field growing

Junipers are some of the most popular bonsai subjects around the world. In South Africa we have somewhat limited access to good material but in this article I will share 5 tips with you that I believe will help you to grow better juniper bonsai trees. From basics such as cuttings to collecting, from creating to shari to selecting a species to work with and much more.

Follow the development of this English Elm bonsai from rooted cutting in a bag, field growing, development and then finally through refinement to exhibition.

In this 2nd of two novel techniques for developing Trident maple bonsai, or any other easy-to-fuse species, I will show you how you can rapidly grow a powerful trunk with dramatic taper in less than 5 years from young material.

In this blog post I will show you how I construct simple wooden boxes which I used to grow collected or yamadori in, as well as to initially grow field grown tree in. For an example I will work on a field grown Cork Bark Chinese Elm; showing you the steps I take on this sort of material.

In this second part of a 2 part series on field growing Celtis sinensis or Hackberry, we will revisit the same trees, 2 years later from when the first blog was written and I will describe and show the steps taken to arrive at the next stage of two of the trees' development.

On a recent trip to Japan I visited two specialist nurseries; one that is well known and has won many awards in Japan for their shohin, and the other is a bonsai professional that specialises in Satsuki Azalea.

Bonsai progressions are always fun to look at. It shows in a few short paragraphs of text and some images, the work and changes a bonsai tree has undergone over a number of years. What makes it fun though is that our art is as much about trees as it is about patience, so seeing all these changes condensed is like pressing fast forward on the remote.

One of the most attractive qualities of deciduous bonsai when sensitively styled is the light and delicate appearance within the visual mass of the canopy. When hidden by a full canopy of leaves this beauty is lost to the viewer, but it's in winter that these species' structure which required many years of pinching, defoliating and wiring is finally revealed.

Using a wooden board you can easily improve the roots, the trunk flare and taper of your bonsai trees. A very simple technique which anyone can do, I will show you how using a Chinese maple bonsai which has been layered.

Field growing is one of the techniques by which you can rapidly attain thick, tapering trunks with which to develop quality bonsai trees. In this blog post we will cover the basics of field growing and how you too can develop some incredible trunks.