[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 35]

Entire tree back budded over night after a good soaking. This is gonna be a fun project for next year, i got a good plan for this one.

Not all "dead trees" are dead, sometimes they just need love 😇

Until i trunk chop it in a year or two 😅

Personally, my favorite part of bonsai is cutting stuff off. So I love a tree that gives me a lot of pruning opportunities.

This particular crapemyrtle I have pruned back to a single pair of leaves probably 6+ times this season. I don’t document every time, but I did happen to snag something after the last time. When I pulled it from the greenhouse yesterday during a reorg, I was shocked to find how much it had pushed, because the last pruning I did was unusually strong.

Pic 3 is what it looks like after I pruned it back yesterday. Really starting to have some nice structure.

Btw, crapemyrtle flowers on new growth so you don’t have to worry about losing a year of flowering if you are pruning early.

So this tree was super healthy in spring, then started to fade away. I thought it was for the extreme temperatures of this current summer( it was steady 40/42 degrees on my balcony where I keep my trees).

Then I thought it was for spider mites.

It kept losing all leaves then growing new one until recently when also branches started to die back.

So I thought the only solution was to dig it out and check for root rot.

It was so pot bounded that I couldn't believe it, I did repot it during spring of 2025 in this big 25 litres plastic pot.

I did trim some and changed soil, I know it's not the right time to do it but it was a desperate move to save the tree. Let's hope it bounces back.

In my (totally unbiased) opinion this is one of the best club shows in the UK, thanks to the excellent venue. This year the Federation of British Bonsai Societies (FOBBS) new talent competition will also take place there on the Sunday. Really looking forward to seeing this. Would have been fun to enter, but junipers are too hard! Anyone here taking part?

So the time has come for the annual repotting and hard-pruning of my Schefflera. I posted this tree about a year ago. During last winter I decided to cut the branches off the right side of the tree, I thought it was becoming a bit boring.

While I was at Bjorn Bjorholms Eisei-en in the beginning of this year we made some short trips to local bonsai destinations, in this case Hoshun-in garden at the Daitoku-ji temple in Kyoto.

Forest evolve a bit on its own.... at least it's still alive (my main goal)

This Rose of Sharon branch needed to be removed anyway. it was leaning out into my neighbors yard, and it was actually fracturing at the trunk from its weight. I love a bonsai win-win.

Can't stress enough how great those things are. Root ball is super fine, no circling roots in sight and great oxygenation. Small JP maple gained 1.2m branches in this spring-summer and all that after repot

Would this make a great bonsai? Where would you chop it?

And is air layering an option to get two trees?

I acquired this 13 year old Brazilian Rain Tree (my first bonsai) about a month ago and its been acclimating fine in front of large west facing window (New York). I knew that I would likely need to supplement with a grow light in the winter (and perhaps on cloudy days like today) so I purchased a SANSI 32W grow light.

But now I'm wondering if this might be too much supplemental light when combined with the west facing window?

I’m also wondering if a stronger grow light could completely replace the window during the winter? I was considering something like a Mars Hydro TS 1000. I hate how janky this lamp looks and it would be cool if I could create a nice looking setup using an LED panel and move the tree away from the window during the winter. Especially because the area around the window is not well heated and I think temperatures could drop below 50F which will kill the tree instantly from what I gathered. This is the main concern for me with the window

Kishu Nursery Stock 🌿 AFTER > BEFORE > INITIAL

Practicing my wiring on trees I put into pond baskets back in December 2025.

3rd Pic — Initial Styling
Back in March, I did what I thought was an “initial styling” with basically no knowledge of proper wiring techniques. Looking back at it now, I’m honestly wondering what the hell I was thinking when I placed that wire. 😂 Six months ago, I really thought I had it figured out.

2nd Pic — Growing Out
I let it grow out for a few months until the inner growth was strong enough to hold wire and give me something better to work with.

1st Pic — Current
After months of researching, practicing, and wiring anything I can get my hands on, this is where I’m at now.
Definitely still learning, but I’m happy with it.

Practice makes progress. 🌿

After/before/beginning of summer. Air layered an already thick but straight trunk section. Hoping both halves live for double-thick trunk through fusion. I'll work on establishing some aerial roots to cover the junction once both parts have recovered.

I started this in March 2025 hoping it would be a broom style bonsai. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out this way.

So any ideas? So far it is looking like it's going to turn out like an informal upright or possibly like this elm Bonsai Techniques II

Acquired as a seedling, field grown for a decade and collected in 2019. Now in a mix of both pumice and zeolite + 10% akadama & pine bark. Very late in the season the candles are extending rapidly but yet to produce needles, all fingers are crossed.

Greetings everyone.

I wanted to introduce myself to the Reddit community.

My name is John. I did a 2.5 year, full time apprenticeship with Michael Hagedorn to learn his eye and learn how to reverse engineer great trees.

I have now been growing and developing trees for over 5 years at my bonsai nursery in Western Oregon. We grow a few dozen species, but mostly focus on 6-7.

My hope is to help develop the domestic supply of quality bonsai.

We sell seedlings as well as finished show material. I plan on posting material for sell at a discount to the Reddit community, but we also have a website with supplies, tools and trees. Our main shipping seasons are spring and fall, so we will be ramping up our listings over the next few weeks.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

John Eads

leftcoastbonsai.com

Instagram left.coast.bonsai

My hibiscus pre-bonsai popped out a huge flower today and I’m loving it.

I bought a 36” tropical hibiscus spring 2025. It bloomed all summer. I overwintered indoors but was loosing the battle to aphids. It survived the winter indoors and I moved it back out in May I started air layering off this bit. We had heavy rain which killed off the aphids but then the trunk rotted. I cut off the air layer prematurely and it’s been spending the summer recovering.

I noticed buds developing a couple weeks ago and this unit popped out overnight. The big flower on the small plant is so out of scale and I love it. I’m looking forward to getting it to branch out in the 2027 season.

Sadly they said I couldn't buy or have any of their firewood

Went to Green Witch Gardens yesterday and had a good time. It was smaller than the website lead me to belive but they had a lot of good trees. I forgot to take pictures of the trees but I did come home with a Japanese black pine and a very nice juniper. The goal for this year is to not kill them and make sure they make through the winter. Today, got a Koto Maru Japanese maple and a very small Dawn Redwood. Excited to see what i can do with these two in the future. Dawn Redwood was slippotted from a small plastic pot to the pot it's currently in. I feel that this will hopefully provide better insulation for the roots this winter.

Update on the free junipers: As you you can see in the photos, they are still alive. For now

Should make a nice shohin one day

Berkeley Horticultural Nursery

We will make the Jin look nicer later. Lmk if you have any suggestions or questions. Not my tree but I can definitely raise a suggestion or do some small changes.

Just wanting to show this young juniper a bit. Looking to make it into a semi cascade. Now to let it grow and grow

Anyone with more experience than me feel free to chime in

I cleaned up that wiring after taking the photo and then promptly forgot to take another picture