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
Child Of The Champ – And What’s Wrong With This Picture?
In the fall of 2010, I made a visit to the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is 17 miles from my home, to see the National Champion Bald Cypress. Here's a photo I took of the tree: This massive tree, reputedly the largest of any species east of the Sierra...
This JBP Has Been Abused And Neglected – Can It Take This?
Several years ago I bought 50 Japanese black pine, Pinus thunbergiana, seedlings. I hadn't worked much with pines but wanted to give it another try, and I knew that JBP does very well here in the Deep South. Hence plenty of raw material. I planted about 30-40 of...
Bonsai Design – How To Improve Your Composition
Let's face it, sometimes we'll style and pot a tree and then decide the pot isn't quite right. It happens, despite our best efforts. The good news is, you can always change pots. What's critical, of course, is to get it right the second time if you misfire the...
A Yaupon Bonsai – How To Work Your Design Plan
We've been following the development of this native yaupon holly bonsai, Ilex vomitoria, since I collected the specimen in 2014. At left is a photo of the tree taken on August 24th of that year. You can seen it's had some rudimentary shaping done to the branches and...
Artistry Or Death (The Tree’s, Not Mine, But I Hope We Both Make It)
Earlier this year I decided to make a forest planting of water oaks. It was a noble idea. I had some material and I had the pot, so why not? Here's what I had after some digging, positioning and filling the pot with soil. Not too bad. I know what you're probably...
The Live Oak Made It – Yeah!
Part of my bonsai journey, and perhaps yours as well, has been to try new things from time to time - and sometimes things that don't make a lot of sense when you first undertake them. Take for example "collecting out of season." I think we're all familiar with the...
A Key Bonsai Development Technique For Great Results
As you develop your raw material or bonsai-in-training into masterpieces (or just great specimens), you need to know certain techniques that will give you faster results. Among these are techniques to create or improve trunk and branch taper. Here's a wonderful...
One Year In The Life Of A Yaupon Bonsai
I think one of the best teaching tools we have in bonsai is the progression. Almost like time-lapse photography, it helps us to see the "life story," as it were, of a bonsai. More often than not, we only see bonsai once they've reached a "finished" state - meaning...
How To Make The Most Of August
When we think of great times of the year for bonsai, it's not likely that the month of August comes to mind. No surprise, right? August is (often dangerously) hot. Even if you do some collecting in August, you generally feel like you need a head examination...