Maintaining and improving a rock-grown Japanese maple.

Maintaining and improving a rock-grown Japanese maple.
The arakawa maple is one of the most popular trees in the bonsai world. Andrea Meriggioli shows why.
The ultimate root correction work of Masahiko Kimura
The pine called 'Okou no kyosho' is brought back into shape by Master Kunio Kobayashi
A lesson in how to cut more branches for better results
Creating stunning bonsai from garden material
According to Todd, Douglas firs are one of the most unpredictable trees he has worked with.
The mugo pine is an extraordinary example of a yamadori, an impressive trunk with some natural shari and lots of compacted branches on top. A real challenge for Matt and Tyler
Follow Martin Nielsen as he takes a simple tree to a bonsai with character It’s a quite an ordinary tree, a locally collected larch of around 70 cm in height, with a trunk thickness of...
Manuel Germade re-styles an Itoigawa juniper This very compact juniper, grafted with Itoigawa foliage, has grown out of proportion. The shape of the trunk with its deadwood is very attractive. The main task for Manuel...
Massimo Bandera wants to work unhindered by convention For Massimo Bandera bonsai is very much an art form. The bonsai artist should be free from conventions and rules. In the process of creating an extraordinary...
Masahiko Kimura rearranges the foliage around a dancing shari Exploring the artistic sensitivity of Mr Kimura, we take a look at the material he will work on. The transformation is not tremendously dramatic, however the...
François Jeker styles a venerable 500-year-old Buxus ‘When about to style an impressive old Buxus like this, you are so intimidated that you approach it with trembling hands . . . Over the years, though,...
Alexsandre Escudero works on a tiny Itoigawa juniper An average juniper can be changed into something interesting, you just need to have a vision and opt for doing something different to make it less regular....
Jörg Derlien’s all too familiar struggle to find the right pot fit for his larch The larch depicted here, a Larix decidua, was acquired in 2009 and obtained from the Alpine region of Wallis in...
Jan Culek copes with a tree that is almost impossible to style The pine Jan has chosen to work on (Pinus sylvestris) hasn’t the most ideal branch setting and trunk shape. It is a clump...
Instead of compacting and downsizing, David Soto opens and unfolds cramped branches We are used to seeing how branches and trunks are bent to bring the green areas closer to the interior, compress them and...
A very bushy juniper for Mauro Stemberger to style It was January 2020 when I arrived at the small city of Marostica at the foot of the Italian Alps for a demo with Mauro Stemberger....
Andrei Bessonov’s final work as an apprentice to Master Kimura After six years of apprenticeship under Mr Kimura, this is the ‘final test’ for Andrei, with a tree that was obtained specifically for this purpose....
Elsa Boudouri styles a Juniperus sabina rastrera Greek enthusiast Elsa Boudouri is self-taught and became inspired by bonsai when she was 14. She mainly works with native varieties, like the medium-sized sabina juniper. At a...
Manuel Germade deals with a tough case — a Buxus with unbendable branches. Working on a tree that’s long, slender, with a fantastic curling trunk seems like perfect material. But there is just one downside,...
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 […]
Marco Invernizzi reworks a very old mugo pine, which has a story to tell. Marco Invernizzi fell in love with the remarkable shapes of this Italian mugo pine (Pinus mugo). Although already touched by another...
There is almost no material that is completely useless David Soto: ‘My students, often try to mimic the work of great masters. It’s only natural, and if you don’t own one of those very high...
Untangling the dense foliage canopy of a sabina juniper Valentin Brose, former apprentice of Kunio Kobayashi, is a refined artist. The sabina juniper has such a dense canopy that all is hidden away from the...
Making the most of a bad pine Masayuki Fujikawa brings out the hidden character of a white pine (Pinus parviflora) Looking at the four photos below, there is nothing of note that one feels makes...
With almost two branches only, Mauro Stembergercreates one of his best pines Mauro Stemberger’s very full agenda allowed just a tiny opening to work on one of his favourite trees, so he teamed up with...
Garden material can be an interesting source for bonsai. It can also be very challenging because it was not really grown for the purpose. Bruno Wijman checks out a garden yew. The yew (Taxus baccata)...
Enrico Savini twists, bends and turns a sabina into a graceful cascade Enrico’s garden, close to Bologna, Italy, is where he meticulously works on all kinds of ingenious techniques. With these techniques his trees are...