Almost a year ago to the day I wrote about a Japanese maple I’d taken on that was ripe for several long-term projects (see Restoring an old Japanese maple). I started on the first, an air-layer, this past weekend at a BIB workshop. Japanese maple I would have layered the tree last year, but I had […]
Bonsai Blog
Search
(Enter search terms and press 'Enter')
Recent Posts
Pine seedlings
[8/16/16 – See the updated and expanded version: How to grow Japanese black pine from seed] I planted pine seeds again this year – black and red. The seeds came from Shikoku, Japan. It’s legal to import pine seeds – permits are available from the USDA – and the process is surprisingly simple. Once I got […]
Shimpaku cuttings
A few months back I grabbed an armful of juniper branches from the green recycling bin at a Bay Island Bonsai workshop. I’d found both kishu and itoigawa shimapku branches and figured I could use them to make cuttings for grafting roots or branches. Although I’d made cuttings many times before, I wasn’t sure about what […]
Bonsai pests!
If you had asked me, two weeks ago, if my bonsai were healthy and insect free, I would have said yes. At a glance, they all looked great. Looking closer, however, I discovered that one of my pines looked dirty. Some dirt on the needles – this must mean… Aphids! Aphids are most commonly found […]
Bonsai fertilizer – follow-up
Last month I began using tea bags filled with fertilizer to feed my bonsai. Unfortunately, it only took a few days for me to realize that this technique didn’t work well as implemented. The bags started disappearing immediately. Critters tore through some of the bags and carried others away completely, leaving behind the toothpicks that […]