Spotted in the Wild

Thinning a mature satsuki azalea

I was relieved when it was time to clean up the last azalea on the bench. A friend and I had thinned around forty trees over the previous few weeks (thanks Dylan!) but I was still looking forward to seeing how the last…

BC Trees With Knees Are The Bee’s Knees

The story behind The Little Book of Bonsai

Happy New Year! I’d like to kick things off by sharing the story of how The Little Book of Bonsai came to be. Two years ago, I received a note from the gardening editor at Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random…

Developing grafted cork-bark pines

Two years ago I received a note from Pete in Virginia about his work grafting dwarf and cork-bark black pines. He was curious if his grafting was appropriate for bonsai so he sent me some samples to evaluate. I’ve…

Tale Of A Hawthorn Cutting

Bald Cypress Progression

Refining a young root over rock black pine

I’ve been working on a root over rock black pine for the past two years. The tree was created by Eric Schrader ( phutu.com ) and is thirteen years old. Root over rock black pine The basic branches are set, but need…

Harvesting A Hefty Huckleberry

What Lies Beneath – Zag When You Gotta

Cutting back and wiring a young cascade pine

Some of my cascade black pines are almost six years old. Black pine pre-bonsai Now that the basic curves are set, the main focus is to improve the branch structure. I do this by cutting back to two branches per…

The Bonsai You Only Need To Buy (Or Nab) Once

Setting design goals for refining mature bonsai

On Tuesday, I posted an update showing fall work on a cork-bark black pine (see “ Cutback ” for details). Today I’d like to critique the tree and talk about design goals for future development. For reference, here’s the…

Cutback on an old cork-bark black pine

It’s been a year-and-a-half since my last update on an old cork-bark black pine. I didn’t thin the tree last fall so the foliage was extra dense when I brought it into the workshop. Cork-bark black pine The cutback took…

More Collecting, A Couple More Examples

An Early Start On Collecting Season

Ume observations and cutback

I’ve been curious, for the last month or so, if my ume was planning to drop its leaves this winter. Ume with green leaves in December Upon taking a closer look this week, I noticed that the lowest branch had lost all of…

Kokko-En Bonsai Garden of Yasushi Yoshimura

The 2019 7 th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo, sponsored by Steve Zeisel, was a huge success. The bonsai, displays, demonstrations, critique and vendors were all wonderful and well attended. On Saturday afternoon a…

Refining cork oak – initial styling

I’ve been preparing a cork oak for its initial styling for two years now. In winter of 2018, I worked on the roots and planted the tree in its current container. This past February, I reduced the branches that I didn’t…

Swamp Maple #2

More Fall Work – Water-Elm

2019 7th Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo

The Winter Silhouette Bonsai Expo is being held in Kannapolis, North Carolina, near Charlotte, on Saturday and Sunday 7-8, 2109. This special exhibition is held in an elegant venue covered with marble walls and floors…

Thinning shohin Japanese maple

Creating branch ramification on shohin Japanese maples doesn’t happen quickly. After three years of producing short internodes, the tree is now ready for cutback to improve the silhouette and branch structure. (You can…

Pot selection exercise – contorted quince

Now that temperatures have cooled a bit, I’ve started repotting. Sometimes I return trees to the pots they were growing in, and other times I select new containers. Here are eight options I considered for a contorted…

Using Accessory Plantings For Displaying Bonsai

This blog was written to answer a question for a member of the Bonsai Nut Forum who asked about my display comments. I wrote too much for the answer and thought others might find my personal thoughts interesting. Enjoy!…