Bonsai Watering Few subjects in bonsai care are as complex as watering. What should be the simplest thing in the world is actually the most complicated. Apprentices in Japan will perform many duties for their first few years before being allowed to water the trees. Incorrect watering practices kill more bonsai than any other factor. [...]

Bonsai Feeding: Nutrients Trees are amazingly self-sufficient. They take in needed elements from the environment without having to move to fetch it as animals do. But that can be a limitation as well, since they are dependent on finding what they need nearby. In the case of most trees, elements leech through the soil and [...]

Adding moss or other living ground cover to your bonsai design can result in a beautiful complement to your tree. Or, it can be a distraction. The goal is to keep the tree at the center of the viewers attention. But that needn’t mean it must be the only thing the audience looks at every [...]

Beyond the basic styles of chokkan (formal upright), shakan (informal upright), kengai (cascade) and so forth there are several that don’t fit neatly into those categories. The divisions are arbitrary to an extent, but like any specialty they evolve over time to help bonsai artists guide and discuss their work. Some of the more common [...]

The Japanese have a word, ‘wa’, that roughly translates to ‘harmony’. It refers to relations between individuals, and man and nature. But it can also refer to the elements comprising a work of art. The art of bonsai uses this concept when coordinating the choice of species and style with the container in which the [...]

Most beginning bonsai artists will purchase a tree at some stage of development and gradually learn to care for it. The novice will graduate later to pruning, wiring and other more advanced practices. At some point in his or her education, the temptation to take on the challenge of growing a bonsai from seed will [...]

Though no bonsai is easy to train or care for, pine is among the easier species. More tolerant to drying, they adapt well to a pot and often require only regular trimming and biannual repotting. In the wild, pine commonly grow to 50 feet or more with trunks that are a foot in diameter and [...]

Maples come in a variety of sub-species, but all of them make beautiful bonsai trees. Slightly more difficult to care for, they are nonetheless greatly in demand by bonsai enthusiasts. Their leafy appearance is attractive, particularly in the fall when they turn to yellow and red, just as do the full-sized maples. Some varieties thrive [...]

Junipers are, along with pine, another of the common species sought by beginning bonsai enthusiasts. And for good reason: it’s a beautiful species that tolerates a wide variety of conditions well. Junipers make an especially good species for the kengai (cascade) style in which the trunk and branches grow out over the pot and below [...]

The goal of most bonsai artists is to emulate nature, while at the same time stylizing it. This effort extends beyond the caring and shaping of the tree itself to every element of the display. That includes ground cover. In far too many bonsai simple moss or rocks are used to complement the tree or [...]