ACBS 2013 Project-- A Sprawling Landscape Penjing

a penjin with rocks and junipers

by Michael Rusnak
"Penjing" or a landscape planting will be the subject of this coming year's ACBS's club project. The art of penjing has its origins in China, and the root meaning of the word is "tray scenery." There are several kinds of penjing plantings, some involve rocks, land and water features, along with small scale trees, sometimes planted on rocks. According to Wiki, there are"legends dating from at least the 3rd and 4th centuries of Daoist persons said to have had the power to shrink whole landscapes down to small vessel size," and the earliest known drawing "dates from 706 and is found in a wall mural on a corridor leading to the tomb of Prince Zhang Huai" 

Carlton explains the concept

As fascinating and novel as many penjing plannings can be, ACBS's own Carlton Buck has a much grander scheme in mind.  At the October meeting, he laid out a patchwork of eleven separate sketches which he pieced together across a table to form the plan of one expansive composition.   Referring to these sketches, he proposed making 11 separate tray plantings, each to be developed by a club member as an individual planting, and each designed to be a part of the whole.  All eleven sections are conceived in such a way that they will fit together to from a single, sprawling landscape composition.  He proposed that each member would develop and take care of one section. At our club exhibitions, perhaps as early as next summer, the tray plantings would be put together according to the drawings and displayed as a total landscape .

This ambitions project is wide in its scope and novel in conception. It will also require that club members commit to creating an individual penjing that also works within the grander scheme.  The project is unprecedented for our club, and it would take a certain amount of coordination and commitment on the part of several members of the club.

It's also incredibly exciting!

Total plan overview

Portion of landscape plan. Shaded areas indicate land features and open areas near the rocks are water features

The Bending Fun Continues

At the November meeting, more ACBS members brought their pet-flex wrapped and wired black pines in for a workout. But this month there was a big addition from one of our members who came prepared.

Jim had some of his friends at a fabricating shop make him a serious bending tool. It consisted of a steel bar with 4 nuts welded at the business end. This allowed some choice in the spacing for the three bolts that did the work. The tool was considerably longer than the one used by Jeff Carr at the September "Extreme Bending" workshop.. So much so the that the comment was made that it may not be legal in some states. :) They were just kidding though. The thing worked great, and you just couldn't help but to love it. The tool was big and it was mean, but it was just a blast to work with, and we were all tripping over ourselves to try it out. A terrific "cheater bar" of sorts. Archimedes himself would have been proud to see it. What was it he said when he outlined the principals leverage-- "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the world." Well at least a tough branch.

It will be fun to see how these black pine respond and develop in a season or two. More photos of these member projects will be posed in the extreme bending album on our gallery site-- http://picasaweb.google.com/akroncantonbonsai Also, don't forget to check the Virtual Fall show album posted there. We have photos of some of our maples and other deciduous trees there from the past couple of seasons. If you're interested in bonsai and live in the Akron / Canton area join us at on of our monthly meetings. Email us for info at
akroncantonbonsai@gmail.com