Bonsai is in a way like photography – it is possible to buy dozens of expensive ‘add-ons’ to the basic equipment. Some of these are helpful, others merely give you the feeling that ‘Gee, I’m really an artist’. Tools do not make the artist – the artist uses tools.
But there are tools which are essential [...]

Say ‘art’ and most will think of painting or sculpture. There is a kind of sculpture, though, that takes as its raw material not stone or wood but a living tree. That is the art of bonsai.
From the Japanese word for ‘tree in a tray’, Bonsai is the art and product of shaping trees by [...]

Though no bonsai is easy to train or care for, pine is among the easier species. More tolerant to drying, they adapt well to a pot and often require only regular trimming and biannual repotting.
In the wild, pine commonly grow to 50 feet or more with trunks that are a foot in diameter and larger. [...]

Maples come in a variety of sub-species, but all of them make beautiful bonsai trees. Slightly more difficult to care for, they are nonetheless greatly in demand by bonsai enthusiasts. Their leafy appearance is attractive, particularly in the fall when they turn to yellow and red, just as do the full-sized maples.
Some varieties thrive well [...]

Kengai (Cascade)
The cascade style is among the more beautiful and desired, but also more difficult to achieve. The trunk grows down below the level of the container, often twisting as it does so.
In nature, a tree growing near a cliff subject to heavy snows, avalanches and wind may assume this inverted position. Those forces are [...]

The craft of shaping miniature trees in a small pot first arose over a thousand years ago in China, where it was known as pun-sai.
Even then the variety of individual bonsai was astonishing, as known from ancient drawings. Gnarled, faux-windswept trunks, with sparse leaves to full-flowering miniature blossoming trees dot the historic record.
The Chinese artists [...]

Trees are amazingly self-sufficient. They take in needed elements from the environment without having to move to fetch it as animals do. But that can be a limitation as well, since they are dependent on finding what they need nearby.
In the case of most trees, elements leech through the soil and into contact with the [...]

Few subjects in bonsai care are as complex as watering. What should be the simplest thing in the world is actually the most complicated. Apprentices in Japan will perform many duties for their first few years before being allowed to water the trees. Incorrect watering practices kill more bonsai than any other factor.
Bonsai soil is [...]

Bonsai is in a way like photography – it is possible to buy dozens of expensive ‘add-ons’ to the basic equipment. Some of these are helpful, others merely give you the feeling that ‘Gee, I’m really an artist’. Tools do not make the artist – the artist uses tools.
Though not essential, the following will nonetheless [...]

Beyond the basic styles of chokkan (formal upright), shakan (informal upright), kengai (cascade) and so forth there are several that don’t fit neatly into those categories. The divisions are arbitrary to an extent, but like any specialty they evolve over time to help bonsai artists guide and discuss their work.
Some of the more common advanced [...]