Trunks & Trunk Chopping Techniques

I borrowed this mesmerizing ancient black pine trunk from Andy Rutledge’s ‘the bonsai journal.’ Trunk chopping 101 for deciduous trees There’s an excellent article on trunk chopping at Andy Rutledge’s bonsai journal. Andy bills it as trunk chopping for beginners, but I suspect there are experienced bonsai people out there who might also benefit (like me, for example). I’ll just show you an illustration and a little text here, and encourage you to visit Andy’s site to see the whole article (and plenty of other useful stuff). Cutting back to an existing leader Here we have a likely candidate (above). … Continue reading Trunks & Trunk Chopping Techniques

A Simple (& Clever) Grafting Technique

All you need to get started is a good sharp grafting knife and willingness to experiment. An easy way to add a branch The simple technique shown here allows you to keep the roots of the scion until it takes; an obvious advantage. The scion, aka the branch to be, will remain in its pot until it takes. The part you want is the branch growing off the right of the trunk. Notice the slit (notch) to left of that branch.

Some Serious New Bonsai Tools

Here’s some of our new tools (there are more) by Bonsai Aesthetics. From left to right: Rook hook, Extra large branch jack, Extra large branch bender, branch lever, and Large branch jack. Good tools and the price is right A few months ago we introduced some of Robert Steven‘s new line of bonsai tools. Robert is the author of Mission of Transformation and Vision of My Soul, and is one of the world’s most innovative bonsai artists. Like many of us, Robert realized that Japanese tools are gradually being priced out for many people, while Chinese tools are coming up … Continue reading Some Serious New Bonsai Tools