Sold Out of Cotoneaster Seeds
I’ve currently run out of cotoneaster seeds at the bonsai art store. I should be able to get some more in the next week or two.
Bonsai Art is styled as a blog, but it's actually a megasite containing all the info you need for styling bonsai trees.
New articles are added all the time to help you with caring for your little bonsai trees.To find what you are looking for:
There are categories to the right hand side
Links to information pages are on the header bar
You can read through the articles by age by scrolling to the bottom and clicking 'next page'
How Often Should You Prune Your Bonsai?
Pruning is all according to your own tastes. If we are asking how often we should prune your bonsai it can vary from person to person. However, a bonsai cannot be kept looking it’s absolute best at all times. Sometimes it needs a bit of growing time to do what it wants.
Now and again you should let your bonsai grow wild. Not for too long but just long enough to let it do what it wants now and then. You never know, it might open up new styling opportunities afterwards with it’s new branches. If constantly clipped it’s growing pattern can become a bit stagnant and just not bother so much anymore.
Because a bonsai is a living tree, it is constantly getting larger and larger. It is important to think about this when you are pruning that it will not always be the size that you trim it down to. It should be allowed to grow slightly taller and wider each year so as the taper is correct. Otherwise you will end up with a chunky branch which stops abruptly because you are trimming it in the same place year after year.
Autumn Colour Fully in Gear at Westonbirt
Autumn has kicked in with a vengeance and all around the trees are changing colours. There are beautiful sites around where I live with the trees changing to all different colours. I am planning a trip to Westonbirt in the next week or two to check out the sights there. The autumn season at Westonbirt has recently been ranked in the top 30 unmissable sights of the world by the Sunday Times Travel magazine so it’s definitely worth checking out! It is right next to my sisters house and yet shes never visited… Shame on her!
Styling Improvements
I was looking over some old photos of the first trees I tried to style myself and noticed a massive difference! Nearly two years ago I tried having a go at it myself. Before then I just purchased ready made bonsai from the shop and kept them in their original shape. So here it is the first tree I ever tried to style myself…
Try not to laugh too hard.
The one on the left is a Juniper which was about 5 inches tall and thinner than a pencil.. The tree on the right is my most recent design which is a Hinoki Cypress and stands at 23 inches. I realise size isn’t everything but I know that there was a lot of small mistakes I was making at the time that I don’t now. Probably in another 2 years time I’ll be that much better again.
Newly Potted Hinoki Cypress
I got hold of a new pot today and had the difficult decision of which hinoki cypress to place in it. The three that I recently styled in New Cypress Specimens all need potting but for the moment I’ve only got the one pot. It is a 10 inch red dappled ceramic pot which I picked up at the garden centre which looks pretty neat.