ALOHA! As we refinance and restructure Fuku-Bonsai, there will be major changes especially in this CUSTOM COLLECTION portal section! From the earliest days when we formed Fuku-Bonsai as Hawaii's first certified nursery in 1973, I dreamed of one day being able to offer and ship the highest quality and oldest TRUE INDOOR BONSAI to those who were sincere "bonsai fanatics" like us. Dwarf Schefflera is a unique tropical plant with uncommon horticultural traits that allows it to be trained into more shapes and styles than any other plant grown as bonsai! As seedlings or single stem cuttings, the plant is naturally "apical dominant" and if not pruned early, the trunk is slender and tall with no branches. If the tap root is not removed early, it is difficult to create a heavy buttressing root base. Fuku-Bonsai Dwarf Schefflera are distinctively high-potential because training started very early. TO SEE A RANGE OF DWARF SCHEFFLERA STYLING AND CULTURAL INFORMATION GO TO www.fukubonsai.com/3a3b.html "FUKU-BONSAI MODEL STANDARD PREMIUM POTTED BONSAI" Our small, medium, and large sizes are produced in basic Sumo, Roots, and Hawaiian Dragon styling. The small size may be 3 to 5 years in training. "Sumo" usually have a heavy tapering trunk with some surface root buttresses, with often multiple trunks, low branches, and the start of a rounded crown. "Roots" begin as a Sumo with roots extended. "Hawaiian Dragons" start with a sharp bend near the roots while the tree is still limber. Medium size are older with heavier or more branching. With additional pruning and a few years, the Sumo, Roots, or Dragon styling is more pronounced. Older and larger trees become large size. This "model standard" bonsai are great values to continuing training. If you like the ideal of having the most training opportunities, start with the smallest youngest plants and get several rather than one older larger more expensive bonsai. CUSTOM COLLECTION HAS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONCEPT! Ideally each bonsai should be a unique specimen, but it would be impossible on a large scale and that would make our trees too costly. Our standards are the highest but include some variations. We produce in small batches so plants have gone through multiple trainers. We select just a few plants from several different crops to get more variations. We won't grow thousands to all look alike. But Custom Collection are intentionally produced in small batches and the training is more varied within that small batch. Some are cut back conservatively while others may be cut back very aggressively. When we remove whole sections while restyling older bonsai, we root the larger sections that have a lot of character and they are attractive smaller bonsai as soon as rooted. If these are allowed to grow vigorously for several years, when cut back hard, they produce additional premium stock. Each year as we work on older trees, we are able to save and root complex character cuttings and these will produce exciting future Custom Collection! Custom Collection plants are often allowed to grow without training for several years as this produces dynamic natural character that is far superior to trees that are constantly being trained. If trees are continually being pruned to always be attractive, trunks and branches are slow to thicken. But if you allow sections to grow out and do not cut back hard, you'll never produce dynamic exciting compact trees! As a general rule, at Fuku-Bonsai, if we allowed a branch to grow out 3' long to produce a thickness of a full inch where it was last pruned, we will cut back that 3' long branch to just 1" (or the diameter of the branch). If instead of just 1", you added a 3" long section, you will never have a compact premium bonsai! So cutting back hard and consistently is the key to creating premium bonsai! This concept is ideal to utilize with Dwarf Schefflera as it is possible to root large complex sections.
The above photo shows a high-potential uncommon "Slanting exposed Roots with Hawaiian Dragon styling, that was trained by repeatedly cutting back extremely hard to produce exceptional character in a relatively small size. Up to now, I have not offered to sell such trees and would do the radical training to remove the two large upper growth sections to produce an exceptional exposed root slanting tree. I would then root the two large sections removed to start two future high-potential bonsai! When I began in 1962, bonsai was a secretive cult with a lot of "secrets" with little or no sharing of information. Fuku-Bonsai and Hawaii has been leaders in making information available and we hope to create a TRUE INDOOR BONSAI™ community that shares information. It's no secret that extraordinary bonsai are created from exciting high-potential plants. Over the years we have invited those who want to purchase highest quality plants and willing to pay premium prices to contact me. Many have visited and taken custom workshops here and part of our study groups. High potential trees like the one shown above are being offered to repeat customers who have good horticultural skills and good growing environments. More importantly, they are willing and able to create bonsai and photograph and provide reports to be published on our website in future FBnews articles. If you're reaching this stage and interested in Custom Collection, please email me with a description of what you want to create, the qualities that you want in the plant as to the general styling, the size, and your budget range. Our oldest plants were grown from seeds or cuttings since the certified export bonsai nursery began in 1973 so our oldest are over 40 years in training. Custom Collection Bonsai are our best values and considering the huge amount of skill, time, and effort that have gone into each of these trees, they are really under-priced! Please email me personally if you're interested in any of them and I'll first confirm if a specific bonsai is available or can photograph another specific tree if you'll give me your general styling preference and a budget range. I need to also know that you can handle the tree. If you have not yet grown any of our trees, I would prefer that you grow younger trees for six months or more before considering a custom collection. Better yet, consider joining our study groups! ~~~David W. Fukumoto, president and founder, Fuku-Bonsai (david.f@fukubonsai.com)
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 Most of Fuku-Bonsai's plant inventory is in the active "growing-on" stage in the nursery. We maintain a salable inventory of "model items" that meet or exceed the model written and photo standards that are sold at the same item price. These include four sizes of Hawaiian Lava Plantings. Premium potted bonsai are sold at 4LL8, 7LS8, 9RLS8, and the new 17LS8 series with Sumo, Roots, and Dragon styling in each range. Because these are priced based upon the lower end of each product series, customers receive products that sometimes greatly exceed our written and photo standards. Custom Collection trees are at least 15 years in training with oldest trees from when the certified nursery began in 1973. Only a small percentage of trees available for sale at the Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center are shown on the website. We are continually working on "finishing and refining" older plants in the nursery. As Custom Collection sales display space becomes available, plants in a range of prices are placed into the Custom Collection display. But we don't usually photograph them and post them on the website as this is very time consuming. So if you don't see a tree you like, please send an inquiry and specify what you want, the style, size, and your budget. The permanent Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center display and educational exhibit collection is being selected and being reduced to a smaller number will be displayed more effectively and include educational exhibits. So there will be a number of very high quality plants available. These highest quality trees have higher prices and some have appearing in national and international bonsai magazines. NOTE: The two photos above show our former sales greenhouse that was starting to be packed with Custom Collection available for purchase. Unfortunately the entire greenhouse and inventory was washed away in the 2018 Hurricane Lane flash-flood! WHAT IS THE COMMON SENSE WAY TO PURCHASE HIGH QUALITY BONSAI? Think about it. How do you create a bonsai nursery selling old, mature, highest quality bonsai? When I began, bonsai books said that only one plant in 1,000 trees had the potential to become a good bonsai. So from the start, I followed the strategy of growing thousands so I would eventually have a few good bonsai. I've come to the conclusion that the books were wrong and simply growing quantity for many years only assures having quantities of old poor quality plants! If you intend to purchase an expensive tree, you really should know the grower, have his or her contact information, and a commitment for long-term assistance. There really can be no guarantees; but if you can't even contact the person who grew it, you are accepting an extraordinary amount of risk! Growing any bonsai requires skill and discipline. If a buyer runs into problems, the person most able to assist is the person who grew the bonsai! So the original grower is your long-term lifeline and contact should be established before you consider any purchase. Use common sense! Our True Indoor Bonsai have the greatest adjustment abilities. Trees grown in Hawaii at Fuku-Bonsai have grown successfully in all parts of the United States. We'll help and am just an email away! CONCLUSION As interest in our Advanced Workshops increased, the demonstration plantings increased our Custom Collection inventory. The writing of articles for our monthly email newsletter also increases the Custom Collection inventory. As we continue to research, we are creating new designs and styling including taller rock-planted and epiphytic bonsai to be offered in the future. These older mature True Indoor Bonsai require the same growing conditions and care as Fuku-Bonsai's Hawaiian Lava Plantings and Premium Potted Bonsai. So if you have not had problems growing our houseplant bonsai, you'll likely be equally successful growing our Custom Collection! Here's a general introduction of what is available and the price ranges. Please check out the specific descriptions and email if there are questions or if you have a specific styling and price in mind.
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SUMO! Mid-level These in 17"x12"x2" oval plastic pots are about 12 to 16 years in training. We place greatest emphasis on creating the roots, trunks, and major branches and at mid-level, the basic branches are well positioned and roots, trunks and branches are heavier and secondary branches are more established. Priced from $1.000 and up + shipping.
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SUMO! Mature Those in 17"x12"x2" oval plastic pots that are 20 or more years in training and are priced from $1,500 and up + shipping. Older larger plants are in 25"x15"x2" rectangle plastic bonsai pots and in the $5,000 and up + shipping. Older specimen "Rainforest Banyans" with free-falling aerial roots are premium priced and may be in larger 28" fiberglass oval trays.
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| "SUMO" has been our oldest styling concept as these were trained for incorporation into our popular Hawaiian Lava Plantings. Initially we could only train medium and large sizes and plants were already pre-trained when rock planted. The plants in this styling concept are upright banyan shapes with heavy surface roots, a buttressing trunk base, multiple trunks, and strong lower branches. *** Go to SUMO CUSTOM COLLECTION (Individual photos and prices)
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ROOTS! Mid-level These are all in 17"x12"x2" oval plastic pots that are about 12 to 16 years in training. We place greatest emphasis on creating the roots, trunks, and major branches and at mid-level, the basic branches are well positioned and roots, trunks and branches are heavier and secondary branches are more established. Priced between $750 to $1,500 + shipping.
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ROOTS! Mature Those in 17"x12"x2" oval plastic pots that are 16 or more years in training and are priced from $2,000 to $5,000 and up + shipping. Older larger plants are in 25"x15"x2" rectangle plastic bonsai pots.
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| "ROOTS" is our second oldest styling concept and has become our most popular. We believe we can grow these more successfully due to our ideal climate as it is more difficult to get heavier root development when growing indoors in cooler climates. In nature, a bird may eat the fruit and it passes through and emerges as a "fertilizer-encased-seed." "Roots" are an interpretation of trees that develop when these seeds germinate and grow as epiphytes high in the tree. As roots grow down and take root in the ground, it may strangle the host tree which dies and rots away and a tall crown develops atop long exposed roots. This styling is especially attractive indoors as the roots are very attractively displayed. *** Go to ROOTS CUSTOM COLLECTION (individually photoed and priced)
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HAWAIIAN DRAGONS! Entry-level (17LS8-D) "HAWAIIAN DRAGONS" are our newest and most innovative styling concept! There's just a limited supply. *** Go to HAWAIIAN DRAGONS CUSTOM COLLECTION (individually photoed and priced) |
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ROOT-OVER-ROCK These are all in 17"x12"x2" oval plastic pots. They are in a wider range, generally older and higher priced. Initially roots covered much of the rock. Later as we improved, we learned to position the roots more effectively and banyan-like with more of the rock showing. |
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"ROOT-OVER-ROCK" are our newest CUSTOM COLLECTION category and they are produced in very limited quantities! *** Go to ROOT-OVER-ROCK CUSTOM COLLECTION (individually photoed and priced)
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Custom Collection are all one of a kind and the photos above give you an idea of the price and styling range. If you go through the various Custom Collection and don't see what you want, please email me with a description and price range and I'll check the inventory that was not photographed. It is likely that if I find one that fits your specifications and work on it, it would not be ready for shipping right away. ~~~David (david.f@fukubonsai.com)
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