[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 29]

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

Some things I wanted to show off! Lmk what y’all think!

Never had an Azalea and don’t really have any flowering trees, so I grabbed it bc I wanted to play around with it. Trunk is okay, waiting for the back bud after the cut back.

Plan to cut back further in late winter.

(US Only)
Greetings all!

Thank you all for the strong reception with JBPs last week. Over 100 trees shipped out to you all yesterday. (By the way, we still have availability on JBPs and Hinokis).

Ume (prunus mume) is Japanese flowering apricot and it can create gorgeous bonsai because it flowers in winter time, and as it tolerates deadwood well for a deciduous, you can really establish a convincing appearance of age.

However, the species is extremely hard to come by ungrafted in the US. Even seedlings are hard to find. So I’m very excited to be able to offer ungrafted specimens of the Kobai cultivar. Also, these flowered this year, so you won’t have to wait for them to mature!

I have ume in two sizes: 2G and 5G. Pics #3 and #4 represent the 2G size and pic #5 shows a chopped 5G. Their calipers correspond roughly to about 3/4” to 1”.

Pricing:
- 2 gallon - $45
- 5 gallon - $80

As ususal, you can DM me here, or drop me an email at [email protected]. If you’d like references, feel free to ask.

Thanks for looking!

Absolutely in love with my newly acquired Penjing piece I got a few days ago!

Finally got a proper outdoor base under it and what a difference that has made.

If you look closely, some wildlife has also moved in! Haha

Hope you all enjoy!

Cheers!

I collected this Lonicera in Feb 25 thinking it was one very thick shrub. After having time to look at it properly once collected I'm pretty sure it's a bunch of separate Lonicera fussed together, likely due to the fact it was collected from an estate which prioritised speed over cars for this type of bush.

That leads me to my question. Some of these separate plants are long dead and started to rot. I have carved away much of the pithy wood leaving the "live veins" uncarved. These are pretty deep already and still have a bit more pithy wood to go and I don't want them to be wells for rain etc. Do I need to clear absolutely all of it to prevent spread? TIA

Pic 1: Jan 25 when I decided I wanted it Vs today

Pic 2: before and after carving at the rear. The middle notch is very solid just ugly.

Pic 3: Another dead section that is very deep so I had to add the split following natural lines.

Pic 4: top down view of another deep hollow at the front section of the tree.

Went out of town for a week. I thought it'd be fine since it wasn't in an overly restrictive pot. It's been a couple of weeks now, I don't think it's coming back

Endemic to Southern Africa. They have smaller leaves than the Portulacaria Afra. Even smaller than Portulacaria Afra 'Lilliput'.

The UV has been extreme so I cut off an old piece of greenhouse tarp for the roof

I finally got a simple water test for my well water that I use for my bonsai and some garden plants. I have no idea if the hardness/alkaline is a problem.

I know a bit about nitrates from a previous deep dive into salt-water aquariums. Basically free feed, but not too much as to burn the roots.

No lead is also good.

I honestly expected more iron, and with the carbonates give me a hint why some of my trees have grown very yellow/white-ish leaves: some minerals are leeched out by the carbonates.

Is there something I am missing that could affect the long-term health of my trees?

What are everyone’s thoughts on the “Bonsai Care App”? I am new to bonsai, but I’m hoping this question is more general and will not irritate the MODs. If so, send me directly to jail, and my bad. I watched some videos and saw the app was free so thought I would give it a shot. It’s seems pretty cool, but maybe it’s not. Any feedback is appreciated

I’ve been doing bonsai for a while now, but trident maple is actually a species I’ve never touched until now. I live in Guangdong, China, and I’ve heard the climate here is particularly well-suited for tridents, so I figured it was finally time to give it a shot.

Picked up a few “mystery box” stock trees (a common way to buy raw material here — you don’t know exactly what you’re getting until it arrives) and unboxed them to compare root spread, trunk taper, and branch placement side by side.

As a complete beginner to this species, I’d love to hear what you all look for first when evaluating trident maple stock specifically — is the priority list different from other maples?

I find it more useful to have as many examples in the same field of view as possible while styling a tree, instead of having to flip over individual pictures, so I curated this collection for myself. Hope you find it useful. Open on computer for better resolution - mobile app seems to over-compress

Edit: like a member pointed out, some in the formal upright box is actual informal, and some cascade is technically semi cascade. I can't edit the photo of the post.

Deshojo layer with plenty of roots and too much foliage

I went out of town and totally forgot to have someone water my fukien tea tree for about 5 days. I came home and the leaves look withered a bit but still green and the shoots were weaker. I watered it immediately and left it on my windowsill. Is my tree dead or can it bounce back? Should I prune the leaves?
(Pics show now vs before)

I want to take a 1/144 scale Gundam kit (about 13cm tall) and grow a tree next to and into it. I like the idea getting roots to grow around and through it.

I know it’s silly but it’s something I’d enjoy. I like the idea of a mobile suit losing a battle and slowly being taken into nature.

What’s are some trees that are good for air roots and hearty enough it won’t mind having obstacles in its growing?

I think a forest style would be cool but I think that’s a bit too ambitious right now.

I know I'm several months too early to be worrying about this, but...

This winter, I'm going to cut back hard this pre-bonsai deodar cedar. It has such beautiful long branches though, I'd hate to just compost them and was thinking of trying to air-layer them? I have zero experience with air layering and have had terrible luck with rooting anything woody from cuttings (maybe I need different rooting hormone?)... Does anyone have experience with deodars and have you tried this? I almost want to cry at thought of cutting those branches off :)

Hey everyone, need some styling advice for this juniper.

I was walking through my neighborhood and met Greg (75?) a long time bonsai enthusiast. He’s not online, so I thought I would give his two 40yr old Swiss pines their due diligence. Super cool dude.

Anyways, after meeting him I picked up this Juniper from Home Depot for $11 (!!) and brought it back for an hour chat and style. We decided it already had a great natural windswept look so repotted (no root trim), cleaned about 4 inches up the trunks and thought to leave it through the summer. What are yalls critiques for next major trimming?
Chosen front it first pic, but now that I’m posting this, I like pic 2 almost more.

I pulled this Magnolia virginiana out of the ground at a landscaping job where it had broken in half. It has since recovered in a #7 pot and I pruned it up a bit. It has a nice thick trunk already but not much flexibility so Formal Upright may be my only option right now?
I’m definitely a bit of a beginner, though I have a half dozen other bonsai and a dozen more pre-bonsai in containers.
I’m just wondering if anyone thinks it has any bonsai potential or if anyone can see any inspiration. I don’t often see Magnolias on this sub so maybe they’re not very popular?
Any feedback welcome.
I live in Central Delaware, USA - Zone 7

Over on [r/askreddit](r/askreddit) there was a question posed about hobbies that can lead to health issues. One of the comments surprised me. I’m wondering if anyone else has heard of this? I’ll copy and paste below and link to the thread in the comments.

——

Believe it or not, tending Bonsai.

A notable example was bonsai artist and tv personality Brian Batchelder.

Many that are avid in the hobby have significant exposure to Sphagnum moss due to its usefulness for rooting and moisture retention, but inhaling the spores has been heavily linked with sporotrichosis and other respiratory issues. While symptoms are typically mild it can easily become life threatening if left unchecked.

Called “Rose Gardener’s Disease”, it also commonly impacts gardeners, nursery workers, terrarium enthusiasts, and others with frequent long term exposure to Sphagnum moss.

Sharing an update on a tree with an interesting history. Collected as yamadori in June 2021, trained as semi-cascade. After it established, growth gradually receded until the entire original trunk dried out and died — normally I’d write that section off completely.

Instead of dying outright, it pushed new growth from the top of the dead trunk and survived. Fast forward a few years and there’s now a completely new trunk, roughly chopstick-thick, growing from the base independently of the old dead wood.

This session I went in planning to practice jin/deadwood carving on that old trunk since it had been dead for years. Turned out the wood had decayed so much it was soft enough to tear apart by hand — nowhere near solid enough to work as jin. Scrapped that idea entirely.

Ended up focusing on the new trunk instead — selecting and pruning branches, and settling on a simple weeping structure as a starting point.

Anyone else had a trunk die out completely like this and get a full replacement from the base? Curious how others handle removing the old dead wood in cases like this — I ended up just clearing it away since it wasn’t structurally useful for jin.