When bonsai exhibits come around, bonsai enthusiasts love moss. They drive around town with their eyes on gutters and puddles in hopes of finding patches that can be scraped up and used as top dressing for their trees. But when moss grows into pine bark, the story changes. The goal is to find a way […]
Bonsai Care
The bonsai care category includes topics like Watering, Fertilizing, Repotting and Bonsai Soil. You can also find information about the Pests commonly found on bonsai, and read Interviews with bonsai professionals.
When not to work on a white pine
I brought the white pine below to an Akio Kondo workshop this past August. The tree looked much like it does now but the old needles had yet to turn brown. New growth had appeared much like it had the year before, and I had prepared to spend an afternoon wiring the tree. Kondo took […]
Bonsai maintenance
I find mid-summer to late fall to be an interesting time of year in bonsai. It’s a good time for the little tasks – the maintenance work. In cooler seasons, I can bring one or two trees to a workshop that will keep me busy all day. This time of year, I tend to load […]
Brushing branches
I recently learned, a bit late, how to treat black pines that were decandled in fall – see “Fall decandling, year two” for details. After decandling the tree, I took the opportunity to wire it in a workshop with Akio Kondo. After reviewing my wiring, Kondo asked if I had a toothbrush. Too soft, he […]
Witnessed in a recent workshop – grafting follow-up and junipers
You can’t have too many branches on ume – or at least I can’t. Getting ume to ramify has proved difficult for me. I made several grafts this year and fortunately most of them took. See “Ume – cutback and grafting” for details about the grafting process. My job now is to help the scions […]