News & More

Inspired by some amazing stories of Maples in Japan, Eric has tried his hand at developing more than a few deciduous trees from scratch over the last ten years. What he has to s...

Starting trees from seed is one of our favorite things, and we want to encourage you to give it a try, too! You can pick seeds from a red-leaf Japanese Maple and sow them, and ...

Show prep starts with the decision to show a tree. From there, the focus is on styling the tree - wiring, fine branch setting, and trimming. The next major hurdle is finding an ...

Eric's desire to design his own bonsai stands for his show trees lead him to a woodworking epiphany - some woodworking projects can only be created with hand tools. Learn what i...

Here's a sneak peek into the first Pacific Bonsai Expo, "An Exhibition of Extraordinary Bonsai". We are proud and excited to be co-creators and sponsors of this event with Jonas...

A step-by-step walk through of Eric's design and build of his own bonsai stands, using typical mortise and tenon joints as well as the more intricate and complex joints that hav...

While not a traditional bonsai species, Blue Atlas Cedar seem to be good subjects for bonsai. They have short needles naturally; grow quickly under good conditions; and seem to ...

Among American native pine species, Ponderosa is perhaps the most popular species to collect and train as bonsai. This species grows quickly in the wild but very slowly in bonsa...

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Fall is the ideal time to work on Japanese Black Pines. This article examines three small black pines before and after Eric worked on them, focuse...

Eric uses a little pine as a case study to address his internal debate between "bonsai by subtraction" and growing trees into bonsai via seeds and cuttings. There is a school of...

It’s an emotional blow to lose a bonsai. Even seasoned growers will experience tree death. It's reality; everyone loses bonsai trees. I've had rough experiences, and the thing t...

If you live in an urban environment, maintaining a connection to the natural world may not be as simple as walking out your front door. While city apartments and lofts are a gre...

Tap water is commonly used for drinking, cooking, and bathing. It's generally provided for and regulated by a governmental agency for the purpose of keeping people - not bonsai ...

“The power of imagination makes us infinite” - John Muir. A few weeks ago we published an article, "Finding Bonsai Inspiration in the Central Sierra Nevada Mountains of Californ...

For bonsai enthusiasts and practitioners, the central Sierra Nevada Mountains offer picturesque, interesting, and inspiring tree specimens. This article offers a bit of backgrou...

Just like any bonsai, shohin are created in different styles, with differing trunk sizes and to differing degrees of ramification. What is the standard of quality and/or most de...

Have you ever attended a yamadori-style juniper workshop, where the teacher takes young trees and wires them into crazy shapes? The concept of the workshop is great fun, with on...