Bonsai Today

Online magazine for Bonsai lovers

Hawthorn

Step by Step

Just Clip and grow?

Hawthorn, or Crataegus, is a great subject for bonsai. Easy growing and very forgiving when mistakes are made. It will send out multiple new shoots, giving you plenty of opportunity to grow new branches.


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Step by Step

Easy does it

Maple, winter hazel and hawthorn are all very easy to grow.


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Technique

Pruned by bacteria?

Using beneficial bacteria for stronger, better ramified and disease-free bonsai.


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Grafting

It has to be perfect

Katsushi Miura (Miura Baijyu-en Osaka) shows us a number of grafting techniques for improving material.


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Styling

Is this worth spending time ?

Prunus spinosa/blackthorn as bonsai Harry Harrington explores the virtues of the blackthorn with its white flowers contrasting beautifully against its dark black bark Prunus spinosa is a tree species native to the UK and Northern Europe and incredibly desirable for bonsai. Wild blackthorn flowers profusely in March/April each year and…...


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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 Harrington it was a real eye opener. This article is based on his understanding of…...


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Shohin

No right or wrong way

Yukio Hirose looks at the many options for displaying medium-sized trees We asked Yukio Hirose (Yamato-en) to create a few different displays using kifu-sized trees (35 cm maximum height), using both deciduous and coniferous species. There is no right or wrong way when displaying trees, it is a manifestation of…...


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Column

My favourite tree

By Tony Tickle with assistance from Banquo. ‘Which is your favourite bonsai?’ is a question I am often asked when I have visitors to my garden. My usual reply of: ‘The one I am currently working on.’ is often greeted with dismay or even disbelief. Surely everyone has a favourite…...


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Autumn

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 of spring months and a pause for midsummer, these last flushes of growth are typically…...


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Shohin

Is crataegus ideal for shohin?

Harumi Ishii (Ueharu-En) will guide you through the techniques of creating shohin from hawthorn Material 1: Japanese hawthorn (large tree) All the branches are focused in the top section of the tree and there are none at all further down the trunk. Initially it was thought to create this in…...


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Tree guide

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 to Asia. The Hawthorn has a striking appearance as an old tree and is often…...


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Column

Trees talk to me

As Clint Eastwood once famously sang in ‘Paint Your Wagon’, ‘I talk to the trees’, I find that trees talk to me and I suspect that they ‘speak’ to many of you, too. Recently, scientists discovered that trees talk to each other, but it seems we all like to talk…...


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Report

Northwest Rendezvous

The Bonsai Society of Portland and Pacific Northwest Bonsai Clubs Association presented the 2018 Northwest Bonsai Rendezvous this month in Milwaukie, Oregon. The event was a big success! Three days of workshops, critiques, and demonstrations made the time fly by. Just steps away, a high quality exhibition featured some of the region’s best…...


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