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
Roughleaf Dogwood Initial Styling
I collected this Roughleaf dogwood, Cornus drummondii, earlier this year. This photograph, taken in late January, gives you an idea of the quality of the specimen. It looks even better in person! The tree was a little slow in coming out - this shot from March shows...
I Love Progressions – Here’s One
In an ideal world, we'd be able to do time-lapse photography of our bonsai starting with the bare trunk, then progressing through new shoots and first wiring, then sub-branching and unwiring and rewiring and ramification and apical development, all the way to show...
Bonsai Odds & Ends – Attention To Detail
It may seem at times that chaos reigns in bonsai creation, but the fact is everything we actively do requires attention to detail. I'll be the first to admit that I use the "shearing" method of developing bonsai, at those times when it's called for, but I can assure...
Dragon Progression To Date
I love bonsai progressions! I think they're one of the very best learning tools we have, and with the advent of cheap, immediate, high-quality photography it's hard to justify not keeping good records of your trees. A couple of weeks ago I posted a video of the...
A Key Bonsai Care Tip
As a general rule, we become interested in bonsai because we've either seen photographs of fully trained specimens or we've seen them in person at a bonsai show or arboretum. Put another way, we've seen them at their best, trained, trimmed and groomed for...
Gnarly Water-Elm Gets Potted
This water-elm, Planera aquatica, has grown out well since getting its first wiring earlier in the spring. Enough so, in fact, that I had to unwire the new leader a few weeks ago to keep the wire from binding. But you can see how far the leader has extended, so no...
Edible Fig As Bonsai
This is a blog I hadn't really planned to write for a while. One of the species I've been wanting to grow as bonsai forever is edible fig, Ficus carica, also known as common fig. Many of you may grow tropical figs, of which there are seemingly countless species. ...
More Fun With Small Bonsai
As I wrote yesterday, creating small bonsai is not as easy as you might think it would be. So much has to happen in such a short distance - literally, since these trees are under 12" tall - that design skill becomes critical. This begins when you select a tree to...
Small Bonsai – Not As Easy As You Think
You may be like me and become enthralled by very large bonsai that are designed well. There's something about the big ones! But if you've spent any time working with smaller trees, you've no doubt come to understand that just because they're small doesn't mean...