In other terrible news, it came to my attention back in March that the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection in Washington state has closed as of April 2, 2009 due to economic pressures.  The Collection’s parent company, Weyerhaeuser, deals mostly in the lumber and wood industry… and that industry has been hit hard by the construction industry’s troubles.

A message from the exhibit’s curator states:

“During our closure, it is our intent to keep the collection of bonsai intact and well maintained, with the hope that we may someday bring it back to public display. We therefore are saying ’so long’ rather than ‘goodbye.’”

Here’s hoping that the economy improves and that this well-loved and important collection of some of the world’s most beautiful bonsai will be reopened to the public.  I’m really glad that the bonsai will still be tended to and preserved for the future, especially because some of those trees were nurtured in paper cups by men in Japanese internment camps during World War II.  Those trees are a priceless part of humanity’s history!

Luckily, I have a wonderful online friend who lives nearby, and she had the chance to visit the exhibit before it closed.  She is also an excellent photographer and has had various photographs published in several magazines.  It is with her kind permission that I am able to share these photographs with you.  You can read her blog entry over at wildcelticrose.net.

Here is a slideshow of her photos.

Now I’m back, and I have a bunch of great new content for you!

To start things off, I wanted to share a video that I found. This guy just bought a normal ol’ juniper bush from a gardening/landscaping store and turned it into a very nice-looking juniper bonsai tree! My favorite part is when it’s all potted up and is showing some new growth (lighter green tips). He will have a very nice bonsai after he shapes and prunes it some more.

This would be an excellent way to start or expand your bonsai collection, especially if you want to try a penjing style with multiple trees! Buying individual pre-trained trees and then grouping them together in one pot would get rather expensive, so a better idea would be to buy several “normal” trees at a gardening store and then treat them like this.

Please enjoy!

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