June Bonsai Projects
A few projects from the 2025 June Seasonal workshop—with notes on Styrax, Black Pine, Red Maple, a ground-layered Beech, and a magnificent flowering carnivorous plant. Jody and Nick defoliate a Styrax. The Styrax after defoliation. The top is getting strong, as it does every year, but after years of letting the lower shoots grow out, […]
When Do We NOT Make A Concave Pruning Cut?
“Make a concavity when finishing pruning cuts.” This is what we’re taught. And, for most part, it’s not bad advice. We use ball cutters or a chisel to hollow out an area where a branch was. The callus and resulting woundwood that grows over the cut has some meat to it, so a depression makes […]
Review: The Essential Bonsai Book
The latest book by Jonas Dupuich hit the market this spring. It’s a beautiful book that meets this moment of knowledge, in clear language accessible to anyone. Author Jonas Dupuich of the Bonsai Tonight blog and store. The intention and audience here is distinct from Jonas’ first book, The Little Book Of Bonsai, which is […]
Show Highlights From The Australian National Bonsai Convention
Australia’s National Bonsai Convention wrapped up this past weekend. Here’s an overview of the event, a selection of trees from the show, and a few notes from my trip up north to Queensland. The view flying into Canberra, the capitol, where the convention took place. This Australian native, Jelly Bush, Leptospermum polygalifolium, greeted visitors in […]
Visit With Jarryd Bailey In Tasmania
Some of you may remember Jarryd Bailey here on the blog, who came to study at Crataegus Bonsai a few years back. He lives in Tasmania, which is about as far south as you can go before you run out of Eucalypts and are into the pterodroma petrels sailing over the cooling ocean. I’ve been […]
The Story Of David DeGroot’s Black Pine Raft
In typical David DeGroot humility, he says of his Japanese Black Pine raft, “Like many of my trees, it has gone through occasional work or restyling followed by long periods of neglect, so it is much younger in its development than its physical age would suggest.” Many of us could say the same, though we […]
What Does Spruce Pinching Do?
Spruce bonsai are beautiful at any time of year, but in the spring they brighten with masses of light green buds. Here is an Engelmann Spruce that illustrates why we pinch these buds in spring. The Engelmann Spruce growth habit is loose. If we were to just let this spruce grow, the looseness would be […]
Doing It Any Way is Better Than Not Doing It
A few months ago I reacquainted with a friend from college that I’d not spoken with in a couple decades, and we had one of those far-ranging 90-minute chats that didn’t come close to closing the gap. Among the revelations is that he’d been a pilates instructor in New York City for the last 20 […]
Spring Photo Gallery With Notes
To help see asymmetrical planting position in repotting, use a chopstick to find the center of mass for the lower trunk and nebari. The chopstick shows more easily where it is, right or left, in the pot. Then adjust placement. This placement is good for a right flow tree. Japanese Maples at a client’s place. […]
Why Are There So Many Right Flow Trees?
Right flow Japanese Maple. In display the accent piece would be to the right. Luis Vallejo Bonsai Museum, Spain. Left flow Chinese Hackberry. Luis Vallejo Bonsai Museum, Spain. A common comment is, “The majority of my bonsai flow to the right”. Just this week we did an inventory of right vs. left bonsai on the benches […]