Begin Work on the Nebari the First Time You Transplant

This Trident maple (Acer buergerianum) is sporting a rather impressive nebari. Does it look a bit like a clown’s oversized shoe? Or does it suit you just as it is? The original appears in Bonsai Today issue 70 in an article titled “Transplanting to increase the feeling of age,” by Kazunori Kamiya. Continuing our series on nebari. This one is originally from April 2009 (with a few changes today). It was titled, In Search of the Perfect Nebari 3. For some more good how-to nebari tips, take a look at our last post. No matter how you view the nebari … Continue reading Begin Work on the Nebari the First Time You Transplant

Defoliating, Repotting & Other Tricks

This time I took the liberty of cropping and adjusting the contrast just a bit to attempt to better show the details on this remarkable tree. Here’s our original caption: Trident Maple (Kaede) at the Kokufu-ten in 1972. It now lives in Washington D.C. at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. The photo is from Capital Bonsai. It’s still mid-summer semi-vacation time, so I’m taking the easy way out once again. This post originally appeared just over a year ago. Because I’m such a big fan of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum (and Peter Tea’s excellent blog) and because … Continue reading Defoliating, Repotting & Other Tricks

Rock Plantings

This Trident maple root-over-rock is from Bonsai Today issue 24 (a special issue devoted to rock planting). Root-over vs root-on Root-over-rock is where the roots grow over the rock and down into soil below. Root-on-rock is where the roots grow in a soil pocket (or soil pockets) in the rock (see below). A Black pine in the root-on-rock style. The way the tree is growing to the right serves to balance the part of the rock that thrusts out to the left. From Bonsai Today issue 24 (all of the photos in this post are from issue 24). Issue 24, … Continue reading Rock Plantings

Repotting Bonsai Tonight

Sickle time. This photo is from Bonsai Tonight’s first in a series of posts (five total, with numerous excellent photos) on repotting. A clear, simple, thorough series on repotting Jonas Dupuich (Bonsai Tonight) has one of the best visual and written instructions on repotting we’ve seen yet. If you haven’t done a lot of repotting (or even if you have) it will set you straight on details you may be overlooking. Check it out, it’s an excellent series on an excellent site. It starts here with this Trident root-over-rock.