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
Styling A Nice Little Parsley Hawthorn, And A Great One For Me
I was able to collect a few Parsley hawthorns, Crataegus marshallii, this winter. Here's one of the "sticks" that I brought home. Though it was by no means a big one, I was nevertheless excited to find this one because of this very nice trunk movement. Sometimes...
Starting A Sweetgum Bonsai: Helping A BC Get A Little Better
I've been growing this little Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, for three or four years now. The trunk was pretty straight, so I figured it would work better as a broom-form tree and chopped most of the trunk off. There were a couple of shoots growing close to...
Here’s A Pretty Reliable Bonsai Tip You’ll Need Someday
You may recall the hard-pruning I did to Allen's Crape Myrtle back in February when I also repotted the tree. At that time, I pointed out that there was a branch up near the crown of the tree that had grown so heavy it was as thick as the trunk itself. ...
Don’t You Love Spring Growth? And Check Out A Blueberry Bonsai-To-Be
It's just the best time of year for bonsai, spring. Everything is putting on a fresh set of growth, meaning opportunities for the bonsai artist to make his or her trees better. No matter if you're styling or restyling or refining, these next four to eight weeks are...
A Couple Of Oaks On The Way, And A Nice Live Oak Bonsai
Back in January I posted a blog about this Live oak, Quercus virginiana. Chop, lift, pot. A nice Live oak bonsai in the making. A good client of mine thought it would make a nice tree to get some styling practice on, so it got a future home pretty quickly. ...
Now For Something Way Out There – A Sycamore Bonsai
I posted a blog back in January which featured this tree, a Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). No one grows Sycamores for bonsai, because their leaves are quite large and the internodal distance daunting. There is a Sycamore maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, which is...
How To Make A Wonderful Flat-Top Bald Cypress
In my collecting endeavors I often run across trees that I just want to work on myself, and I mean beyond the initial styling I often do on my stock. This is one such tree. And yes, in this first photo it's obviously another one of those sticks I wrote about the...
Is There A Great Design Coming With This Crab?
I'll be the first to admit that "stick-viewing" does not automatically lead one to a great bonsai design. Even armed with time-tested design principles, it certainly can be difficult to see the tree in the stick. Here's a prime example, a Crabapple (Malus species)....
How To Take The Next Step On A BC Forest
This Bald Cypress forest, Taxodium distichum, was left to me by my late bonsai friend Allen Gautreau. He started it in 2010 from seedlings, and in only five years had achieved a mature look from what were very immature trees. Note how aged the bark looks on these...