Care Guides

Root over Rock is one of Eric's favorite bonsai styles, and at any time he has at least a half-dozen young trees in training with auxiliary soil retention mechanisms in place to...

Follow the progress of a Japanese Black Pine bonsai tree during annual fall clean-up, including pulling needles and wiring. Reduce the density of the needles yearly so that ligh...

After a year of modest growth in a small bonsai container, fall clean-up on Eric's favorite little Kifu Elm includes removing the leaves by hand. Trimming the tree down to a sha...

Zelkova, aka Japanese Gray Bark Elm, is a wonderful, amazingly vigorous tree species. Fast growth in a plant is great for building a bonsai from scratch, but does it become a di...

While many amazing examples of juniper bonsai are created from trees collected from the wild, smaller trees of exceptional quality can be created by careful crafting of juniper ...

Bonsai trees sometimes need a sacrifice branch to create the wood that will give the tree good proportion. Learn how to properly manage a sacrifice branch as you develop your tr...

This case study shows the progress over 5 years of a Japanese Black Pine bonsai through selective decandling and cutback. Inspiration for the design of this tree came from a gre...

One thing that most bonsai enthusiasts find fascinating when they first start to learn about Japanese Black Pine bonsai is that all of their new growth must be cut off in the su...

Mini-bonsai less than 3" in any dimension are called Mame, a word that literally means "bean" in Japanese. When designed well, these trees are not just super-cute; they can also...

April-May is a great time to work on Elm trees. Eric explores formative work on Elm bonsai, using one of his trees as an example. Steps to this tree's development included time ...

Elms can have a good fall clean-up and look nice over the winter, but after a round of healthy spring growth they can start to look overgrown and have dieback in the finer branc...

If you take good care of your bonsai during the short, cold months of Winter, it will reward you in the Spring with strong growth. Timing tasks in the Spring to take advantage o...

Ack!! You found root aphids on your bonsai trees and you need to get rid of them before they sap strength, health, and vitality from your trees! Here are a few tips to treat roo...

Even the most diligent, detail-oriented bonsai enthusiast might find that their plants have become infected with parasitic insects or damaging fungal or bacterial colonization. ...

This article is focused on weeding bonsai and debris removal. In bonsai, the term for cleaning (either your work surface or the top surface of your bonsai tree’s soil) is soji. ...

Welcome to the third article in our seven-part series “Establishing a Mindful Bonsai Practice”. We focus on six key practices that can be incorporated into daily bonsai tasks to...

What is a bonsai tree and how can I keep my bonsai tree healthy? Read this article to discover the history of bonsai trees, understand what is the right bonsai tree for you, and...