Kencho-ji junipers, Kamakura

When I visited Kencho-ji temple in Kamakura, I was really impressed by magnificent juniper trees growing along the temple’s main alley. They looked like some sort of Chinese Juniper and one of them had a trunk about four meters in diameter (photo on the left). I took some photos, wandered about how old they are and forgot about them. Two months later I was reading about Kencho-ji and found that these junipers were actually planted by the founder of the temple Chinese Zen master Lan-hsi Tao-lung between 1253 and 1278 from seeds brought from China.

Bilpin Plant Collector’s Fair 2010

Today I went to the Plant Collector’s Fair in Bilpin. Even though the fair mostly caters to people who want unusual flowers in their garden, I couldn’t resist buying a bunch of them (see the picture). I really enjoyed it and it was definitely worth the trip. As far as bonsai is concerned, the fare may have some rare kinds of plants which could be used as bonsai starter stock. For instance, I picked up a small Bird Cherry. Something I wanted, but never thought would find in Australia. Anyway, if you want to get the best and the least common plants at this fair - get there in the morning of the first day.

Not too much wire?

Ever since I started doing bonsai I was hesitant to wire plants too much. I just had a self-made supposition that wire suffocates the plant. My trip to Japan helped me to overcome this prejudice after seeing wired plants like the one on the picture. I realised that a lot of beautiful bonsai I’ve seen in Japan, had to be subjected to extensive wiring to become what they are today.