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
I’d Like Your Opinion On This
After posting yesterday's blog, a reader commented that I should include a standard reference object in order to make it easier to gauge the size of certain trees. Here's a photo of the really big two-tree Bald cypress specimen I showed you yesterday: I've never done...
Great Bald Cypress Material – Collecting Trip 2
So, four days ago we had a couple of inches of snow here, and temperatures around 15°F for a couple of nights. Today it was 60°. That could only mean one thing: go collect more Bald cypress! Here's today's haul. I focused on larger specimens today, which means I...
More Collected BC Fun – Hard Chops And Small Stars
I often get questions about chopping the roots of collected trees, and it seems the question most often asked is, “If you chop the roots back that far, will the tree survive?” The short answer, of course, is always, “Yes, it will.” This is from a lot of experience,...
The 2018 Bald Cypress Harvest, Part 1
Once the BC we collect this year start budding, I'll begin sending out advance photos of candidates per your requests. For anyone not currently on our list who would like to be, just send me an email with the size you're looking for and/or budget and I'll add you. ...
Fascinating Facts About 10 Bonsai Species
There's not much growing at this time of year, so I got to pondering some fascinating facts about 10 of the species I grow as bonsai. Here they are, in no particular order. This species produces more trunk buds when collected as bare stumps than just about any other...
The Harvest Is Underway
With the new year only nine days away, and with some time to spare today (after wrapping Cathy's Christmas present), I decided to lift a few trees and get a head-start on the season. Estimated Age: 35-50 years A couple of weeks ago I lifted two huckleberries to see if...
Huckleberry: December 2017
ProgressionI collected this Huckleberry from my property in the winter of 2017-2018. It’s the largest I’ve collected to date, and my interest in it was based on the really nice trunks. I knew that I could cut back to the basics and the tree would respond by...
Getting Ready For 2018
Now that winter has set in, it's time to begin working on the 2018 growing season. The "official" collecting season begins on January 1 and goes through about March. Sometimes the weather throws this schedule off, but most of the time it's a reliable 12 weeks during...
Winter Work – Design Evaluation
We tend to hunker down in winter, since our bonsai aren't growing and the weather is often miserable. But that doesn't mean we can't make progress with our bonsai. In fact, once the leaves on our deciduous trees have fallen, we have an ideal opportunity to see the...