What is Akadama? Akadama is a fundamental component of bonsai soil. It is used throughout Japan as a potting medium for both bonsai and general gardening purposes. More and more, it is used around the world in the cultivation of bonsai. The term akadama is Japanese for the words “red” – the color of the […]
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Watching bonsai become bonsai
If you have a lot of bonsai, you might feel like you’re doing assembly line work at certain times of the year. Summer, for those with a number of black pines, is one of those times. When I have a lot of repetitive work, I often line up a group of trees against the workshop wall, start […]
Summer work on black pine
For black pine growers, late spring and early summer offer a lot of opportunity for improving trees. Healthy pine bonsai in the refinement stage are decandled. Depending on needle density after decandling, needles can be thinned and branches removed. If necessary, decandled pines can be wired, too. Like many bonsai techniques, wiring branches is stressful […]
Cutback on Korean hornbeam
The 5th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is just a few months away. The event will be held on September 10th and 11th in Rochester, New York – home to William N. Valavanis, the force responsible for bringing the event to life. As always, there will be demonstrators from around the world, a large vendor area, […]
Decandling a red pine forest bonsai
Although I’ve only posted a handful of explicit bonsai experiments, I tend to think of all bonsai work as experimental. We know what happens when we cut – some amount of foliage is removed from the tree we’re working on. What we don’t know is how exactly the tree will respond. We may have a general idea […]