new and need advice

In May I received a bonsai tree as a sympathy gift after a death in my family. I have an aversion to cut flowers so apparently a tree was decided on… Anyway, I have no experience with plants, have never had one successfully, in all of my 53 years. It came in a ceramic container, I put it on...

Hey all! I haven't bought my own tree yet but planing on doing that in a couple of weeks. I was thinking on a Cuban laurel for my first tree. And I was curious on what I should aspect (in the hobby and the tree itself) also planning on growing a white pine from seed that I found in my yard. By...

Hi all! This is my first season practicing bonsai. I am in zone 8b, and curious about setting up for the winter season. I have seen where it is a good practice to place young (if not all small(er)) trees into a poly tote container with a few drainage holes, and fill it up with some mulch. When i...

Hi! So I've been taking care of plants for some time now (mostly heat resistant ones like Bougainvilleas and Adeniums), and have no experience with Chinese Junipers, or conifers in general. I saw a mid-sized one cheap at my local garden centre and was absolutely pulled in by it. I looked through...

I know it’s ugly, but it’s definitely still in development. I’m thinking about grafting the upward growing shoot to the trunk (see 3rd photo). Should I wait for the shoot to harden off before trying this? Is there anything else I should know? I’ve never grafted anything before. Thank you

Happy October all! Little background info: I live in a 10b zone My JM gets lots of early morning to late morning sun but receives dappled shade and indirect light in the later hours of the day. Gets OKAY airflow (they are on my patio.. have thrived there before) could always be better I...

hello!! quite literally just 10 minutes ago my dad just dropped off this bonsai completely out of the blue and im super excited to take care of it but i know NOTHING about these.. so any help would be appreciated!! the main things im looking for is : what kind of tree is this? how do i take care...

Hey all, New to bonsai. I live in Miracle Mile in LA, I have a great morning light facing balcony that usually stops getting direct sunlight around 2-3PM. I just got a beautiful maple while up in San Fran it was cheeper than most I’ve seen already potted in a training pot so I couldn’t say no…...

Hi everyone, I'm based in Victoria, BC, and have been rediscovering bonsai (after first dabbling with a ficus almost 2 decades ago). I've been trying to learn as much as I can, and wow, there's so much out there now, it's a bit overwhelming! I recently picked up a couple Japanese black pine...

Hi all! I finally decided to picked up a bonsai last week after a while of hesitation. I chose a bougainvillea because I’ve seen that they can be beginner friendly. When I got it from the garden center it did say hybrid bougainvillea - you can see from the picture that the leaves are green and...

Hi there, I just purchase a Japanese deshojo maple. I am looking to airlayer it, so that I can start growing into a bonsai down the road, but I am unsure what to do b/c this maple was grown tall. Right now it sits around 6’ and is very straight. I don’t know if I should wait till it grows...

I received a Japanese Maple (Mikawa Yatsubusa) as a gift. The tree is young and still in a nursery pot. I'm thinking ahead to what to do over the winter. I'm in zone 4a. I do have an attached, unheated garage and wondering when is the best time for me to move it into the garage? Do I wait...

Hello! I recently got an Acer Palmatum Bonsai as a gift and have some questions about it. I was hoping I could get some feedback on what I should do. I have read some posts about it but always end up wondering how to properly take care of mine. Some context: I keep it at home and live in a...

Hi there! Over the winter, I started getting interested in bonsai and have since then started a few, fun projects, such as germinating some pine seeds and buying and repotting some cheaper trees in the appropriate timeframe. I also contacted my wonderful local bonsai community. I dug a hedge...

I just got this Ficus from Home Depo.. is this moss Ok to have in the pot? I don't even know if its real, its very dry. is it supposed to help keep the plant moist? Im very new to bonsai and so far i only misted and watered the soil, not enough for any water to come out of the bottom though. It...

Just had some wonderful luck at work noticing a damaged tree, the owner said he wouldn't be able to sell it but also "the tree is already dead it just doesn't know it" without tlc it's doomed but I have hopes of recovering it. It's got some damage as previously stated on the trunk (and to the...

Hello everyone! So I’m completely new to this. Never had any real interest in bonsai before but my grandad gave me a bonsai growing kit he’d recieved the other year (he’s 90 and has an absolutely amazing green thumb with veg and flowers, but said he won’t get much use out of the kit at his...

I received a shipment of trees from Bonsaify a few days ago and am hungry to work them. They’re grown in San Fran, and I live in Calgary.. quite a difference in where the trees are growth wise to where my trees are currently. My in ground trees are just starting to have buds swell or leafing out...

Hi all, I’m brand new to keeping trees. Ive accumulated a wild amount of plants this spring & have placed particular focus on my three bonsai-to-be trees. I repotted all of them into pond baskets with well-draining substrate—a mix of espoma’s bonsai soil with organic soil that I enriched with...

This is my first pine it’s been a couple of months since thinning it out and trimming buds down to 2 per branch. Today I did some major chops to create taper and also did some wiring to creat some style. The lower right branch will most likely be a sacrificial branch after the trunk thickens up...

Hi! I’ve had this focus for over a year. I took it to a garden place to get it repotted and since then, it has begun to worsen. The person who repotted it placed it in this pot but with compact houseplant soil. I, who know nothing about plants, thought it was perfect. But after doing research, I...

New to Bonsai and not sure what to do with these Chinese Privets I collected last summer. We had to cut down a couple 80ft dead pines, while cleaning and burning the pines I found these two trees. I put them in pots and couldn’t tell if they were alive or not. I brought them in for this freezing...