Category: Care

Spring

Red alert

A twin trunk becomes an elegant moyogi style.

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Care

The Rock eater

Maintaining and improving a rock-grown Japanese maple.

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Spring

Acid lovers

A guide to the wild flowering shrub

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Spring

The first cut…

Pruning deciduous trees in the spring. A beginners' guide

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Spring

Beginners’ guide to repotting

Early spring is the start of the repotting season. See our guide for what to do and when to do it.

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Care

40 questions about Satsuki answered

Janine Droste has a passion for Satsuki bonsai. Here she gives clear
answers to 40 questions on the subject.

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Spring

A step back to go forward

Maintaining and improving the branching of Japanese elm

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Summer

In the Palmatum of your hand

Leaf reduction helps to protect and to gain more ramification. One important technique to help deciduous trees during the heat of the summer is leaf reduction, or defoliation. This protects the internal branches. Here we...

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Summer

Repot, or not?

When we acquire plants or young tree material, we plant them in pots to let them develop further to allow them to adjust to growing conditions at home. But what do we do when we...

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Spring

A fruitful day

How to pollinate flowering bonsai Under the guidance of Hiroki Miura, Japanese popstar Ayaka Yamamoto tries her luck with fruiting fruit-bearing trees. The fruit of a tree is not always produced when it flowers. If...

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Summer

Growth never stops

Maintenance work on a mountain cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa) During summer you need to deal with the dead leaves formed inside the branches of this very dense-growing conifer. They are removed to prevent ‘stuffiness’. This is...

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Autumn

Talking trees

What can autumn in deciduous trees tell you about the health of your bonsai? ‘The hidden life of trees’, a book by Peter Wohlleben, has transformed our views of the way trees work. For Harry...

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Quercus suber

The Sardinian coastline consists of numerous small beaches embeddedin outstretched tongues of land. No wonder this Italian island is so popular among the tourists. But if you can make the effort to travel inland you...

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Conocarpus

Mike Lane’s story of a buttonwood and his best ever decision. Sixty Seconds. This was all the time I needed to make what would be the most important decision of my life. I had been...

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Spring

Pot-bound

How to repot small trees in spring Yukio Hirose (Yamato-en) guides you through the principle techniques of repotting deciduous bonsai. According to Yukio, ‘In spring you have the chance to give the tree fresh new...

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Melaleuca

Western Australia, a diverse landscape with unique bonsai flora For many years the iconic trees native to Australia were not considered suitable for bonsai, but over time with increased knowledge, understanding, research and a bit […]

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Portulacaria afra

Styling and caring for Portulacaria afra Jerome Kellerhals’ bonsai garden is in sunny Florida, where he mainly works on semi-tropicals. Here he is going to talk of styling and caring for Portulacaria afra, known as […]

Winter

The busiest time

Harry Harrington’s tasks for native bonsai during late autumn With the growing season left long behind, November sees the last of the leaves fall from our deciduous bonsai, as average day temperatures and light levels...

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Adenium

Jerome Kellerhals’ bonsai garden is in sunny Florida, where he mainly works on semi-tropicals. The Ademium, or desert rose, is one of his favourites and, surprisingly, has much to offer as material for bonsai. I […]

Spring

Little to do

During the growing season there is always something to do, even if the bonsai are of a small size. With the guidance of shohin expert, Hiroki Miura (Miura Baijyu-en, Osaka), the Japanese popstar, Ayaka Yamamoto,...

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Actinidia chinensis (Kiwi)

How to create bonsai from cuttings, grafting and other methods with interesting and unusual species. This time it’s the Actinidia arguta, or hardy kiwi, a very rapid grower. A large woody plant of the silver...

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Vitex rotundifolia

Jerome Kellerhals has his bonsai garden in sunny Florida, where he mainly works on semi-tropicals. This time he explains the virtues of the Vitex rotundifolia, which has many varieties. The Vitex rotundifolia contains about 60...

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Summer

The last flush…

Harry Harrington sums up the tasks for late summer and early autumn July in the Northern Hemisphere sees the last flushes of growth in most of the broadleaf and deciduous trees. After the vigorous growth...

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Pyrus pyrifolia

How to create bonsai from cuttings, grafting and other methods with interesting and unusual species. With the help of illustrations we will see how to take a piece of material through to completion The pear...

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Hibiscus

Jerome Kellerhals has his bonsai garden in sunny Florida USA, where he mainly works on semi-tropicals. This time he talks about the many virtues of the sea hibiscus acquired from a special friend. This old-world […]

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Larix

This is a tree whose beauty is legendary, yet it suffers from some neglect as bonsai. There are many species of larch to choose from and available in Europe are Larix decidua, the European larch; […]

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Crataegus

An interesting plant that is either a spreading tree or large shrub. The wild tree has white flowers and red fruit. The distribution is vast spreading from America in the west, through Europe and on […]

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Pithecellobium

Styling and caring a Brazilian raintree Jerome Kellerhals has his bonsai garden in sunny Florida, where he mainly works on semi-tropicals. Here he talks about a special tree he grew from scratch, the Brazilian raintree....

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Shohin

Show time

Spring is the time that many bonsai shows arrive on the scene. Here are some tips to get your trees prepared. With guidance of Hiroki Miura, Japanese popstar, Ayaka Yamamoto, learns how to prepare a...

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Potentilla

Potentilla, a plant that is often overlooked as a ‘serious’ Bonsai because of its shrubby nature. It does however have excellent characteristics for Bonsai, with its interesting bark and fresh yellow flowers. SPECIES Common Name: […]