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
A Huckleberry Bonsai For 2020
So it's time for Thanksgiving weekend, and aside from overeating that can only mean bonsai fun for me. I collected this Huckleberry, Vaccinium sp., this past winter. Except for minimal training work, I've just let it grow to get established. With the weather...
Fall Color And Flower Buds – BC And Huckleberry
Here's one of my landscape Bald cypresses that I've grown from seed since 2000. It gets bigger and better each year. Isn't the color just terrific? This one is just starting to put on its bronze for the year. Once the colors start, you've got maybe a week...
Roughleaf Dogwood Styling Work
I recently acquired this Roughleaf dogwood, Cornus drummondii, from a local collector. The great trunk base, taper and movement were what drew me to the tree. The styling is on its way, but there's always more to do. So today I set out to make a few minor...
Fall Color, Pseudo Fall Color, And An Early Hard Freeze
My venerable old Crape myrtle bonsai was challenged this year. After I repotted it in spring, it started to bud out just in time for a good freeze. I mistakenly thought that, since Crapes are quite winter-hardy, the new buds would be likewise. Well, they froze...
Layering To Improve Trunk Base And Rootage – Privet
It's not uncommon to have a less than stellar base or rootage on your bonsai. This Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, is a good example. The tree is nice, for sure, and will be just about fully developed next year after a good start this year, but there's an...
Bonsai Questions That May Have A Yes Answer
Black cherry, Prunus serotina, is very common where I live and probably where you live too. They're lovely trees, too, with dark plated bark and glossy green leaves. The fruit is edible though tart and not very palatable. The wood of larger specimens is prized,...
Quick Design Clinic – Styling A Couple Of Elms
There are some tried and true bonsai design principles. The reason they're tried and true is because they conform to fundamental design principles that are not strictly endemic to bonsai. Balance, proportion, perspective, positive and negative spaces, all of...
First Taste Of Fall – And A Few Water-Elms For Next Year
I love forest and group plantings. They come in several different forms: actual "forests" of multiple specimens of trees, rafts, multi-trunk groups, and so-called clump-style. It's hard to beat a well-executed bonsai forest. In this year's Water-elm collecting...
In Bonsai, Time Is (Almost) Everything
I write and talk about it frequently. Making bonsai is, aside from the obvious horticultural and design aspects, mostly about time. Trees may grow fast, but they only grow so fast. With that said, making the best use of the growth cycles of our trees is...