Bonsai Blog

Part 4 of 5 Once the tree and pot are ready, it’s time to put them together. For starters, the pot gets a drainage layer of pumice. If the pot were much thinner or the climate warmer I might forego this step, but I’ve found my maples do well with it. Pumice drainage layer After […]

Part 3 of 5 I’ve seen it first-hand. Visiting bonsai teachers come to town and whip trees into spectacular shape only to leave the trees’ owners with ticking time-bombs. Until a tree is in outstanding health, it’s a poor candidate for even the most basic bonsai tasks. Great bonsai work requires great health, and great […]

Part 2 of 5 The first task of repotting is removing the tree from the pot. The next step is preparing the pot into which the bonsai will be planted. This year I’m repotting the maple back into the same pot. I usually go out of my way to make a change when I repot, […]

Part 1 of 5 Preparing a trident maple for exhibit requires a lot of work. Fortunately, most of this work happens long in advance of the exhibit. Having developed what branches I could this summer, all that remains is a little clean-up and repotting. Root-over-rock trident maple Plucking spent leaves and removing extraneous branches doesn’t […]