they shared a root system. I'm looking forward to seeing the ultimate results of this tree.


Tom Conley got the great opportunity to work on some of John's trees as well, and he expressed a lot of excitement at working on trees far better than what he has in his own collection. This is one of the real benefits of this kind of training. We only get better at chess by playing folks better than us, and we only see significant improvement in bonsai by working on trees better than ours (with proper instruction). Doing is a far better teacher than gleaning from others' writings.

This is a beautiful Japanese red pine in fantastic health that John brought. I candled this one but didn't pull needles because it is going to be shown this year.

Here's a nice silhouette of John working on his tree after getting almost finished. He's just pulling remaining extra needles from the smaller tree.


Here's a selection of my trees that got worked on yesterday. (No work was done on the shimpaku or the Colorado blue spruce).