I finally got this bonsai into its forever pot. Japanese Tokoname pot – artist Reiho. Still some work to reduce needle size. Pinus Thunbergeii – Japanese Black Pine Style: Literati Size: Dai, Height: 85cm Date of birth: 1979, First training: 2007 ..read more

Testing the limits on some of my Australian natives. This Callistemon Citrinus was picked up as nursery stock. I chose it because of the nice bend in the first part of the trunk, however, it quickly straightened out to a really ugly vertical section with no bends as all. This left me with two choices, cut the straight section off or try to bend it. I haven’t tested the limits on bending Australian natives, I guess there is only one way to learn. Considerations This was going to be a fairly significant bend that could result is snapping Australian natives are notorious for dropping a branch ..read more

You know something big has occurred when all the major bonsai websites, blogs, Instagram pages and influencers are writing about the same thing. Bonsai Empire has achieved the near impossible and we are all better off for it. I don’t think people will appreciate the importance of this piece of work for some time. Kimura is without a doubt the leading bonsai master in the world, the impact he has had on multiple generations of bonsai artists cannot be argued. Securing Master Kimura for an online bonsai master class course is so significant, in years to come we will be looking back at these rec ..read more

  Bonsai Art by Matt’s Bonsai Blog I wanted to give a quick shout out to Feedspot for including Matt’s Bonsai Blog in their list of Top 75 Bonsai Blogs & Websites to follow in 2020. This is a really nice goto list of some of the best bonsai blogs around and is well worth a look. It’s a real privilege to be included in this list. Thanks to everyone at Feedspot for including Matt’s Bonsai Blog on Feedspot. Check it out here: https://blog.feedspot.com/bonsai_blogs ..read more

I love finding new ways to look at my bonsai. Love this one. Matt ..read more

I’m excited about this one. Bonsai Empire are releasing a master class online bonsai course with Bonsai Master Mr Kimura. I think it would be hard to find someone who has done more for Bonsai   Mr Kimura demonstration 2005 AABC National ConventionMy copy of The Bonsai Art of KIMURA that Mr Kimura signed for meMe with Mr Kimura ..read more

When watering bonsai, the aim is to water in the Goldilocks zone – not too wet, not too dry. Compare watering bonsai it to baking a cake. Your goal shouldn’t be to take a cake out of the oven before its cooked because you’re worried about overcooking it. If you take a cake out of the oven too early because you don’t want to burn it, you’re not going to get a good result. Watering bonsai is similar, your goal shouldn’t be to water the bonsai before it is ready because your worried about it becoming too dry. If you continually water your bonsai too frequently, you’re not going to get a good re ..read more

Here is an information sheet for anyone looking for some advice on watering bonsai. Download PDF – Bonsai Watering Tips For Beginners – MBB 2020 Cheers Matt   ..read more

This is something small but when reading articles written in the northern hemisphere, I always find myself having to count forward or back six months to working out season. A lot of articles talk about the ‘which month’ to complete work on bonsai but they rarely write about the season at the same time. When reading a really in-depth article I find myself constantly working it out. I have created these month and season converters, something small that I find visually helpful when studying seasonal care notes written from the other side of the equator.   ..read more

I was working on my bonsai when I spotted this little guy on a ficus. Couldn’t resist a few photos before moving it on to a safe place well away from any bonsai as I believe they are sap suckers. At first I thought it was a weevil because of the long nose but that didn’t sit right with me because it has no antennae. So after some more investigation I believe it belongs to the Fulgoridae family. The Family Fulgoridae contains the world’s largest and most spectacular plant hoppers. This identification makes much more sense because of the way it was moving. Very typical of a tree hopper. I love ..read more