Harry Harrington recovers a crab apple (Malus sylvestris) raft bonsai with a new design. I think many of us, as bonsai enthusiasts, will be familiar with the phrase ‘a bonsai is never finished’. However, I...

Harry Harrington recovers a crab apple (Malus sylvestris) raft bonsai with a new design. I think many of us, as bonsai enthusiasts, will be familiar with the phrase ‘a bonsai is never finished’. However, I...
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...
An exploration of Premna, one of bonsai’s biggest tropical stars Premna is a genus of tropical and sub-tropical species native to southeast Asia, Africa, and some islands of the Pacific Basin. It is extremely popular...
Orihime and Maihime are two maple varieties with very tiny leaves With the discovery of a very small-leafed variety comes a new chapter for the maple bonsai. Mr Katsumi Komiya (Shofu-en) guides you through the...
The problem of poor roots on a pine can be solved Can you improve the root base of a pine, just as you can with deciduous trees? A good question, so it seems a good...
Styling and caring for 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...
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...
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...
Martin Nielsen tells his story of the broom style The broom style or whatever you would like to call it – maybe ‘Hokidachi’, as the Japanese say, even ‘mop top’. It is up to you...
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...
Simple adjustments can make a big difference Kenichi Suzuki (Onari-en) is very much into shohin-size bonsai. With simple material he demonstrates how you can change the design by adjusting the planting angle, or the pot....
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...
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...
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...
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;...
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...
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....
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:...
This is one of the most popular of the Asian pines for bonsai work and garden use. The two species of the white pine commonly seen as imported bonsai in the west are: Pinus Parviflora...
Cotoneaster is a familiar plant, which can be found in almost every garden. It has all the plus points: small leaves, tiny flowers and berries, and it grows quite rapidly compared with other species. When...
JAPANESE ELM Being a rapid and very vigorous grower makes it possible to have quick results with Zelkova. The downside is that the elm can overgrow very quickly and so it needs regular pruning and...
Bonsai material so large it needs to be lifted by crane, yet that doesn’t mean it has no character. The deadwood and trunk have superb movement and the skeleton of the branch structure has had...
Why do we fertilise and with what? Where do we place fertiliser and what is the most effective NPK mix available? What other methods can we use? It is not simply a case of placing […]
Spring time is rush hour for repotting your bonsai, but choosing the right pot cannot be hurried. Spring arrives and it is the ideal time to repot your bonsai. Mostly it’s necessary, but it is...
Spring tasks for native deciduous bonsai Repotting is the primary focus for bonsai enthusiasts during spring. However, there are a number of other tasks, often forgotten, that are worth carrying out at this time of...
Boxwood Its botanic name Buxus comes from the Greek word puksos, meaning ‘dense’, because of its very hard wood, which is second only to ebony as the hardest wood of all. Because of this feature,...
The development of a Buxus sempervirens According to Marco Giannini trees develop into bonsai via a careful balance of technique and time. Respect for the original habitat where the tree once lived will make it...
Creating a moyogi with a small pine Under guidance of Hiroki Miura (Miura Baijyu-en) Ayaka Yamamoto, lead singer of the Japanese girl band NMB48, works on creating a small black pine in the informal upright...
Repotting your bonsai is rather like a health check The trees of Hiroshi Takeyama, the head of Fuyo-en bonsai nursery, have a distinctive character and elegance. He is renowned for his conscientious and thorough work,...