The Bonsai Files
Your free access to general and how-to articles, The Bonsai Files. Detailed and filled with bonsai pictures, Zach shows you step-by-step how he designs bonsai and provides before, during, and after images.
The Bonsai Files
Riverflat Hawthorn Progression
Zach's Personal Collection riverflat hawthornProgression Carousel Riverflat Hawthorn INSTRUCTIONS: The image has an arrow on both the right and left side. Click the arrow on the right ( > ) to go forward and see the next image(s) in the progression. Click...
Picture Day – Hawthorn, Oak, Crape Myrtle
picture day: hawthorn, oak, crape myrtleSneak PeakWe're wonderfully in the depths of spring, with warms days, cool nights and a nice breeze each day. Most everything is responding very well, so I thought it a good time to update photos of three trees in our...
A Little Evening Fun With A Crape Myrtle
I was walking through the benches this evening and this Crape myrtle caught my eye. I started it from a cutting several years ago, and haven't done more than maybe rough-prune it once. Today it called out "make something out of me" as I passed by. So I took...
Bon-science And The Swamp Maple
So I'm probably not the first person to use the term "Bon-science," but on the off-chance I am then I'll cheerfully stake my claim. Swamp maple, or Red maple, or Acer rubrum, or A. rubrum "Drummondii" is a very fine species that grows from South Florida north...
Elm Sunday
Every tree has its own story, and this Cedar elm is no different. We collected it back in 2018. The bark and trunk character were the thing. As with trees of similar size, it got chopped to about 12" and put in this pot. Unlike all but one of its fellow draft...
Dogwood Work And Potting
This Roughleaf dogwood has made the most of its spring growth. Today's the day to take the next step in making this tree into a bonsai. Starting at the bottom, I removed the superfluous shoots in the lower right-hand area in preparation for wiring and...
Maple And Elm Styling Work
So here's an update on one of the Boxelders I'm playing with. It's got a very nice flush of spring growth. Some styling decisions and work need doing at this point in time. No surprise there. But that got me to thinking. Every tree we work on has to have its...
Working On A Couple Of Oaks
Most everything is out now, including oaks. Even Rip van Winkle the Willow oak is finally pushing new growth.I love American beech but hate trying to make bonsai out of them (beech and oaks are cousins, by the way). They have a single flush of growth each year,...
Boxelder Update
I first showed you this Boxelder, Acer negundo, last October. I chopped the trunk low in order to build taper and movement, as the original trunk lacked both. At the time I made some notes to indicate my future plan for the tree. And another reminder, a sketch...