Part 1 of 5 Preparing a trident maple for exhibit requires a lot of work. Fortunately, most of this work happens long in advance of the exhibit. Having developed what branches I could this summer, all that remains is a little clean-up and repotting. Root-over-rock trident maple Plucking spent leaves and removing extraneous branches doesn’t […]
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.
Unwanted moss, or, Nomoto’s paradox
Covering bonsai soil with moss is a great technique for indoor exhibits. Covering your bonsai’s bark with moss is almost never a good idea. Moss weakens bark by keeping it moist. For trees on which bark denotes age – Japanese black pine comes to mind – moss can quickly ruin a tree’s appearance. In autumn, […]
Removing old leaves
Some deciduous trees are tidy. The weather gets cold, the leaves drop off. More often, dead leaves stick around, waiting for us to remove them. Which is a good thing. It’s easy for bonsai enthusiasts to pay less attention to their trees in fall. Cooler temperatures slow growth and reduce the need for water and […]
Preparing for winter
I’m lucky – I live in an area that doesn’t get too cold in winter. This makes late fall, winter, and early spring the busiest time of year – a time filled with cutback, needle-plucking, wiring, and repotting. I was thinking, this afternoon, of what I can do to make my pines as vigorous as […]
Of candles and cones
Looking across my benches last week I was struck by the very different speeds at which my pines were opening up. The differences seemed larger than usual this year. And I can’t blame pot size, fertilizer or the weather – not for the most part anyway. The majority of my five-year-old pines had candles and […]