BDS

Few trees in my garden better demonstrate the use of sacrifice branches than the pine below. Black pine – six-years-old from seedling-cutting The large branch that grows up and to the right is the sacrifice branch. The small tree at the base of this branch is the future bonsai. The future bonsai As I noted […]

One of my fourteen-year-old pines is a lot bigger than the others. Beyond some selective pruning the last few years, I’ve mostly let the tree grow freely. This year, it’s time to select a branch to continue the trunk line. Why this year? After looking at the options for the future front of the tree […]

The basic idea of sacrifice branches is a simple one: develop sacrifice branches in order to thicken the trunk and then remove them when the trunk reaches the desired thickness. The application of this idea is where things can get tricky, so let’s start with a simple example. My goal for the pine below has […]

There’s a lot to try to keep in mind when shopping for field grown material. It can be easy to focus on the lower part of the trunk and think, “This looks nice, I can fix the rest later.” The fix may not, however, always come easily. At a glance, the pine below has a […]

One of the most common questions I hear relating to the development of pine bonsai has to do with the lower branches: What should I do with them? The answer is fairly simple – keep them. There are, however, some details that may come in handy. Let’s look at an example. The pine below is […]