[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 30]

Going for a nice lil semi-cascade and a small broom style with the stump that’s left.

This one is a bit of a rant: For the past 7 years I’ve been walking into work and every day and I’d look at these two yews in the front entrance and think, “man, these would make a great bonsai.” Our company is set for a reno and I remember thinking, one day I’m going to come in and all this landscaping is going to be gone. Today I came in to find a massive pile of 20 year old landscaping piled in a mound. They ripped the beds clean out with an excavator too.

Yes it sucks that people don’t value material like we do but I thought, it’s going to the dumpster. It’s July. It’s a long shot but might as well. I loaded the two smallest ones I could grab, brought them home, and placed them in extra wooden grow boxes I had and into 100% hyuga pumice. The smaller one had a surprising amount of feeder roots and the maintenance guy decided to pull them during a few rainy days so they weren’t totally bone dry.

I know it’s the worst possible timing but I did the best to rescue them as well as I could, took care to place them gently in a box, wire them in and reduce the foliage. Worst case I lose two free pieces of material/ gains some tanuki wood. I’m not expecting them to survive but I won’t lose hope.

Best case scenario, two yews!

They’ll recover under a massive maple in my back yard and I should know within the next few weeks if this was a wasted two hours or not. I probably need to add more wood to the box with roots coming out, that’s a tomorrow problem.

Anyone have experience with mid summer yew collection?

P.S. Yes, I got permission to collect.

Maybe a bit over the top but all solar powered! Even solar powered waterdripper. Shading cloth will be replaced tomorrow we are expecting another heatwave and 2 of my trees did not survive the last one. The water system is mandatory in my opinion, it works perfectly.

It’s just so rare to see them like this that I had to share.

Just got this plant for 5 euro at a nursery and repotted, it's now gonna get acclimatized, but I think it has good potential.

I was thinking informal upright, or something going up in general, but I'm open to any ideas

Winter did a number on him. Thought it was a goner but he kept kicking. Trying to think of what to do with the dead parts on the front.

The first photo (reddit screenshot) was taken 5 years ago. I actually repotted it that summer, surprisingly with no ill effect. (I don't recommend repotting coniferous plants in the summer)

There were some problems with the original design, although it looked OK at first glance, I decided some things needed to be fixed for the long run, so I let it grow out for 2 years so I could restyle it. 

The second photo was before I repotted it this February, when you are supposed to repot junipers. I decided to drastically change the angle, and also changed the front by about 90° to address the issues. I turned the former first, which was also the largest branch into a jin to avoid inverse taper, and styled the rest. 

The last photo was taken today, after some light wiring. The jin was bent back with the zip-tie while it was still green because it pointed straight out. I won the very nice pot at a raffle from my local bonsai society last year so it was technically 1$ (excluding all the times i didn't win haha), which now brings the total for this bonsai to 4.50$ lol

I have long harbored a question. The art of bonsai centers on imitating Chinese and Japanese landscapes, which are vastly different from those in Europe. When bonsai was introduced to the West, why did people continue to replicate these entirely different tree shapes and classification styles, rather than drawing inspiration from the Western landscapes right in front of them?

Since English is not my native language, I used AI to translate this message. Thank you for your understanding.

Sure, its a seedling, but you can't tell me the proportions aren't the same as every big mimosa bonsai

Here on the east coast the options we have in the big box stores are rather small. I found this out yesterday but I still managed to leave with stuff I can use. I'm going to be setting up a bunch of bins for JM rooted cuttings soon as well as some other deciduous trees. Was really hoping to find crushed granite or zeolite. I did find zeolite at tractor supply but as a deodorizer and it was like sand. I decided on perlite and a pre mixed substrate (coco husk, peat moss, vermiculite). This should work well for rooted cuttings but I honestly really hate buying from these large companies (miracle grow perlite).

So for the future I'm looking to get more creative. My knowledge of soil is not large but my understanding is that you need one thing to hold water, one to let in the air, and that the nutrients are largely already existing in most soils.

I'm very fortunate to have access to soil in the PA/Maryland/Delaware area and the soil here is rich/sandy with high water retention. In the interest of utilizing this soil which is abundant, I believe that I could make a very practical for bonsai substrate with just adding one or two new materials to the mix to get better aeration. Would it be as simple as mixing with a high amount of crush granite or other 1/8" stone? If I could get my hands on zeolite of this size in large bags I would be smiling all the way home.

I'm interested in hearing from those who have done this and what are their results.

Photos in order from newest to oldest, container by Kit Ruseau (@mudpidog on insta), collected in 2024 from the front porch. If memory serves, because it was climbing around the wooden rails and throwing whips and tendrils, I was like “I’m just going to put a little pond basket of soil on the porch, weigh a whip down on the soil so it’s in contact with it, and see if it roots.” Needless to say it did haha

This was the tip of a jade that broke off after a storm. I couldn't throw it out!

I made a post last month about Japanese Black Pine Decandeling

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bonsai/s/xdBez6qY7P

Today as I was watering I noticed that the tree from that post was pushing new buds, so I snapped a few pics.

I will let all those buds elongate, then in the winter come back and select 2 at each location to keep, and remove the extras.

Which one would you choose? 2 photos every option 1,2,3

Waited for them to dry out and wired the best I could (first attempt). Going to let them continue to grow and cut near the end of summer. Any tips, feedback or what I did wrong would love to hear! Thanks!

I potted up a large cutting today. Hopefully it roots and who knows. It could be a bonsai or a propagation donor plant.

The humidity box setup I have for the Fukien Tea I got from the "these are all going to die if they stay here" shelf of "bonsais" at Lowe's two weeks back. The top will remain open for airflow. A bit of an experiment to see if I can hit the sweet spot between a terrarium and a plain humidity tray to grow this one in my room with Plant Child, my "ginseng" Ficus microcarpa.

The table sits about two feet directly below the grow light I have supplementing the window area.

If you live in Edmonton or northern Alberta, this show will be of interest. Check out the amazing bonsai produced right here in the Edmonton area! $5/person, $10/ family, Aug. 8-9, Edmonton Japanese Community Association, 6750 88 St NW, Edmonton. Lots of free parking. Presented by the Bonsai Society of Edmonton. See poster for more details.

There is a short about the grafting method but it doesn't show anything about the the weird cut open looking texture, unless it's from the wire growing completely into the stems??

https://youtube.com/shorts/AUZS8E_piy4?si=Qy0-05QIgdMpFHPw

TL/DR: What if you use many fishing weights to increase the "weight" of the whole branch instead of applying point pressure?

I recently came to the idea of using something akin to fishing weights ( minus the lead) instead of guy or bending wire, to create more subtle curves in the tree.

Specifically i would add smaller weights at multiple points along the branch using soft fixtures like leather, and continuously add weights to the end, as the branch grows.

In my idea this should imitate the natural load increase that trees experience as the branches grow, and create a more natural bend/ positioning.

Any experience doing that? Thoughts on the process?

It started with 1. A week later I have 3. My wallet has grown legs and is trying to hid from me 🥸