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
American Hornbeam Work
Here's my big American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. Six years on, it's developing into a unique and impressive bonsai. The trunk base is 6" and it stands about 28" tall (the apex needs to finish out). You can probably see the two big problems with this tree: one,...
Hawthorn Work And Other Notes
As spring gets cranked up and trees get more active, the pace of bonsai activities ramps up accordingly. Since the hawthorns seem to be waking up first, I decided to do some cleaning and planning for the coming season. This Mayhaw, Crataegus aestivalus, has been in...
Collecting Season Goes Out With A BC Bang
Today officially closed the Winter 2016 collecting season. I needed a few more bald cypresses - it looks like being a banner year for interest in the species - and this time of year is right at the end of viability for collecting them. In fact, most of the ones I...
Bald Cypress Work – 2016 – Part 2
As with most bonsai in development, timing is critical as you move from new collect to recovered specimen and on to initial design steps. With bald cypress, timing is perhaps more critical than with most species since it grows so vigorously once it recovers from...
Winter Collecting Season Nearing An End – Spring’s Coming Early
I've felt for some time now that spring would be coming early this year. Turns out I was right. I had bald cypresses budding a couple of weeks ago, which isn't surprising for trees "remembering" where they came from south of here, but yesterday I noticed that most...
Bald Cypress Work – 2016 – Part 1
Some of you may recall this bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, last reported on in February of 2015. I had previously potted it in this awesome Chuck Iker round, and it was time to do some serious styling. This was the result. Then I encountered a problem during the...
Need More Bench Space
Bonsai South is growing. I already knew it, but it really came home to me when I ran out of bench space last week. I like for all of my trees in pots to be off the ground, even the pre-bonsai that will end up going out as raw material. With last week's bald cypress...
Bald Cypress Bonsai – Natural Companions
When I'm searching for trees to collect, I always look for certain characteristics of the trunks in order to determine if they're worth lifting. While there's definitely a bonsai in each one I collect, I generally don't visualize the finished bonsai in making that...
Bald Cypress Time
Today I was finally able to start the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) collecting season. The weather was cool and dry, meaning ideal; the material was plentiful. In fact, I pretty much stopped collecting when I ran out of charged battery packs - which was for the...