Bonsai

Wiring Made Easier: Preparation

Wiring is the practice of wrapping aluminum or copper wire around the bonsai trunk or branches to shape the tree. Training bonsai is never easy, but it can be made easier by proper preparation and execution. Here are some basic guidelines.

Wiring Made Easier: Execution

Unusual Styles

Beyond the basic styles of bonsai tree art, there are many wonderful variations. The individual aesthetic that each artist brings to the work allows for an infinite variety of forms....

Tools For A Lifetime: The Essentials

Bonsai is in a way like photography - it is possible to buy dozens of expensive 'add-ons' to the basic equipment. Some of these are helpful, others merely give you the feeling that 'Gee, I'm really an artist'. Tools do not make the artist - the artist uses tools....

Tools For A Lifetime: Helpful Add-Ons

The History of a Living Art

The craft of shaping miniature trees in a small pot first arose over a thousand years ago in China, where it was known as pun-sai....

The Basics: Soil, Part II

Beyond the need for good water retention and good drainage, soils have to supply all the nutrients trees can't get from the air or produce internally using sunlight for energy. Also, how much water retention is needed and specifically what kind and amount of nutrients will vary somewhat from species to species....

The Basics: Soil, Part I

First, a little ultra-simple plant biology. Plants maintain themselves and grow by taking in and processing nutrients, just as animals do. But the obvious difference is that (with few exceptions) plants can't go get them, it has to come to them. One major portion of their needs is met when they absorb sunlight and take oxygen from the air. The rest must come from the soil....

The Basic Styles, Part III

Kengai (Cascade) The cascade style is among the more beautiful and desired, but also more difficult to achieve. The trunk grows down below the level of the container, often twisting as it does so....

The Basic Styles, Part II

Shakan (Slanting) Japanese bonsai artists have developed many intricate and detailed forms of bonsai, in which each element is positioned just so. This is evident in the shakan, or slanting, style....

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