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
Dragon – A Quick Update
This monster Water-elm, Planera aquatica, named Dragon, has really outdone itself this growing season. Certainly the size of the tree and the growing room it has have contributed to this rampant growth. The shoots are by no means at their ultimate desired thickness,...
Another Cypress Gets Defoliated
We started following the tale of this Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, in early 2015. This is a big cypress with the classic fluting, in this case fluting that runs high on the trunk. These trees really make a statement! ...
Bald Cypress – Help Me Find The Front
Last week I posted the latest work on this Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum. I defoliated and moved it from the growing tub I had it in - because last year it suffered with chlorosis and needed some nursing - back into its wonderful Chuck Iker home. This is the...
A Couple Of Bonsai Updated – The Crape Myrtle Blooms
I promised I'd post an updated photo of this Crape myrtle bonsai, Lagerstroemia indica, when it came into bloom. I love all varieties of Crape myrtle, even the standard purple as in this specimen. There's a challenge in getting your Crape myrtle bonsai to bloom...
Bald Cypress Defoliation, Wiring And Potting
Last year this Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, suffered a bout of chlorosis. This is a condition that isn't predictable or readily explainable - the causes are well enough known, but you can have a single specimen on your benches suffer under the same growing...
Water-Elm Collecting – Summer 2016
There's nothing quite like collecting trees during a heat advisory. This is where it's over 80° at daybreak and only gets worse from there. Alas, this is the time of year when it's best to collect Water-elms (Planera aquatica), so you pretty much have to forge on...
Exposed-Root Style Bonsai
I don't often grow exposed-root style bonsai - also known as neagari to the Japanese - but when I run across a specimen that lends itself to the style it's hard to say no. While you probably wouldn't want a whole bench full of nearagi, one or two can make a cool...
“Two-Fer” Initial Styling
Yesterday I posted some work I did on a nice collected Water-elm, Planera aquatica, that couldn't work as a single bonsai. I basically sliced through the connected root, producing a twin-trunk specimen and a three-trunk raft. Today I did an initial styling on both. ...
What’s Wrong With This Picture – Part 3
What's wrong with this picture? I collected this raft-style Water-elm, Planera aquatica, last October. It's not hard to find both clump-style as well as raft-style Water-elms, since the natural growth habit of the species is to produce basal shoots and grow in a...