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 Dwarf Yaupon Gets Styled
Last year I had the hedge in front of my house taken out. It had been planted when the house was built in 1982, so simple math says this specimen is at least 40 years old. The base is 6" across, and I knew there was bonsai potential when it came out of the...
Fourth Of July Bonsai Odds & Ends – Cedar Elm, BC, Chinzan Azalea
I potted this small Cedar elm earlier this season. It's been growing away, minding its own business. Recently we had a couple of storms and somehow this tree got picked to be blown off the bench. It stayed in the pot and no branches were broken, but the second...
Summer Progress – Cedar Elm, Sweetgum, BC
You've been following along as I've developed this Cedar elm, starting in 2017 when it was first collected. The tree is filling out well, and the ramification is getting tighter with each pruning/pinching. All in all, time and technique are working their magic....
Its’ Shaggy BC Time!
I started working on this Bald cypress last year. It's progressing very well, as you'll see when you compare these photos with the one from last year I included below. We're into summer now, and you can generally count on cypresses to take on a "shaggy"...
See A Fast Water-Elm Evolution ….
Subject: Water-elm Date: 8/4/18 Stage: Big stick in pot Input: Lift, chop, wash, trim, dust, pot, pray Issues: None, if it lives Date: 3/17/19 Stage: Big stick with twiggy shoots Input: Select branches, wire and position branches, remove branches that serve no...
Bonsai Odds & Ends – Hawthorn, Water-Elm, Trumpet Vine
Today I did a one on one workshop with a new bonsai enthusiast. One of the specimens we were worked on was a three-tree Parsley hawthorn composition, very similar to this one. I love bonsai forests. The three-tree planting is the smallest expression of this...
Bonsai Odds & Ends – BC, Sweetgum, Water-Elm
Here's a nice, slender Bald cypress from this year's crop. I had planned from the start to hold the tree and make it into a flat-top style. It's grown out enough now that I can do the initial styling on it. About 20 minutes later, this is what I ended up...
Don’t Take Your Eyes Off A Privet
I lifted this Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, in Winter 2019. Here is it in late March, just pushing new shoots. Here we are, two and a half months later. Privet is very vigorous. You literally can't take your eyes off them for long. Time for a...
Muscadine Redesign
You may remember this Muscadine grape, Vitis rotundifolia, from last summer. It came out of the ground with two trunks, so I planned to make a twin-trunk bonsai out of it. Something of a start. There's a lot of character in the trunk. Major development work...