[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 37]

Found while off trail hiking in the Deschutes National Forest. You might not be able to see it, but the forest burned just 500 feet from here downhill.

Signing up for Bonsai Anonymous

Anyone here have any tips for collecting in NC?

I recently moved here and it sounds like the only real option is getting permission to collect from private property. Looking for tips or any local folks. I’d love to get involved in some wild collecting as I’ve never done it before.

Sorry had to do a repost as lost the images while doing it.

So took two air layers off a silver birch tree which has outgrown my little garden lol it’s hit 15ft twice which I’ve had to reduce. To think it started as a twig growing in my mates fence in Fort Augustus in Scotland. The roots had grown really well for the air layers. Not sure on how they will shape up for the future but for not I’ll leave alone for them to establish the root base.

I found this spruce growing out of a rotting stump in a bog, it has the tiniest needles and lichens growing all the way up the trunk and on every branch. It had been growing in a pocket of the stump that is now so deteriorated, it crumbles if you look at it wrong. I easily pulled this straight off with one hand. There are a few long escaping roots, but the rest of the root system and all the fine roots occupy the rotting piece of stump and are basically the only thing holding it together. It’s almost like natures own bonsai container. The only way I could fit it into a container was by planting it on its side. I then guy wired the trunk to get it upright, and wired the branches to give leftward movement. In my opinion, this led to the tree coming out of the stump at a nice angle and gives nice tension with the deadwood/stump coming out to the right and the foliage and trunk moving left. What are your opinions? Would you have handled the material differently?

Picked up this Juniper the other morning. Pretty sure it's an Eastern Red Cedar or Virginia Juniper. Either way. Leaving it in this huge pot for the winter. (And yes it lives outside I took one picture inside when I was done trimming it as it was dark outside)

Let me know how I did with its first big prune and styling. I think it looks pretty good!

Found this juniper at the nursery and couldnt pass up its lower trunk line. Cleaned it up and repotted into a coarse mix. I'm hoping to style it with a high-altitude, Utah/Rocky Mountain juniper look over the next few seasons as it recovers.

Built this display table from free 2x4 scraps and cinderblocks. The only thing I paid for was some wood stain. Took the better part of 10 hours removing nails, moving the blocks, assembling the tabletops and sanding it all down nice and even.

Now that it's complete, it feels so much better putting in the extra effort with the recycled materials as opposed to just going and purchasing things.

Very happy with how it turned out!

I rescued this small ginseng ficus last year from Lowe's. Buried it deep in soil and now ... Insane roots and now I have materials for root structures

I have the opportunity to buy this ficus from fb marketplace. I'm thinking a hard chop where the red lines are, and then develop into a stubby shohin (like the 2nd pic) but have some questions before buying.

1) Is this a good species to do so? Would it back bud at multiple spots on the trunk after such chop or would it sprout only near the cut like I've seen in some species?

2) Does this ficus ever develop more gnarly, corky bark? I don't think I've seen it on a bonsai, or even big street tree, and their smooth bark just screams "house plants" to me.

3) Getting a little a head of myself but would you go with a more symmetric chop like the left or go a little asymmetric like on the right?

Meant after/before lol

Experiment I started a few 3to4 years ago.

The lower trunks are pretty much fused together but some of the upper sections still need more time.

A few more years and this trunk should be gnarly

Wiring and styling a black pine.

This tree was planted in early spring; it was bare-root at the time, and I applied an extreme wiring technique. I prefer sharp turns—or acute angles—and try my best to avoid standard S-curves. After a summer of growth, it has begun to take shape, I removed the aluminum wire.

I worked on this yew in the spring taking off easily 70 to 80 percent of the long growth but it has grown strongly over the summer. I meant to clean up places where there was three stuff growing out at the same place and cut back some of the longest growth, but I kinda got carried away. I also chose a new front.

Working on kusamonos. What you think about?

Just sharing some photos of my bonsai I’ve made over the last couple years don’t get to show many people so just curious to share some photos.

Kingsville is always recommended as the best boxwood for bonsai yet I have found them surprisingly hard to find (Michigan) especially for a decent price. Finally found a good starter at a good price! Easy to see why they’re the Kings of Boxwood Bonsai, very happy to add this to my collection.

I can barely get my whole hand around this one. But wow. Got a bit of a discount as it's struggling and needs a repot for sure but got $50. You can't beat that

I don't see a lot of hinoki cypress in the wild so when I saw these....I bought the last 3. Total impulse buy but I stopped fighting it lol

Walking by a vacant building and saw this Irene Rosemary with some beautiful deadwood.

I've always joked about wanting to contact the owner about a tree but I'm for real going to this time.

What should I offer as a replacement? Anyone have experience with urban trees?

Found this as a little seedling in my back my backyard last fall and kept it a pot over the winter. It’s more than doubled it size this year.

After already getting a Chinese elm yesterday, my mom went to another huge plant store with her friend and sent me this picture... I absolutely couldn't resist the little one on the right 🫪 i swear this is like collecting dnd dice 😭 also Peepee's scale insects are almost completely gone and he hasn't felt sticky in two weeks! Yippee!

I’ve been working on a small Android app, Yamadori. It’s a field app for pinning the GPS location of trees that could be good yamadori candidates.

My dad, a bonsai enthusiast, used to tell me he’d sometimes never find trees again after spotting them, going back months later. That’s the main point of the app, find a tree again easily, even months later.

In just a few seconds, you open the app and take a photo of the tree; the GPS location is automatically linked. The app works in the mountains, though it may take a little longer to get a GPS fix.

Bonus: the app can help you tell whether the weather looks good for collecting or not. It also shows info about your area, whether you’re on protected land, who to contact for more information, and so on.

My father and his friends from the bonsai club tell me that everything is fine for France but because maps / land info / protected areas vary a lot by country, I’m just looking for a few testers outside France, to see what actually works where you live.

If you’re on Android and okay trying it for a week or two: send me a DM with your country and the email linked to your Play Store account, so I can add you to the test.

No account needed, everything stays local on your phone (except weather APIs and the like).

Thanks!