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Mid-summer can be a great time to work on deciduous bonsai. If you have 2 or 3 months left in the growing season it’s not too late.

On mountaintops the snow can be deep and last into the summer. If branches on trees are brought down they may stay there for months, buried in snow, next to the trunks like bird wings. Some may even be pinned to the ground. Over time, year after year with repeated downward flexing, the wood sets this way. Just like it does when wired. Photo by Jonna Saari.

I drew a lot of inspiration from my visit to Tom Vuong’s bonsai garden. It wasn’t just the trees, but the way he handled them.

This photo is in a retirement home in Wisconsin that I frequent. My mother lives there. The complex is so huge that I often forget which hallway it is on, but when I do find it I stand in front of it as if viewing a painting in a museum.

This week’s tutorial dives into one of the most foundational—and often overlooked—aspects of bonsai artistry: the nebari, or surface roots.

The major season of work on Satsuki azalea is after blooming. Remaining flowers are removed. The ovaries are cut off. And the shoots are selected, shortened, and the leaves reduced to 2, a technique known as fishtail. 

Seeing photos ahead of time didn’t adequately prepare me for the literal wall of bonsai that greets visitors at Peter Macasieb’s garden.

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I think the bold feeling of Ponderosa looks great on big trees. On smaller ones, I’m not so enamored. So for 20 years I’ve explored, like others, grafting Japanese Black Pine onto Ponderosa Pine.

Black pines are one of a number of species that don’t naturally produce balanced growth. These pines are likely to produce strong shoots near the apex or at the ends of lower branches and weaker shoots everywhere else.