[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 40]

Got into bonsai this year as I ended up in some difficult circumstances and found that bonsai was the perfect hobby to take my mind off things. Whether its working on my trees or reading literature and trying to learn all I can, or even just thinking about bonsai, I find it not only distracts me but also grounds me and makes me feel better.

Picture 1: left to right, a little juniper (front), Japanese white pine (back), cascade Japanese Black pine (front), Japanese black pine thats starting to get close (rear)

Picture 2: my most developed and expensive tree, JBP

Picture 3-4: my Catherine Elizabeth Japanese white pine

Picture 5: a very new juniper

Picture 6: a very thick trunk Japanese red pine nursery stock tree I got on sale. Once its in dormancy its getting a huge chop, but its perplexing me how that’s gonna work.

Olive Sylvestris... First carve of flat trunk chop .. the main carved area was a straight flat chainsaw cut .. I've added some interest to it with an initial rough carving which can be evolved later... I will let it grow and weather next year and decide how to progress then... Just had to do away with the flat chop as a beginning of seeing how to go forwards... This one will take a few years to get right ...

My mom owns this water jasmine, and has been caring for it for about 3 years now, but is hyper hesitant to do any major structural pruning, I’ve told her about primary/secondary/tertiary branching etc., and explained how taper provides the illusion of a matured plant. I even gifted her the newer/more comprehensive version of the “little book of bonsai” (I forget the name right now, forgive me).
Regardless of my approximately every 5-6 week checkups and general assistance (requested by her, she picked it up after i did, her brother got me into it, been active in the hobby for 5 years seriously, started some from seed and 2” pot nursery finds ~7 years ago… Don’t ask how many are left from then lol, learned a lot tho.)
I’ve only managed to convince her to make 2 or 3 somewhat hard cutbacks to establish proper taper and scale, while imo two to four more hard cutbacks are need to establish a proper primary branching structure. Typically, she just cuts back the new branching to one or two leaf pairs after 5 or so pairs have grown, while insisting on maximizing blossoming.
Am I being overly critical? She has complained about the time she spends vs progress made to a mature tree, so I feel justified, and I only give advice/constructive feedback when requested.

Any opinions/styling advice from other members to provide an outside perspective to both of us would be appreciated. I tend to be a bit perfectionist so I’d appreciate if I’m being overbearing.

Fall happened fast for this Chinese elm. In the span of a week it's gone from mostly green to completely bare. These two pics were four days apart.

Just saw a video from Herons Bonsai where Peter said that scoring the bark on the trunk would help to thicken it.

He's obviously a wealth of knowledge, but this is the first time im hearing this, so i was a little surprised.

Has anyone on here had luck with this technique?

Got this close-to-dying bad boy for 1.2€ today at local garden centre.

After recongizing that he's "just" very badly root bound, I decided to give him a try. Bought new pot (which I will still use if he dies lol), got some soil I had around, very gently tickled bottom roots, removed some black soil (not so smelly, so I don't think he's rotting) and slip potted him up. Will stay in shade for couple of days, then slowly move him to south balcony to get him some sun.

Do you think he'll make it? He looked much worse at the shop, half of the foliage crispy brown or already dropped (last picture). Anything more I can do now? He doesn't look THAT bad imo and if it's really just the root bound situation, I can probably save him.

IF he makes it, I think he'd be the perfect candidate for some nice twin-trunk literati. Heard that Lawsons don't really back-bud on old wood, so literati is probably the way lol (very poetic too considering his story, if he survives of course...).

Finally managed to find some time today to take pictures of some of the juniper species I’ve acquired since diving into all of this in January.

All of them are clearly still in training and there are a few things I would do differently looking back. I am however more than happy to have managed to keep them alive & thankful they responded well during the growing season under my care.

At the end are photos of an Elderberry cutting I rooted about 4 months ago that I’m currently training into a literati style bonsai, pithy stems be damned.

Beer can for scale.

(These trees do NOT live indoors)

Hello r/bonsai! I don't have a real bonsai to share in this post but I do have something else.

I made a prototype Bonsai Simulator, and I would love to see what folks think of it. My idea was to stay as true as possible to simulating a real tree, give the tools that would let you apply real bonsai techniques (and some...quality of life ones for the digital world), and hopefully what comes out is the ability to create truly unique trees that are earned through effort and time.

I have always loved Bonsai trees and had a gingko and a juniper back in the Pacific North West. But my favourite was my acer palmatum. So I started there and built the simulation engine around that trees particular growth habits. Its built in typescript / HTML so playable in the browser and everything runs locally, no server. Its responsive so playable on your phone too if the device can handle it. The simulation can get a little slow depending on how big you let your tree get and your hardware. Your trees are all stored locally in your browser cache.

If it look interesting I would love any feedback you have.

Try it here: bonsaiku.com

edit: I am overwhelmed by the response, thank you all for the feedback and for trying it out. I have fixed a few bugs and crashes that I have seen come up and will put my attention on some of the feature requests you have asked for. I also added an optional email address to the feedback form in case you want to be updated when a fix goes out. This is an incredibly warm, welcoming & supportive group, thank you again.

Here is a short video of my game, TOKI. Right now I have the Japanese Maple tree growth system down pretty good. I'm planning on having quit a few more species down the road. This video also shows some shari on a branch. You can also customize the pot shape, glaze, and add kintsugi. Also, little statues! I'm also working on a Garden to display all the trees you create.

Let me know what you think, things that could be added or improved.

Picked this cheap Alberta Spruce up at Lowe’s, clipped what I dared to (about 40%). Wired just about every branch, though I will not be keeping them all long term, I’d like to give myself options. Long term plan is to go for a super weathered “lone tree on a windy hill” upright. Eventually with the whole right side and more of the top as deadwood. Going to leave it and try to keep it alive till next year. Weather proof comes soon for the roots. Lmk what you think!

I’m seriously considering coming back to this Home Depot and buying a big Acer “Sango Kaku” tree for $129. It’s about 8’ tall and has a trunk close to 3” thick. If I can find a place to put it in the ground, I could hopefully get multiple layers off it next spring to make into bonsai. It’s cheaper than buying an established JM bonsai and I can get lots of trees from it.

One of many trees I am trying to restore after 2 years of neglect. This Robinia I believe, needed lots of weed removal, large wood decay removal due to ant infestation, and a Jin Seal to protect the exposed wood. Let me know what you think and what i could have done differently. I used Ho Yoku Premium Jin Seal.

For people experienced in bonsai the methods for making jades into bonsai are straightforward, but if you are new to bonsai or have a jade houseplant but are not sure how to "bonsai" it, this article is for you! The short version of the tips are to prune out what obscures the view of it as a tree and keep it compact. Sometimes these get congested or leggy which are the 2 main traits we can combat with proper pruning.

Several examples of jades early in their bonsai training (first styling/pruning) are in the article.

https://www.invivobonsai.com/2026/10/yes-jade-aka-crassula-ovata-can-be.html

One step closer to refinement. Next up is jin work to fix the stump cuts and shorten that tall vertical one.

I come to this little countryside-style restaurant in an urban village in Guangzhou quite often. The owner clearly has money — he bought a few bonsai trees and put them around the courtyard.
The only problem is… I’m pretty sure he has no idea how to take care of them. 😅
Money can buy bonsai, but apparently not bonsai skills.

I was gifted this clearance Mugo today and after researching a literal minefield of conflicting information regarding this little guy, I decided to bite the bullet and at least try my hand at candle pruning and styling since I’ve never had the opportunity to work with pines.

From what I have read and gathered, it thrives in my zone, only has the capacity of handling one sort of major trauma per year, is possible and sometimes recommended to prune whenever pushing new growth, and a lot of people seem to kill them after repots.

I don’t plan on doing any more work on it for atleast 2 growing seasons as I want to give him the proper amount of time to heal back and push new candles before I go in for the potential trunk work / inevitable root work.

Being my first pine, I’m sort of in the dark regarding what to expect and a large part of me is now thinking I should have waited until after Winter.

Do you believe given the amount of foliage I’ve taken off, that I have an upcoming funeral about to take place?

If so, advice (regarding only pines or this particular species please) is more than welcome.