Bonsai Files
Welcome to the Bonsai Files! This is where you’ll find information and how-to articles about trees Zach collects and designs.
This Is Either Going To Be Great Or Awful
The seasoned bonsai enthusiast often takes on projects that, at least in the beginning, seem full of promise but later on go a bit sideways. That's another way of saying that trees usually do what they want, and it's not at all unusual for you not to appreciate what...
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Watch Me Wire The Big BC – It’s Progress!
Last week I defoliated this very large Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). Not surprisingly, the tree is already showing new buds. The wiring needed to be done now! Here's the step by step work I did on this tree. When you defoliate any tree, it gives you the...
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How About This Great Progress With A Sweetgum
I lifted this Sweetgum last year and put it in a nursery container to recover and gain strength. It was sluggish for most of last year, but I just fed, watered and otherwise ignored it. As I knew it would, it finally kicked growth into high gear this spring, which...
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Have You Ever Defoliated A BC? Here’s How To Do It
If you grow or plan to grow Bald cypress bonsai, it's vital that you learn an indispensable development technique - defoliation. It may sound challenging at first blush, but it's one of the easiest and most beneficial techniques you'll ever use in growing bonsai....
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A Couple Of Quick Progressions I Like
Bonsai is a pursuit that works best when given enough time. This is fairly obvious once you've studied enough. It's the old trees that have been in training for decades (even centuries) that command our attention. Now, with that said I'm a big proponent of bringing...
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A Terrific American Elm Bonsai-To-Be
I love elm bonsai. Among my favorite elm species to work with is American elm, Ulmus Americana. I found this one almost by accident in early May. Though I would normally prefer to collect American elms in January or February, I thought it would be worth a try to...
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Here’s The Kind Of Progression I Like To See
In the ideal bonsai world we'd collect a tree, watch it bud out and then push nice shoots for us to work with, we'd wire and pot the tree, and it would have developed its complete structure by the end of the first growing season. Ah, if only.... Well, this looks like...
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Do You Know The Best Thing About American Hornbeam For Bonsai?
American hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana, is one of my best deciduous species for bonsai. It has many stellar characteristics as a bonsai subject, including relatively small leaves that reduce in size readily, smooth greenish-gray bark, and the easily recognized...
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Another Cedar Elm Gets Styled
This Cedar elm, Ulmus crassifolia, is now strong enough for an initial styling. I know this because it has undergone its second round of growth following the initial recovery period. Notice in this photo the growing tips of the shoots. There's roots below ground!...
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Bonsai Odds & Ends – Tulip Poplar, Hackberry, And Is This A Catbird Grape?
Everybody knows that you avoid trying to make bonsai out of magnolias. Grandiflora, specifically, with its dinner-plate sized flowers. No, I don't go there, so this isn't going to be about some valiant effort to overcome the species. With that said, this Tulip...
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