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
Vines For Bonsai
Vines are not the most common species grown as bonsai in the U.S., but they do make a unique addition to any collection. Their best features are rampant growth and showy flowers - and of course, the fact that they flower readily in container culture. The most common...
The Good, The Not So Good And The Ugly
There are distinct stages in the life of every bonsai. First styling and potting is possibly the purest point of artistic expression in that life. Beginning with a piece of raw stock - and this may be a regular nursery find, a purchased pre-bonsai or even a recently...
Did The Mayhaw Make It?
Okay, would I post this blog if the Mayhaw didn't make it? But seriously, I got an email from a good bonsai friend after I posted the blog admiring my courage in repotting the tree in May. Granted, May is not the ideal time to repot much of anything so it was a...
Water Oak Development
You probably remember this water oak, Quercus nigra, which I first posted last month. I had collected it in Winter 2014 and just let it grow out. As you can see in this first photo, it doesn't look like much. Developing raw stock in the form of "stumps" for bonsai...
Bald Cypress Defoliation And Summer Work
This is the bald cypress I've been working on for a couple of years now. If you compare this photo with earlier ones, you'll no doubt conclude the growth has simply exploded this year. This is one reason I just love bald cypress as a bonsai specimen. Nothing much...
Creating A Hornbeam Bonsai
I collected this nice little American hornbeam, Carpinus Caroliniana, this past winter. I liked the movement of the trunk and taper, so I knew I could make a nice believable bonsai out of it. All of the growth of the shoots you see here came from a bare trunk. Some...
Developing A Green Hawthorn
I collected this green hawthorn, Crataegus viridis, back in February. Hawthorns are very easy to collect, with about a 90% success rate. As expected, this one exploded with growth in spring. You'll notice there are two existing branches on this one. I usually...
Willow Oak Update
The saga continues for my awesome willow oak, Quercus phellos. You may remember the tree got its first bonsai pot back in April, which was roughly four years after I'd collected it. The tree had not yet budded out for spring, so I was anxiously waiting to see what...
Bonsai Odds & Ends
Spring is just about over, and that means certain bonsai chores need doing. It's a pretty sure bet that a lot of wire applied in winter-spring is cutting in about now, so going around removing wire is a task that tends to occupy a part of your time over the course of...