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
How To Be Off And Running For Next Year
That time of year is soon upon us, where our trees are more or less done growing foliage and we need to think about what we have planned for them next year. Bonsai is in large measure a game of patience, but that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't plan ahead. And...
How To Take Advantage Of Benign Neglect
You will inevitably acquire a tree that plods along, refusing to grow when it should and exhibiting no obvious reason why it's lagging behind your others. There are only a few things to be done in such cases: one, you rip it out of the pot and toss it on the compost...
How “Wading Bird” Gets Carved To Make It Look Better
I don't often name my trees but from time to time one comes along that just has to be named. "Wading Bird" the Bald cypress is one of those trees. For a little background, I collected this specimen back in February and placed it directly into this exquisite Chuck...
Cedar Elms Are Awesome – How To Beat Father Time
An old and dear bonsai friend invited me to his parents' place in Texas earlier this year to collect Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia. Cedar elms are native to Texas, north-central Louisiana and southern Arkansas all the way to southwestern Tennessee. They're called...
How To See A Bonsai In Your Material
How often have you sat staring at a pre-bonsai specimen, wondering what the heck to do with it? You're certainly not alone. Even seasoned pros sometimes have to study at length before the design becomes apparent. I always counsel that the trunk of your tree is...
Making The Most Of What Your Trees Give You
No matter where you get your material, there's something about it that makes you bring it home. It could be a killer trunk base, or great taper, or outstanding trunk movement. There's always something. I work mostly with deciduous trees, so the only thing I'm...
Bonsai Forestry – How To Make A Cedar Elm Group Better
I collected these Cedar elms with the idea in mind of making a forest planting with them. I had two pots of them, and figured on being able to make a five-tree forest. Ultimately I decided they were better suited to making two three-tree groups. So I ended...
How To Make Something From A “Lazarus” Tree
Once you've done bonsai long enough you will have killed your share of trees. We won't go into all the causes, but it's pretty much a given that sooner or later you'll lose trees to weather or climate: weather from too much heat and not enough water or from freezing;...
I Continue To Be Amazed – Here’s The Latest
Bonsai stories don't usually develop all that quickly, bonsai being largely a matter of time and what you do here and there along the way. But this one has been something. Here's the Chinese elm I lifted on 7/29, five days later on 8/3, showing buds already. ...