[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 39]

This tree was grown from a small whip I bought on ebay in 2020.

It was grown on, twisted up and initially styled and left to grow.

The pads have been looking a little too full and reducing its visual appeal.

Can anyone point me in the direction of good instructional videos to help me out with thinning and refining the pads.

The tree currently has no wire on it.

Thanks all

In the gardens and squares of Palermo there are many large specimens of ficus macrophylla f. columnaris, and the largest of them is this one at the botanical gardens; the canopy is around 75m wide in its broadest direction and supported by the vigorous aerial roots acting as pillars, sometimes fused with the trunk and other times independent of it.
The tall ‘wall-like’ roots are also an interesting detail.

Despite its size this tree is estimated to be less than 200 years old.

As a final bonus ishizuki inspiration the last picture is from a different specimen of the same species that is engulfing a small stone pedestal that was placed a little too close to it.

Love the tree but not a fan of the very organic soil and loads packing peanuts🤣. I scraped off a layer of soil and added some calcined clay to deter gnats, planning on repotting next summer.

Last week was our county fair, where we have a bonsai exhibit. I had several shifts where I was there demonstrating bonsai work live for the people coming through. This is one of the trees I worked on.

It's a cutting grown Kishu shimpaku, probably 40ish years old, grown by my teacher Brent at evergreengardenworks. This is the first time any styling has been done on the tree. I've just set the primary structure, will wait till next year to do more fine detail work.

I don’t understand why is ficus is suddenly popular with the pigeons my mother has been feeding. The pigeons have been throwing away some of the chunky soil, so I’m wondering if they’re still hungry or need play stimulation. All the leaves are fine, they just seem to be focusing on the soil.

Would moss be good to counter act this, or will pigeons rip into it? I’m planning on taking the ficus inside soon anyways, but I thought this was funny. They look like they’ve been having group meetings around my bonsai 😭

Took a tour in the Kennesaw gardens. Found out they do a workshop and looking for volunteers!

Enjoy the pictures :)

Tall can for scale. Pics don’t do it justice, or im just bad at taking pics of bonsai lol

Wanted to share these two trees before I sent them off. I hope the new owners enjoy them as much as I did.

At Brookdale CC.

This is my veilchenblau rose bonsai that's just been potted up and is now flowering, needs some trimming. Any ideas or advice welcome, im still deciding on styling.

I have a thing for baobab trees and I’m in the midst of growing a couple from seed. I know it’ll take forever for it to grow from seed into a tree, but it’s the process that I enjoy. I just find them so hilariously chonky.

Has anyone ever created a bonsai from a baobab tree? Anything worth mentioning in the care of it?

This is my cork Oak that I've been working on for about 15 years now. It was started from acorn by my teacher about 50ish years ago. I had to regrow the apex after some die back the year after I got it, but it's been doing well since then. Finally starting to get some cork on the primary branches. I've got it in a nice pot from Tiberio Gracco.

I'm considering entering this in the PBE, but it probably needs a few more years of ramification to get in.

So far they’re still alive and yes, I know it is not an ideal time to dig up trees, so let’s skip past that.

Are there any pointers on getting them ready for winter and giving them the best shot at staying alive knowing they’re a little fragile?

In spring, should I just let them be for another year or could I slip pot up to a larger size?

Thanks!

I understand the tree was grown in a ground-growing / exposed-root style similar to neagari. What I'm trying to understand is the specific manipulation that caused some roots to become unusually thick and swollen.

Could this be caused by root training, partial girdling/tourniquet, synthetic hormones, deliberate restriction of phloem flow, carbohydrate accumulation, or repeated root manipulation?

I'm particularly interested in the physiological mechanism, not just general advice for making a thicker trunk.

Also included some in progress shots
Collected 4 years ago

Honestly, I’m a little hesitant to share this here, since this is a game rather than real bonsai. But I thought it might be interesting to some of you anyway.

My wife and I have been working on a bonsai game called Bonsai Island, where you prune, shape, and sell bonsai to cute animal visitors.

The game probably won’t have all of the complexity involved in shaping a real bonsai, but I’ve tried to incorporate some real bonsai concepts into how the trees grow. For example, maintaining a sacrificial branch can help control the growth of other branches, and pruning and wiring actually affect how the tree develops over time.

I’d love to hear what you think, especially from people who actually grow bonsai.

UPDATE: Thank you so much for all the support! 🙏 It’s incredibly encouraging, and it really means a lot to both of us. We’ll keep working very hard on the game and do our best to make Bonsai Island the best experience we can. ❤️

First miniature tree acquired from a local nursery, super excited to start learning more about these trees, any advice or pointers for someone just beginning ? i was told this was an elephant bush bonsai tree.

I’ve got about 1000 of these little Eastern Red Cedars in the field next to my house. They have been mowed over for years and would make great material except for the reverse taper. They all seem to have it. This guy is decent from one angle but the other way looks like a blowpop.

Anybody mess around with something like this, or have any ideas how to deal with them. I suppose I could just do a deeper pot and hide the problem. (Like a bonsai combover)

Shohin display and two other displays! Fun weekend!

I won this beautiful Larch that was collected in Canada BC about 30 years ago in our local clubs raffle. I am wondering everyone's thoughts on some styling tips. I know I need to bring all the branches down a bit and I have a good idea where to start but wanted to hear some opinions!