One of the most common questions I hear relating to the development of pine bonsai has to do with the lower branches: What should I do with them? The answer is fairly simple – keep them. There are, however, some details that may come in handy. Let’s look at an example. The pine below is […]
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.
Removing air-layers from an old juniper
What do you do with a San Jose juniper that has too many branches? Create some air-layers! At least, that’s what Kenji Miyata did. I acquired a half-dozen junipers from Miyata last year, five of which came with layers in progress. Now that the weather has cooled down, I thought it could be a good […]
Fall cutback on ume bonsai
Here’s a brief update on an ume I’ve been working on since losing the top branches. After letting the tree grow freely through the growing season, now’s a good time for some cutback. Before cutback – side A Before cutback – side B The goal at this point is to develop the basic branch structure. […]
Fall cutback on young Japanese plum bonsai
One of the first bonsai under my care was a Japanese plum. As I really like the way it grows, I decided to make some cuttings a few years ago. Young Japanese plums grown from cuttings The work is simple at this point – remove or wire anything that lacks movement. Young plum with two […]
Finding the center – moving a Western juniper to the middle of the pot
One of the challenges I faced with the Western juniper below was that it had no roots on one side of the trunk. This was natural as the tree got its start when it was separated from its larger sibling. Here it is after a few years of training. Western juniper, 2009 – note how […]