Fall and winter are my favorite times to wire black pines. The trees are relatively dormant, the foliage is mature, and I have a long time before spring to get the work done. I can also do this work when I decandle, but I don’t always make the time for it. As a result, I’ve […]
Bonsai Blog
Search
(Enter search terms and press 'Enter')
Recent Posts
Cutback at decandling time
Decandling season is a good time to do cutback on black pines. Although we can’t cut past green needles and expect buds to pop on old wood, we can cut anywhere else as long as there is healthy foliage on the branch. (See “A cutback decandling technique” for details.) Here’s an exposed root black pine […]
Exhibit Books
Almost twenty years ago I made my first exhibit catalog – a retrospective featuring trees from Bay Island Bonsai’s first five exhibits. BIB’s first exhibit book Collecting the images and metadata from five years’ worth of trees was a big undertaking! I remember scanning photos and slides for most of the trees and mixing these […]
Spring cutback on stewartia
It’s been a couple of years since I shared an update about a twin-trunk stewartia in my garden. The basic care for the tree has consisted of cutback to 2-3 leaves on new shoots and leaf pruning in spring followed by light cutback in fall (see “Leaf pruning” for details). I’ve done this for the […]
Review: Mastering Shohin Japanese Black Pine Bonsai
Eric Schrader and the team behind Bonsaify.com released an online course this week titled, “Mastering Shohin Japanese Black Pine Bonsai: A Complete Guide from Seedling to Show Tree.” I reviewed a pre-release version of the course and am happy to report that it’s a great starting point for anyone looking for support in their journey […]