A woman in my church who works at our thrift store gave me a mail-order
catalog from a nursery called "Heirob Bonsai Nursery" which turned up at
the thrift store. I'm guessing it dates from the early 70's juding from
the fonts, etc. It was located in Livingston Manor, NY which is about
an hour or so north of me. I'd be curious to see who they were or if
anyone on the list knew them. The general information, brief as it is,
accurately describes bonsai and the related arts of saikei and suiseki.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Craig - I was there about 40 years ago. At that time, most of the material
was pre-bonsai. I do think the name is unfortunate - Heirob.
Too much like High-rob.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Cowing"
To:
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 2:27 PM
Subject: [IBC] old bonsai catalog


A woman in my church who works at our thrift store gave me a mail-order
catalog from a nursery called "Heirob Bonsai Nursery" which turned up at
the thrift store. I'm guessing it dates from the early 70's juding from
the fonts, etc. It was located in Livingston Manor, NY which is about
an hour or so north of me. I'd be curious to see who they were or if
anyone on the list knew them. The general information, brief as it is,
accurately describes bonsai and the related arts of saikei and suiseki.

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++


************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Craig and Marty:

Hirob Bonsai Nursery is no longer in business. The owner used to have
fishing cottage in Livingston Manor, NY. They went there for vacations
and while the husband fished, the wife made bonsai on the porch. The
natives liked her trees so they went into business. The name was a
contraction of their two children's names Heidi and Rob.

In the early 1970's, last century, they really went gung ho. They took
four color full page ads in Playboy, the airline magazines and many
others. He even had large billboards on Rt. 17 to catch the people who
visited the are since there are many resorts nearby. They imported most
of their material from Japan and put "different" names on the plants,
although most were Japanese five-needle pines, Pinus parviflora.

My pine teacher and close friend, Joseph Burke, wrote a very
comprehensive article on Pinus parviflora which was published in the
Bonsai Bulletin published by the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York. He
listed numerous pine species which are "related" to Pinus parviflora.
One was Pinus kuntungensis. Well, the printer made a typo and listed P.
kuntungensis and then P. huntungensis. In the next catalog Hirob had P.
huntungensis listed, and at different prices then all the others. I
guess it was quite rare.

When I visited there I asked about the differences between his
specimens of P. kuntungensis and P. huntungensis, as I could not tell
them apart. He said that I know more about them than he does and left
it at that. He continued business for a long time and although he
turned many people off of bonsai, he did get people to spend lots of $$
on bonsai, which is kind of good to make the public aware of their
value.

He sold out to Steve Rosen then moved all his plants to Sarasota to
start up the "Sarastota Bonsai Garden". I think he had a fire and went
out of business again. Steve took classes from me when I was teaching
for Yuji Yoshimura in 1976 in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Then he could make
money so he switched to selling gold. Have not heard from him since.

Sorry this is so long, but you asked...

Bill

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Craig and Marty:

Hirob Bonsai Nursery is no longer in business. The owner used to have
fishing cottage in Livingston Manor, NY. They went there for vacations
and while the husband fished, the wife made bonsai on the porch. The
natives liked her trees so they went into business. The name was a
contraction of their two children's names Heidi and Rob.

In the early 1970's, last century, they really went gung ho. They took
four color full page ads in Playboy, the airline magazines and many
others. He even had large billboards on Rt. 17 to catch the people who
visited the are since there are many resorts nearby. They imported most
of their material from Japan and put "different" names on the plants,
although most were Japanese five-needle pines, Pinus parviflora.

My pine teacher and close friend, Joseph Burke, wrote a very
comprehensive article on Pinus parviflora which was published in the
Bonsai Bulletin published by the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York. He
listed numerous pine species which are "related" to Pinus parviflora.
One was Pinus kuntungensis. Well, the printer made a typo and listed P.
kuntungensis and then P. huntungensis. In the next catalog Hirob had P.
huntungensis listed, and at different prices then all the others. I
guess it was quite rare.

When I visited there I asked about the differences between his
specimens of P. kuntungensis and P. huntungensis, as I could not tell
them apart. He said that I know more about them than he does and left
it at that. He continued business for a long time and although he
turned many people off of bonsai, he did get people to spend lots of $$
on bonsai, which is kind of good to make the public aware of their
value.

He sold out to Steve Rosen then moved all his plants to Sarasota to
start up the "Sarastota Bonsai Garden". I think he had a fire and went
out of business again. Steve took classes from me when I was teaching
for Yuji Yoshimura in 1976 in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Then he could make
money so he switched to selling gold. Have not heard from him since.

Sorry this is so long, but you asked...

Bill

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++

Bill,

Boy the world is small! I bought my first bonsai from Sarasota Bonsai Gardens. It was a white pine. I took my treasure home to South Florida, made a beautiful stand for it in the backyard, and proceeded to watch it die!! I remember that it was the same year Disney World opened in Orlando, and we were driving home from that. They had a large number of white pines and bluemoss cypress. I also remember buying the first Sunset bonsai book and Bonsai with American trees. That tree dying got me started in bonsai, trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Seems like yesterday!!

Best Wishes,
Ed Trout

************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Boon Manakitivipart++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++