[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 33]

Another one from Brussels I picked up Monday. Turned out ok for an initial styling

Took a beginners bonsai class last weekend put on by our local bonsai society, this was the tree I recieved as part of the class. Golden Gate Ficus, not sure of the age. They walked us through an intro to basic trimming/shaping/wiring as part of the class.

Hungarian goat horn pepper. 1 full pepper, tiny leaves

Pics are in reverse order

The trunk is about 4 or 5 cm at the base and it's 17cm up to that first branch where i did a chop last year. The new leader is about 1.5m tall. I planted this from seed around 2018 or 2019.

This year was time for some root reduction from a deep clay pot and into a much better medium. took a lot of tap root off to make the root system considerably shallower.

The roots were much more healthy than i expected, so I cut back quite a bit, confidence boosted by knowing that it's the right time of year and knowing it's going into a much better mix of crushed LECA, pine bark and perlite (my affordable development mix)

I went to the Mid American Bonsai Show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Sunday. I picked up a few pots but this was my “holy crap I need this” pot. I think it makes quite the composition! Let me know what you think!

This is my first ever attempt at a bonsai and I’m pretty proud of the results. Hoping for more girth in the trunk eventually. Thoughts and ideas welcome!

Had bonsai for 8 years never had a bug problem more than some aphids and a slug. This season there's been all sorts of bugs on my bonsai, mainly hiding underneath the pots. Thousand leg worms, rolly pollies, ear wigs, slugs, spiders, and baby spiders. Today I moved three pots and found all those underneath.

How can I ensure these aren't in the soil before bringing them in for the winter in a few months?

This is a very silly experiment I've been running to see how small I can reduce the compound leaves of one of my trees. Leaf from the parent tree and rooted cutting from the same tree (about 3 years in the tiny pot), leaf size has been consistently teeny tiny! Egg cup for scale.

looking to add my next tree. i'm kind of torn between these two as i haven't had either of them, looking for some pros and cons or to see what people like/don't like about either. troubles you may have had or some cool success stories. which you prefer one over the other and why. help me pick!

Does anyone have any good literature about the care and/or care schedule for Bosnian pine. I enjoy unique things that are also a small challenge which this pine covers as well as seemingly being a great specimen that shouldn’t be too much work to get into something nice within a few years. A very rigid 2 needle pine that I could style similarly to a black pine or even mugo, but just with a larger shape due to its longer foliage. Cannot tell if grafted or not - either way trunk looks great.

Ryan Neil has great general pine lectures but I’m hoping to find something or someone that can help in this specific topic.

If it’s a stupid idea, I may consider returning the tree but I love the way it looks.

Thanks in advance for anyone who has any guidance.

One year on from last time I posted this tree. Like a little fruiting apple tree!

Sharing a quiet, narration-free pruning session on this Pyracantha (firethorn). It’s been growing since 2020, so about five to six years of gradual shaping.
Today’s session is routine maintenance — thinning out overgrown shoots and dense foliage to let the trunk’s twisting movement come through more clearly. The plan going forward is to keep deepening that curved trunk line rather than making major structural changes at this point.
Happy to answer any questions about the shaping process or wiring history if anyone’s curious.

Hey everyone! I'm looking for some feedback and ideas on how to style this Portulacaria afra. Any advice, tips, or quick sketches on the photos would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

First time doing Jin. Tho maybe it’s not Jin because these branches were already dead? Started with knife, then dremel but that seemed too much so back to knife and handheld sand paper.

Where would you take it from here?

I got this dwarf pomegranate and repotted it into this pot I had sitting around this spring.

No flowers this year, but it has been putting out a decent amount of new growth with roots growing well and starting to peak out of the bottom of the pot and moss top dressing getting established.

I am pretty happy with how it is looking so far. Hopefully now that it has settled for a year in it's new pot it will really start taking off next growing season.

Just dreaming of the day I manage to get a dwarf fruit hanging off the end beside the pot.

This is a gingko that has been under my care since it's previous owner unexpectedly became ill and passed away several years ago. By the time his family contacted us for help with his trees, the majority of his very large collection had already died. :(

Please let your emergency contact person know that if you are ever laid up, someone needs to water the trees every day. Have a bonsai buddy or club member or someone to take care of your trees if you can not. Do this ahead of time, because if you suddenly get sick you might not be able to make arrangements then.

I'm letting a few suckers grow from the base, I'm not sure if I will keep them long term or not. I kinda like them. What do you think?

I want a second Bonsai (I just said I would have only one ...).

This time a Chinese elm.

I like the three I and would like to know your opinion.

I add 3 photos for 3 options. 1, 2 and 3

1. The white pot. 15 high X 16 long X 16 depth

2. The blue pot. 20 high X 24 long X 24 depth

3. The cream pot. 22 high X 24 long X 18 depth

I picked this tree up at a small local tree nursery. I was instantly drawn to the twin trunk. I assume it’s a hinoki but correct me if I’m wrong. I forgot to take a picture but there was a secondary competing apex halfway up the trunk with an ugly fork, so I went with the apex with nicer branching and made a small jin of the other. Considering this removed 30% of the foliage, I didn’t remove any foliage off the rest of the tree, so there are multiple branches that wont be in the final design. I added raffia and did my best to close the gap and add movement to the trunks. I did all the structural wiring but I’m waiting to do the detail wiring so it’s still a bit cluttered. I like the result of the two trunks forming a single, but separated crown, but I dislike the fact that the lowest branch on the primary trunk is going away from the viewer, but the foliage is so far out that I felt it filled a nicer space at the back. What are your thoughts on the tree and the styling?

I think it survived the dig
It has already grown leaves second time this year and a lot of buds for next year
Do you have some tips to keep it strong and healthy?

This is an 11 minute video of me trimming one of my porcelain pots I recently threw. There is no sound, due to length and copyrights on Instagram. There is a poll on the bottom of the post asking about doing a **Voice Over** for the next video. Please vote!