Earlier this week, I presented a program on repotting for the East Bay Bonsai Society. We started by covering techniques for securing trees into containers based on the numbers of holes in the pot (see “Securing” for details). Next we looked at the process with a live tree – a dwarf wisteria. After performing the […]
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Thinning a mature satsuki azalea
I was relieved when it was time to clean up the last azalea on the bench. A friend and I had thinned around forty trees over the previous few weeks (thanks Dylan!) but I was still looking forward to seeing how the last tree would turn out. It’s a mature ‘Kozan.’ Satsuki azalea ‘Kozan’ The […]
The story behind The Little Book of Bonsai
Happy New Year! I’d like to kick things off by sharing the story of how The Little Book of Bonsai came to be. Two years ago, I received a note from the gardening editor at Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House in New York. They were interested in publishing a book about […]
Developing grafted cork-bark pines
Two years ago I received a note from Pete in Virginia about his work grafting dwarf and cork-bark black pines. He was curious if his grafting was appropriate for bonsai so he sent me some samples to evaluate. I’ve enjoyed working with these trees and would like to share some notes about each. They are […]
Refining a young root over rock black pine
I’ve been working on a root over rock black pine for the past two years. The tree was created by Eric Schrader (phutu.com) and is thirteen years old. Root over rock black pine The basic branches are set, but need refinement, and the new apex needs to thicken. To improve the branch structure, I thinned […]