Pine, 13yrs old, training for 5 yrs
Juniper, 14yrs old, training for 2 days.
April 7 09: I am back from a large nursery with 120 hand selected pieces of bonsai stock. About 40 are reserved for a workshop with a local artist promoting a show about folding paper cranes and their message of peace.
The rest are for you and me! Come over and workshop a peice, or buy something more fininshed.
Feb 15/09: Alright! I spent part of this christmas season in Japan sudying bonsai! I met and went to the gardens of Masahiko Kimura!
Do you want to know what I learned?
Now that I am back couple months I see two things about Japanese bonsai. The first is the Japanese attitude to bonsai. Bonsai love is the love for the seasons and nature. A good bonsai changes with the year and each stage is special.
Other then that, The best way to keep and train a bonsai is according to local ways of keeping and trimming regular trees. The Japanese keep the trees in their parks and streets in a manner nearly identical to the way they keep their bonsai. The Japanese trim their park trees in fine layers, or flame shapes. They tie branches down in the trees in their front yard.
Knowing these things allows me to appreciate bonsai deeper. It has also liberated me to learn the Japanese art of bonsai and to experiment with a western or even a west coast style of bonsai.