As most of you know, it can be hard to find good material for black pine bonsai outside of Japan. This forces a certain level of creativity. Growing seeds is one good approach. Another is converting landscape trees to bonsai. I recently purchased a couple of black pines developed as landscape trees in the hope […]
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.
Developing young pine bonsai
A number of my black pines are turning eight this year. Some are starting to look like young bonsai. Others simply look young. As none have grown to the size I have in mind for them, the work at this stage is straight forward. I’ve trained the tree below in the exposed root style. This […]
Refining trident maple
I’ve been working to develop the ramification on my trident maple for several years now but the progress has been slow. This year I’m trying something different to see if I can speed up the process. I usually let new shoots run a bit before trimming them and I defoliate the tree 2-4 times a […]
New ficus bonsai
A few weeks ago, I found myself walking away from the Golden State Bonsai Federation’s Mammoth Fundraiser with three new stands and a large ficus. The ficus sported a funny, bulbous trunk and a nice, full silhouette. So I did the natural thing people in bonsai so often do – I removed the bulk of […]
A root over rock maple is born
I see some amazing trees in Bay Island Bonsai workshops. I also see some amazing projects. The root over rock Japanese maple planting below is clearly one of the latter. Root over rock maple planting in training Young maples were planted on a large stone a year or two ago. This year, the tree’s owner […]