Being able to wire effectively and quickly is a valuable skill for any bonsai grower. Wiring enables us to alter the shape of roots, trunk or branch. Rather than wait many years for a tree to grow into a particular shape using clip and grow technique, wire can be used to instantly alter the appearance of a bonsai tree. Below are 15 tips shared by readers which are sure to help you wire your trees better. Tip #1 "Wire tree starting from the lowest branch and work your way up. Also, when wiring, the branch will twist little by little in the direction of the wiring, one should use the twist of o ..read more

In a competition we ran where the giveaway was one of our Japanese chrome watering wands, we requested followers and customers to submit their top watering tips. To make sure this valuable information did not get lost we turned it into a blog post. In no particular order the following tips are shared with our comments added for further re-enforcement. Tip #1. "I recently purchased an inline water filter as well to stop my nozzle from clogging up from any debris which bypassed my downpipe filters. Handy little addition to watering system." This is a great idea, particularly if you use water fr ..read more

In this blog post Terry Erasmus will demonstrate how you can easily and inexpensively create a group or forest planting. Timing As this blog details the creation of a deciduous forest, the best time of year is spring. This is when the trees are just waking up and buds are swelling. If you start too early then you may deprive the trees of much needed resources they will need in order to grow. If you start too late then you will put a lot more pressure on the now much reduced root systems of the trees to take up moisture needed to keep the leaves sufficiently hydrated. Plant material Any decidu ..read more

Growing your own material for use as bonsai can be extremely rewarding. I've written a number of articles on the subject of field growing and if you have not yet read them I would encourage you to do so now, before continuing with this article. Alternatively you might like to view some videos I have done on the topic on my YouTube channel. This post is applicable to readers who have either developed some material which is now ready for collection, or those who have identified a tree growing in a neighbor's garden or elsewhere that they wish to collect. It is also important to note that the fo ..read more

Background A customer asked me to style this swamp cypress which was part of his collection. I thought I would video and also write about the process I followed to style the tree. The intention and hope is that this might help you to formulate an approach when you have just added a tree to your collection and wish to work on it. The tree before commencing any work Assessment I would advise strongly against just sitting down in front of a new tree and beginning to chop off branches, however tempting it might be to do so. After bringing the tree back to my place it was with me for about 2 weeks ..read more

When creating bonsai trees, scars are almost inevitable. Whenever possible it is best to make these scars to the back of the tree so they cannot be seen. If they are visible from the front, encouraging them to heal over is of course a strategy but sometimes this can be rather challenging for the following reasons: The cut is particularly large. The species of tree has trouble forming callous over the cut. This post presents a simple solution that address both of these but can only be used on species which forms a heavily plated or coarse bark. The subject For demonstration purposes I will us ..read more

I have written a number of blogs on my experiences with growing material for bonsai. You can read them here if you have not done so already. However this post summarizes much of the knowledge I have accumulated to this point, and I also managed to produce a video on the same content to demonstrate many of the techniques I write about. Over the last 17 odd years of field growing I have learnt a lot, and continue to do so. When I started I made many mistakes, fewer so these days, but my hope is that the content below will help you to shortcut at least some of mistakes I made. Tip #1. Rapid devel ..read more

By Cecil and Monique Dunhin Overview In this first part of a series on aquariums, the Dunhin’s introduce the reader to some of the decisions a hobbyist will need to make when getting started. The example below deals with the setting up of a tropical tank. The choices made by the authors are not explained in detail in this part but will be explored in greater depth over the series. The object of this series is to help the reader set up their own tank whether it be a planted, shrimp, tropical or mixed tank. Getting started So you have decided to start a tropical tank. Your first step in a long-t ..read more

The following development tips are intended for enthusiasts growing Japanese black pine from seed for shohin trees. The pines featured in this article are in their 3rd year of growth (in Spring 2021 they will be 4 years old). You may want to read my other blog posts for relevant information. Although some of the advice might be applicable to enthusiasts who wish to grow larger trees I have not written the content from that perspective.  Tip #1. Remove needles only when necessary The more needles you have on a tree the more rapidly the tree will develop. Simple. However as we are growing s ..read more

Please note, the image banner above is not a Tanuki. This is an award winning Taiwanese masterpiece. However it does provide inspiration for the reader. Introduction If you are not familiar with the term, you will of course be wondering what it means so lets get that defined first and go from there. "Tanuki" is a Japanese word which directly translated means "raccoon." What has this to do with bonsai you must be wondering! Actually the explanation is rather humorous. The raccoon is an animal that has featured prominently in Japanese folklore and the arts throughout the centuries. This leg ..read more