Sometimes it’s fun to try new things. While I made some videos a few years ago, I’m currently exploring creating content in video format that is a bit more straightforward. For me that means that I can share tips, tricks and thoughts more rapidly than sitting down to write a blog post. For you it means that you just have to listen rather than read. If you have not checked out Bonsaify.com, please do so! We are migrating all the Phutu.com blog posts to that site with updates and revisions to come for some of them soon. Please visit (and Subscribe!) the YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube ..read more

In the December 2020 Zoom-hosted meeting with BSSF and Andrew Robson, I took away one message from Andrew’s presentation that has stuck in my brain.  Andrew covered a lot of great points but this one thing had me thinking again and again.  More on that later. Rewind to March of 2020 when I was cleaning up one of my favorite juniper bonsai – a tree that I have had for many years, first grafted with Kishu foliage on an urban yamadori trunk, then grown out and repeatedly re-styled.  Over the years I have Boon to thank for the initial work, and Matt Reel to thank for a thoughtful re ..read more

Refinement and stock growing are often two entirely separate parts of the bonsai process. Whenever we are working on plants from a young age the aim is to create the best tree possible in the shortest possible time. If you find the opportunity to combine parts of the trunk growing or “building” stage of growing with the refinement stage you will be shaving years off your process. I’ve been working with Kishu juniper for more than 15 years now, initially just with a couple trees that I was developing from whips, and more recently with larger batches of cuttings and a few trees that have been fi ..read more

Since 2003 I’ve been blogging on Phutu.com…albeit sometimes sporadically. In 2019 I started selling a few trees on this site, and many fine folks bought some good trees. (Thank you!) I’m working on growing more trees that I hope to sell to people and I realized during selling trees that the amount of emailing and uncertainty that is generated even with photos posted to the site is problematic. I’m excited to announce that Dory and I have created a new site specifically for selling bonsai: Bonsaify.com. We wanted to use a name for the site that will immediately make you think of bonsai. (Phutu ..read more

I recently worked on this small juniper; it seems to be a cutting grown Kishu juniper (J. chinensis “kishu”.) Kishu has a slightly tighter growth habit with more plump tips than the “Shimpaku” variety, and a bit more coarse than Itoigawa, the preferred variety in much of Japan. I’ve discovered that any of these three varieties can exhibit differing growth characteristics depending on the local climate. You can see images comparing them on Brian Van Fleet’s blog here. Brian is in the Southern US where the climate is hot and humid. Here in San Francisco where the average summer temperature is on ..read more

I like tight proportions on my trees, but with mini-bonsai, aka mame, the challenge can be considerable. At less than 3″ in any dimension, for almost all trees you are pushing the limits of the size of the foliage or leaves. A couple months ago, in late March, I cut all the new growth and some of the old growth off a 4-pack of Chinese Elm mini-bonsai. All of these trees were cuttings taken 18 months ago from overgrown but old branching on a larger bonsai, so they had some character to start with. I decided to cut all the new growth off because the proportions of the trees were simply too loose ..read more

If you follow me on Instagram then you’ve seen my feed of photos – most of them contain a light grey backdrop with a gradient on it and a single tree lit from the left side. I’ve had quite a few people ask how I create these images so here are the basics and a bit of background. I think it was 2008 when my long-time teacher, Boon Manakativipart asked if I would take all the exhibit photos for the annual Bay Island Bonsai show. I was a new-ish member and flattered that I had the opportunity. At the time, I had been friends with a couple full-time studio photographers who enjoyed bonsai for a wh ..read more

It’s no secret that exposed root bonsai can be amazing compositions; there’s something about the wild randomness of the roots and the crazy shapes that is really appealing. Exposed root was on my mind from the first time I picked up an old Kinbon magazine and saw the style in photos of Japanese show trees. While studying with Boon, one of my first trees went from having a slightly odd base to having more exposed roots that had been hidden in the soil. Process The basic process that allows you to expose the roots to air is to create a container that allows the roots to elongate vertic ..read more

As repotting season winds down here in San Francisco (yes, we’re ahead of the rest of the country due to warm winter temps) I’ve seen more than a few root aphids. They seem to mostly attack Japanese black pine in my yard, normally the younger trees that are growing vigorously with sacrifice branches. As I mentioned in my previous post, they were feeding on pines in terra cotta containers more than those in colanders, which on the surface makes little sense since the colanders have so many holes for them to enter through. Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight, who recently published a beginner ..read more

Question: A couple years ago, I asked myself – is growing in colanders/pond baskets superior for Japanese Black Pine destined to be bonsai? Common bonsai knowledge says that the answer is yes, but I’ve seen growers get really good results from other containers. I set out to see what differences I might see between two different types of containers. Experimental setup: Eight Japanese Black pine from the same batch of seeds, started in February of 2016 were transferred in January 2018 into larger growing containers. Four were placed in #8 Japanese terra cotta containers and four were placed ..read more