Bay Island Bonsai’s annual exhibit is held in January each year. It’s a great time to show bonsai, but it’s not always the most colorful time of year. At a recent BIB monthly meeting, we worked on a display that included a Japanese black pine and a Japanese maple. In winter, the maple would be […]
Bonsai Blog
Search
(Enter search terms and press 'Enter')
Recent Posts
Repotting a Japanese maple
Back in winter I took a few photographs of an air-layered Japanese maple getting repotted during a Bay Island Bonsai workshop. Combing out the roots – Japanse maple ‘sango kaku’ The new roots are well established. The next step is to get them to fuse while improving the ramification. Jeff, the tree’s owner, kicked off […]
Bonsai fertilizer
I had a strong desire to post the smell of my garden today. I’ve been using more liquid fertilizer than normal this year. The result is that it smells more than normal. Watering can with liquid fertilizer There are many options for fertilizing bonsai, and individual varieties – and sometimes specimens – have specific requirements. […]
Pine seed prep
Seeds, we know, are best planted in Spring. But when is Spring? In northern climes, it’s the season in which snow is replaced by rain. In the San Francisco Bay Area, it means highs of 64 degrees farenheit versus winter highs of 58 F. As is often the case in bonsai, specific dates for seasonal […]
Yaupon holly bonsai
Until recently, I’ve known Yaupon Holly by its less appealing botanical name, Ilex vomitoria. I took it for granted that the tree produced berries that were better left to the birds. Not so – turns out Native Americans made tea known as asi or “black drink” from the Youpon berries that were used in male-only […]