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Progression of a multi-trunked green atlas cedar. Originally this tree was grown by Seiji Shiba, a Northern California hobbyist. I acquired the tree in 2020 from Peter Tea who had been nursing the tree back to health. The back trunk at one point almost died and several sub apices look to have...

Tigerbark ficus, purchased as a $10 mallsai (2 year old rooted cutting) in 2014, developed over the last 8 years into it's current form. Tree was in a bonsai pot last year, branches were then eaten by squirrels. I returned it to a grow pot to develop the nebari more as well as to focus on better...

Hi Nutter Friends, I used to frequent the boards a lot, but between a job and now professional bonsai pursuits I am an infrequent lurker. I'm beginning to travel and do a lot more bonsai work, so I wanted to emerge from hiding. I've mainly been posting on Facebook and Instagram, but I also have...

Hello nutters. I haven't been very active here as I've spent the last 2 years apprenticing in Japan. I do like this forum and it's members quite a lot and is in part where I got started in bonsai. Coincidentally I flew out of Japan before the big escalation with the virus outbreak. It's good...

I've been styling back to back to back to back pines at Kouka-en the past few months. It's been great to get lots of experience with them, as less than year prior I barely touched and decandled a black pine for the first time volunteering at the Huntington Gardens. I'm happy to learn and improve...

New write up on my blog where I do refinement and repotting on a magnolia! Super stoked to be able to work on this species. I will definitely look to grow these when I return stateside. https://bontsai.com/2019/04/11/refining-and-repotting-a-magnolia-mokuren/

Hello Nutters, I love the bnut site but its been hard to post. First because of school, and now because of my apprenticeship in Japan. I recently finished styling a white pine and I'm relatively happy how it turned out. Things are beginning to become more intuitive and the quality of my work is...

It's been awhile since I last posted. First I was crazy busy with college and graduating and now I'm crazy busy apprenticing at Kouka-en o_O I love the nuthouse, but basically I have no free time now or if I do I spend it studying Japanese so I won't be posting often anymore. Things are a bit...

Old shohin amur maple in Sara Rayner pot. About a 3 inch nebari. Nice mature bark and character. My intention was to use whips I let grow out last season and thread graft new branches where needed, but I ran out of time. $300 + shipping, please PM me any questions

Fun time at the Dai Ichi Kai show in Gardena. Didn't photograph too many trees, but got a few of ones I thought were interesting. Met lots of new folks and friends. Enjoy the pictures!

I do enjoy sharing my passion with others and on occasion I have friends who ask me what it's all about. I try my best to look sane and not like a crazy dude who fiddles with trees. Hell, I don't even fully understand why I got so hooked. I remember my parents were briefly interested when I was...

People who know me personally know what I've been up too but I wanted to share the news with the bnut family as I've benefited a lot from this forum. I have been accept as an apprentice at Fujikawa Kouka-en nursery. I am insanely tired and I don't think I've worked as hard for something in my...

One of my smaller oaks due to unavoidable circumstances had all the roots die when I was living away from my trees in the summer. There's some new roots but the tree hasn't shoved out new buds or leaves for over 7 months. At this point it's a 50/50 whether it'll live. I remember reading Tony...

I've read that winged elms are always the last trees to leaf out here in socal. My tree seems healthy and green with no dieback over winter but the buds have not broke yet. For those in socal or similar climate zones have your winged elms leafed yet?

I purchased 2 cork oaks from Barry's sale today. I made sure to get there early and picked out the best 2 :D. Sorry snoozers. These trees with the native soil were immensely heavy and I spent all day working the roots, setting em in trainers, and getting tarps up. It was a lot of work so I...

This ficus was one of my first bonsai trees. Suprisingly I still have all of my first trees! I've only lost a 3 trees in my bonsai career so far, one because of my fault and the other from issues out of my control. I purchased it as almost mallsaish cutting grown material from House of Bonsai...

A few years ago Frank, the cork Jade guy, gave me a lot of his old bonsai magazines. I've read through several of em but forgotten about them the past 2 years as I've gotten more busy. I've actually been trying to learn Japanese the past few months and have been studying and practicing like...

Here's an unusual amur maple I potted up recently. I threw it in a Sarah Rayner pot I got from the Midwest Bonsai Show. I airlayed it about 1.5 years ago. Interestingly it came from the apex of a old tree. For many years the tree was probably pruned at same site repetitively. The generation of...

I purchased David De Groot's book recently but I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to go through it. Started reading it today and it's excellent so far. Very interesting, concepts well explained and illustrated, and covers a diverse range of topics. Highly recommended to those who do not...

I really want to learn more about Japanese and Chinese pots. I'm aiming to understanding pairings with trees better as well as any notable ceramicists alive and deceased. I've started to look through Ryan Bells' site but wanted to know if there are any books out there as well. Recommendations...

I was at my local nursery and found a nice monterey cypress. Good nebari and base flare and a good size to work with. I gave it a full styling (my largest wiring project to date) and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It does appear fairly cluttered but that's in part from the lack of...

I recently restored and repaired my concave cutters and realized that there are no comprehensive online guides on how to do so. I wrote up my own guide and I hope you nutters find it helpful. When I have time I will transfer the content directly on bnut, but here it is on my blog...

I've started a ton of projects in the past 2 years and just haven't had time to share em all. This is one of my favorite trees with lots of potential. The tree had some issues in the summer so it's a bit weak right now. I'll be allowing it to grow unrestricted to build vigor before I do my major...

I picked up a nice hackberry recently but I'm unsure of what to do with it. Should I chop and begin development as a shohin or should I let it send some runners in the ground and aim for a bigger tree? Trunk is about 1.25 inches. These seem to do well in Socal and grow fast too so it'll be a fun...

I picked up a tree today, an American beech with the intention of developing it into a broom style bonsai. I bought it from our own Bob at Kimura nursery. The trees were grown from seed from a tree out of Arizona and have grown fine in the hot socal climate. I'm not exactly sure what species it...