Oct 17, 2016 | General
Now summer (such as it was) is solidly behind us it’s the time of year when we get busy whipping some of our stock into shape. Living out on the coast the next three months will most likely be very mild and experience has shown it to be an ideal time to work evergreens of all kinds. It also tends to coincide with an ominous lull in activity prior to the Christmas madness kicking into high gear. Not that we are exactly quite around here, I live in hope there might be a quiet few days to get caught up but it’s avoided me so far in 2016.
Third tree of the week was this scots pine. I bought a whole forest of these a year ago and their growth over the summer has been quite exceptional. This is one of the less exciting examples but I fancied letting myself into all this easily. It never ceases to amaze me what can happen with a scruffy tree in four hours. These scots bend beautifully at this time of year and are a joy to work with. My advice to to bust out those savings which are not earning you a penny and buy one of these, work it up nicely and sell it to one of your mates, then buy another. That’s all I have been doing for close on thirty years now, how hard can it be, it’s just a green triangle on a stick 😉
G.
Now available to buy – Click here
Oct 13, 2016 | General
I suppose it’s a dream job for most bonsai nuts. Every year I have to buy between one and two thousand trees. Who wouldn’t love to have a trip around Europe spending a hefty five figure sum on bonsai? I get to see all the new stock when it arrives and all the fresh yamadori long before it is released for sale. The tough bit is that I have to buy trees I can sell of course. I can’t just buy what I personally happen to like. If I did that there would be nothing here for sale and the bills wouldn’t get paid. Mortgage companies do not take trees last time I checked.
The other issue is that when I do buy that ‘special’ tree I tend to get inundated with offers to buy it. So far I have pretty much sold all of my best trees, barring a couple which I have priced out of the market 😉 As a rule any raw material I work into bonsai gets sold in pretty quick order and that makes it tough to keep a nice collection. Also we typically have between two and three thousand plants here and just keeping everything tidy takes more time than I have. As a result a lot of very beautiful raw material is sitting here getting better by the year but rarely getting worked into bonsai.
This year I did my normal winter buying trip and picked up what turned out to be a bit of a sleeper. This big sabina looked like a bunch of junk and was priced accordingly. With my business head on I figured a juniper of that size and price ought to be a bargain but had left my artistic talent at home and could not see the wood for the weeds. However when the tree arrived Ramon and I humped it into the workshop, pulled the weeds and started to see something a bit special. Once we cleaned out some junk and cut away a couple of massive branches (it was over 6′ wide) it became clear i had something a bit special.
Now I have moved it into a smaller pot and lifted a lot of it out of the soil it IS a bit special and is NOT for sale, sorry 🙂 Chances are this will make a nice video project in a years time. Watch this space.
G.
Oct 12, 2016 | General
The excellent Heathrow Bonsai Show is coming up again soon. Once again we will be there with lots of goodies. We already have a lot of orders we will be bringing so if there is something you would like us to bring along please let us know in good time so we can prepare what you need. Please don’t call us the day before because we will be packed and ready by then.
G.
Aug 26, 2016 | General
Here at Kaizen Bonsai we are a family business, on occasions there are three generations of us beavering away here. However we also have a much extended family of wonderful customers who have become great friends and a few become much more than that. I now have just one friend who is outside of bonsai, every single other person I know is involved with bonsai somehow or other. Bonsai folk share so much in common in terms of their views of the world and their respect of the world around us. There are some guys I have worked with and that have been so much a part of my life now for so many years that I consider them family.
One such ‘Brother in Arms’ has recently fallen on hard times, very hard times! My good friend D. needs our help and has requested I ask you all if possible to step in. D. has been a great supported of ours for many years now and we have shared some wonderful long days working together with bonsai. A more kind, gentle and generous man does not exist and It’s bringing a tear to my eye just writing this, life can be very cruel at times.
Our good friend has a small collection of quality trees he needs to sell quickly. We have had them listed on the site for a while now with prices we think are fair for the quality. However we now need to move the remaining trees quickly and so are offering the chance for y’all to send us your BEST OFFERS. Please don’t be shy but do have a little respect!
Links below with specific details of each tree.
Please contact me by email or telephone 01493 781834 if you would like to make an offer.
Thanks for your consideration and support.
G.
P.S Mostly sold now, now just this available….
Aug 4, 2016 | General
Since the beginning of June I have taken over 1500 pictures of trees that are for sale on the website. Every time it feels like I am coming to the end of the task i find another bunch of stuff that still needs listing. It’s taking me forever and has entirely take over my life, I have two new bikes in the garage I haven’t even ridden yet and one of those arrived in the winter 🙂 I am so busy with trees there has not been a moment to put rubber to asphalt. To say we need to shift some trees is slightly understating the issue, I just don’t know where it all keeps coming from. I know to many folk having that much cool stuff is a dream come true but to quote Tyler Durden… “You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”
Today Ramon and I sorted out a few of the larger trees that have been lounging around here, some of them for years. If you need a hernia we have got jus the tree you need! I will start listing these tomorrow but here are a few piccies to be going on with.
G.
Jul 29, 2016 | General
It’s that time of the year again where we have to clear out some odds and ends. We currently have a few auction listings on Ebay, please go and bid on them we are losing a wedge of cash on these which makes me sad 🙁
G.
