grouper52
Masterpiece
I'm sorry: I can't resist the backstory on this tree, a spectacular Murraya paniculata (common orange jasmine) given to me several weeks ago, and potted up yesterday after I finally went down to Manila (to fight a three day skirmish with immigration) and bought a pot large enough and decent enough to do it justice. Repotted, cleaned up and lime-sulfured yesterday ... Stands 26" above the rim of this Taiwanese terra cotta pot.
These gorgeous trees, BTW, are some of my favorites in my old Chinese Penjing books ...
Ignore the backstory if my ramblings bore you, but in this case they demonstrate the unfortunate current state of the PI bonsai scene.
My wife and I have paid a number of visits to a group of young bonsai collectors and enthusiasts/artists down in the province of Pangasinang in the lowlands south of here. It's a vibrant group, and one duo of collector/artists have amassed quite a collection of spectacular trees at the home of one of the men. I gave one of those two a copy of my book about Dan Robinson, mistakenly thinking he was the only collector/artist of the two, who was merely using his friend's larger property to house his trees. I learned later that this was not the case, and made another trip down to give the other guy a copy as well. On that second visit, I learned that earlier in life he had started off with formal education and training to become an artist, and had a magnificent eye and feel for his trees. He took me back with some sense of urgency to show me two of the trees in his private collection behind his home. One tree - a truly grand Mulawin - was suffering from simple failure to thrive, and we examined and discussed that at some length, and I told him I would bring some typed out advice and some soil and supplements that might quickly turn it around when I was next passing by his community in a week or two.
The other tree - this Murraya - was in good health, and its potential beauty just screamed out. He asked me to look at it, and tell him honestly what I thought about it. I got down face to face with it where it sat on the ground, told him what I would do with it - which is what you see here in the photo below as a first styling - and he said sadly that that was exactly his thought, but that he wanted to enter it in an upcoming show or competition, and they wouldn't let him, telling him that it didn't conform to "The Rules" for the event. I asked him what rule it went against, and he said that the top would naturally be on the rear trunk, and the rule stated that it must be on the front trunk! I told him that would look absurd, and that any attempt to have the top come from the lower/smaller trunk would look absurd. I told him that, "If this were my tree, I would do what was naturally right, and just enjoy the tree myself, and forget about such a stupid competition/show."
It was like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders, and we spent a good time after that discussing the nature of art and great artist-pioneers like Van Gogh, Picasso, Stravinsky, etc. I went back in two weeks to help him with his failing trees, and at the end he took me back to this tree again, and gave it to me as a gift. I was floored, but gladly accepted. When I asked if he could cut it off where it's cut off now, so that it would fit in my car, he pointed out that that's exactly where it needed to be cut off anyway, and we nodded and smiled together at our common vision of the beautiful tree.
Enjoy!
These gorgeous trees, BTW, are some of my favorites in my old Chinese Penjing books ...
Ignore the backstory if my ramblings bore you, but in this case they demonstrate the unfortunate current state of the PI bonsai scene.
My wife and I have paid a number of visits to a group of young bonsai collectors and enthusiasts/artists down in the province of Pangasinang in the lowlands south of here. It's a vibrant group, and one duo of collector/artists have amassed quite a collection of spectacular trees at the home of one of the men. I gave one of those two a copy of my book about Dan Robinson, mistakenly thinking he was the only collector/artist of the two, who was merely using his friend's larger property to house his trees. I learned later that this was not the case, and made another trip down to give the other guy a copy as well. On that second visit, I learned that earlier in life he had started off with formal education and training to become an artist, and had a magnificent eye and feel for his trees. He took me back with some sense of urgency to show me two of the trees in his private collection behind his home. One tree - a truly grand Mulawin - was suffering from simple failure to thrive, and we examined and discussed that at some length, and I told him I would bring some typed out advice and some soil and supplements that might quickly turn it around when I was next passing by his community in a week or two.
The other tree - this Murraya - was in good health, and its potential beauty just screamed out. He asked me to look at it, and tell him honestly what I thought about it. I got down face to face with it where it sat on the ground, told him what I would do with it - which is what you see here in the photo below as a first styling - and he said sadly that that was exactly his thought, but that he wanted to enter it in an upcoming show or competition, and they wouldn't let him, telling him that it didn't conform to "The Rules" for the event. I asked him what rule it went against, and he said that the top would naturally be on the rear trunk, and the rule stated that it must be on the front trunk! I told him that would look absurd, and that any attempt to have the top come from the lower/smaller trunk would look absurd. I told him that, "If this were my tree, I would do what was naturally right, and just enjoy the tree myself, and forget about such a stupid competition/show."
It was like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders, and we spent a good time after that discussing the nature of art and great artist-pioneers like Van Gogh, Picasso, Stravinsky, etc. I went back in two weeks to help him with his failing trees, and at the end he took me back to this tree again, and gave it to me as a gift. I was floored, but gladly accepted. When I asked if he could cut it off where it's cut off now, so that it would fit in my car, he pointed out that that's exactly where it needed to be cut off anyway, and we nodded and smiled together at our common vision of the beautiful tree.
Enjoy!
