I’d like to write a few articles this season about fall work for pines, in particular needle-pulling and thinning. I’ll start with a simple example. One of my recently acquired pines was very weak last year. When I repotted it for the first time, I found enough healthy roots to make me think the tree […]
Bonsai Development
Bonsai Development posts form the heart of Bonsai Tonight. Learn about varieties like Black Pine, Shimpaku and Japanese Maple, techniques like Decandling and Grafting and Air Layering, and bonsai features like Deadwood.
Stimulating back buds on Japanese black pine
Earlier this week, we looked at the three basic types of buds found on black pine bonsai. Here’s what we can do to stimulate each. As terminal buds develop without prompting, we don’t need to do anything to encourage them. They’re the buds at the end of every living branch. To demonstrate techniques for stimulating […]
Carving tips for beginners
A member of the Bonsai Society of San Francisco, Samuel Tan, has taken an interest in juniper bonsai – especially deadwood work. Although relatively new to bonsai, Sam has picked up good tips from books like François Jeker’s Bonsai Deadwood and Cheng Cheng-Kung’s Bonsai Shari SiDiao. I was curious what information Sam had found most […]
When to graft and when to bend: evaluating branch structure
Since repotting a neglected San Jose juniper last fall, I’ve been thinking about the tree’s options for future development. The main question is whether to work with the existing branches or graft new branches. San Jose juniper Whenever possible, I like to work with existing branches because it’s much faster to develop a tree by wiring […]
Defoliation follow-up: refining a Korean hornbeam
Two months ago I partially defoliated a mature Korean hornbeam (see “Focus on defoliation” for details). After defoliation – May 2018 I’d been curious about the effect of removing more leaves than normal so I cut about 60-70% of the foliage to see what would happen. Since then, the tree has grown well. New leaves […]