Just landed after a magnificent Australia visit as part of the Bonsai Reshaped event titled “Big & Small”.  The video and photo gallery from the Australian bonsai collection is now ready. The photo gallery can be watched at the photo gallery, and the video is part of the member’s content. Links at the bottom of the page. Bonsai & Penjing The bonsai collection is a blend of native and imported bonsai. Many medium-sized trees are kept in shape by Samuel Thompson and managed by Leigh Taafe. Some trees are donated permanently to the collecting and others are on loan on a three-year co ..read more

Take care of snakes, but enjoy the view. Stunning location in Canberra where the event Bonsai reshaped takes place these days. I have a view from my bonsai garden, but I have to work in some mountains and lakes I can see. We started with workshops today and 2 X 3 hours of intensive classes from beginners to intermediate worked out well, and I hope everyone got what they came for. Friday evening the relaxed demo will take place in this stunning setting. Everyone is very friendly and the relaxed atmosphere fits my approach to life and bonsai so well. It seems like it has been the best-selling b ..read more

Tomorrow I leave for Australia to join up with Marija Hajdic when we arrive down under. This year the Bonsai Reshaped event is held over 4 days April 11-14. Demonstrations workshops and lots of social connections are part of this big Australian event. Because I am away the weekly updates will be different this week. Instead of a weekly video published on Thursdays as usual, I will post various stuff from the event here on the blog and social media. Selected members-only content on top of that. So stay tuned. Don’t worry about my bonsai collection meanwhile. It’s taken very good care of by my ..read more

There are many techniques involved in creating bonsai. Wiring is one of those essentials. Wiring is used to redirect branches and shape these to recreate the image of an old tree. Big or small, wiring is not to be avoided and especially at a young stage wiring branches helps develop the tree. Older trees need more care and less wiring but when needed it must be done carefully to avoid an old branch being harmed. Using guy wires is a very good technique for different situations where you save the tree from stress. For old branches and where it is difficult to apply wire as usual, the guy wire ..read more

Hmmmm…. what pot should I choose? This may be one of the spring questions often asked among bonsai enthusiasts. In this week’s video, I look into exploring the pot choice. Repotting bonsai is also a chance to select maybe a new pot for a tree. Cotoneaster with an old and new pot. There are both aesthetical as well as horticultural aspects of repotting bonsai. In this episode, we look at two different trees. A new tree still in training and needing to be adapted to a smaller pot, and an old Shohin bonsai needed more room for its roots after many years in a tiny pot. https://shohin-europe.co ..read more

I experience some technical issues this week and can’t post as normal today, so I decided to make this week’s video free for everyone to watch. So it isn’t delayed. You can watch it below. This week we continue to dive into repotting bonsai and look at arranging roots and selecting a temporary pot for a Deshojo Japanese maple. Root pruning strategies and how to adapt them to a small Shohin Bonsai container are in focus during this 50-minute instructional video. As soon as the tech repair people have solved the issue at the website the video will be added to the library. Thanks for your patienc ..read more

Wild rose varieties and simple flowering roses are the best for bonsai. The Japanese Eijitsu rose multiflora has many qualities for bonsai and it is an exquisite dwarf variety of Rose. Qualities are a thick woody trunk, and it develops tight internodes (distance between leaves. The small flowers fit well for Shohin bonsai where they form beautiful, tiny orange to reddish-coloured rose hips. Rosa Eijitsu shows simple beautiful flowers in summer, and it is a non-recurring flower even if dead-headed where withered flowers are removed. The limited time of flowering is so much more making it a conc ..read more

As spring all of a sudden jumps on us, we have to act fast. The temperatures this season (again) show how rapid growth can appear after a mild winter. With the risk of cold periods coming back. In these early days, it’s important to have an eye on the bonsai that begins to react and repot before the new buds on the deciduous open too much. Trees respond to higher temperatures in different ways. Some trees are addicted to light mostly and wait for setting leaves despite the higher temperatures. Other trees react most on temperatures and others are a combination of light and temperature changes ..read more

It happens! Spring is just around the corner. Before that, we have the LIVE Q&A as always the last Thursday of the month. This time at the exceptional date February 29. Temperatures are steady and after a storm the other day all trees are back on the benches. They were all set on the ground until the weather behaved again. As spring comes closer the repotting does too. It’s always a fun time when some trees may shift pots and others shift position in the same pot. Small or big changes may happen. Timing is essential for repotting and this we address in this week’s Live Q&A among other ..read more

Arranging the trunks in a bonsai forest after it is planted and established can be tricky without simultaneously repotting the group. However, with anchoring wire and some creative support, it is possible to make some adjustments. In this tutorial, I show different methods of adjusting the inclination and space between trunks in a bonsai forest without taking them out of the pot. Released now and ready to watch on Kisetu-en Shohin Bonsai Online School for members here: https://shohin-europe.com/bonsai-video-studio-2/forest-trunks/ The post Watch video: How to arrange bonsai forest trunks ..read more