So I’m getting ready for the 2017 bonsai growing season, and that means stocking in my first round of bonsai pots. Now, the world of handmade bonsai pots is an art all to itself. This is not to suggest that there’s anything wrong with inexpensive training pots, of course – I use them myself from time to time. But my preference is to use nice handmade pieces of art to create my bonsai compositions. Art in art, right?

Yesterday I visited Byron Myrick’s studio and came away with 14 pieces. These coupled with the five I had had shipped in by Chuck Iker last week (the first five shown below) gives me a great head-start on my 2017 work. Don’t these two guys create awesome pots? If you prefer potting your own trees and really want to show them to best advantage, you can’t go wrong with either of these top-flight artists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a personal preference for glazed pots, as you can probably tell. Since I grow mostly deciduous trees, the glazed pot is a natural complement – though frankly I’ll use a glazed pot on any species as long as the color works.

Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened with one of these pots and this Hackberry (Celtis laevigata):