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To complete the overall image of your bonsai, it is important to choose a pot that will complement your bonsai plant and create a sense of harmony that enhances the basic form and characteristics of your tree. Although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing your pot, like every other aspect of bonsai gardening, there are however, a few guidelines bonsai enthusiasts must follow to help you choose the best pot for your bonsai plant.

More on Bonsai Gardening: Choosing the Perfect Pot for Your Bonsai Plant

When selecting plants from a bonsai nursery, there are five things you should always consider in determining if a pre-bonsai plant meets the requirements of a good tree. These are:

Stable Roots. A good bonsai nursery stock will have roots that give the impression of a strong and stable foundation. It should gently spread out in a radial pattern and entice you too look further to its trunk.

Stylish Trunk. The trunk should have sturdy, thick base that gradually narrows into a slim tip for a tree-like look. It should also have interesting curves that indicate a sense of movement, as well as an appealing branching pattern that is well-proportioned to the trunk’s structure to give it dimension and establish a basic tree form.

Fully Grown Tree-Like Shape. Your bonsai nursery stock must also have the appearance of a fully-grown tree. This includes a bark that gives the feeling of maturity and age, slightly exposed root structures, and parts that are perfectly scaled to the size of a mature tree.

More on Bonsai Nursery: Five Things You Should Always Check in Bonsai Nursery Stocks

Every bonsai enthusiast needs a complete set of tools to care for their bonsai tree. Costing somewhere from a few dollars to even a few hundred dollars, choosing the best basic tools to complete your bonsai tree kit is an essential for anyone interested in growing and shaping their tree.

If you’re in the process of completing your bonsai tree kit, here are 3 must haves every bonsai lover needs:

A pair of bonsai shears for trimming your bonsai. Investing in a good pair bonsai shears customised for bonsai trees is a must-have for every bonsai tree kit. Their razor-sharp blades, which produce clean cuts, are perfect for trimming roots, twigs, and branches off your trees since they will not crush your bonsai unlike regular scissors. However, since bonsai shears can be quite expensive, you can begin your bonsai gardening with a pair of pruning shears, provided they are sharp enough to prevent damaging your trees and small enough to perform detailed work on smaller trees and twiggy growths.

1. Concave cutters to leave concave wounds in your tree branches. Concave cutters are essential to cut branches that are close to the trunk, and style bonsai trees and nursery stock. Unlike regular cutters that leaves a straight cut in your trees, concave cutters leave a smoother surface that will not only heal faster, but will also look aesthetically pleasing after the wound heals. A good pair of concave cutters is therefore an essential part of your bonsai tree kit.
2. Wire cutters to remove the wires you put on. You will also need a special pair of cutters in your bonsai tree kit to remove the wires you used to shape your bonsai tree. Unlike hardware cutters that might damage your trees, bonsai wire cutters have rounded heads and shorter blades, which let you cut right up to the tree’s bark without hurting or damaging your bonsai.

From Michael Dale
contributing Bonsai Master

*Don’t forget Michael is giving his top 7 Special reports Free with Bonsai Mastery Secrets for the next few days!!

I am often asked which type of bonsai should I start with, by many a beginner. There are typically three species that are ideally suited, so here is one of my top three.

The Juniper

Scientifically known as Juniperus, junipers is a non-flowering, hardy and evergreen specie of conifers that are easy to plant and grow.  This tree is deemed throughout Japan   It tends to thrive best on hillsides and dry forests from around the world and generally is noted for its trailing and elongated branches. and the world as one of the three most popular genera trained as bonsai, along with Japanese maples and pines.

What makes junipers perfect for bonsai is that the tree responds well to all the wiring and reshaping processes involved in tray planting.  Also, its long branches allow you to form the tree easily into almost all styles of bonsai, except broom.  Perhaps the main problem you may encounter along the way is that most junipers have stiff trunks and branches that make it a bit harder for you to shape your plant into something you really like.

This is an important point for beginners to choose a easy to grow hardy tree, this is well covered in the new Bonsai Mastery Course available for download right here!

Creating the acient look of your Bonsai is dramtically enhanced with the right ground cover

Adding moss or other living ground cover to your bonsai design can result in a beautiful complement to your tree. Or, it can be a distraction. The goal is to keep the tree at the center of the viewers attention. But that needn’t mean it must be the only thing the audience looks at every moment. You can add pictorial elements that provide balance and interest without overwhelming the scene.

One means of achieving that goal is to add sculptural items around the ground beneath the tree branches. Some are cheesy - miniature Buddha have been way over done. But some are elegant, tasteful and even beautiful in their own right.

Deadwood is a popular choice, and for good reason. Gnarled bits of wood add a natural looking element, while at the same time many are a delightful combination of art and artifice. Curved branches of the same species help lend a natural appearance in miniature - the goal of every bonsai design.

Take care when using deadwood, however, that it doesn’t become a source of potential disease or decay in the tree or other ground cover. Even tree branches long dead can break down, as they do in nature, and add to the soil. Most of the time that’s harmless. But, over-wet deadwood of certain types can support the growth of fungus and soil bacteria.

This example really accentuates the exposed roots and gives the proportion and scale a great balance

Here is a new Bonsai Video which looks at how to water your Bonsai correctly and some common mistakes people make
with their Bonsai.

Enjoy:-)

Exposed roots or in Japanese called "Nebari" is one of the fundamental elements of a great bonsai tree. The exposed roots will add a few impressions to the bonsai. First they will give a sense of a mature tree very well anchored in the soil. It will also help the illusion of a perfect trunk by starting the taper of the trunk. The trunk, needs to have character and not look like a stick in a pot. This is why, as previously mentioned, exposed roots are important. At the very bottom of the trunk are the roots, and when they are wide, the trunk will usually start wide and will taper as it goes up. On a mature tree, a great trunk is not a cylinder going up, but you can see some taper from bottom to top. Trunks can also have many forms, depending on the bonsai form you wish to give your tree.

There are four sizes of bonsai: miniature, small, medium, and average. Miniatures range up to only 2 inches (5 centimeters) in height. Started from seeds or cuttings, they mature in about five years. Small bonsai are from 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 centimeters) and take from five to ten years to train. Medium bonsai are from 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters), and average bonsai are up to 2 feet (0.6 meter); both sizes can be produced in as little as three years.

The bonsai are dwarfed by pruning roots and branches. Their shapes are controlled by wiring the trunk and branches. The wires must be removed before the bark becomes scarred.

Bonsai originated in China more than 1,000 years ago, but it has been pursued and developed by the Japanese. A bonsai industry of considerable size exists in certain sections of Japan. It has also become popular in many parts of the world.

The art of raising bonsai–dwarfed potted trees–has enabled the Japanese to admire nature in an indoor setting. Bonsai are able to bear fruit and to drop their leaves in season, thus reproducing nature in miniature. A skillful bonsai artist can prune, bend, and shape branches to suggest trees standing tall and upright in a field or bent and gnarled by age or weather. The beauty of a natural landscape is evoked in the viewer’s imagination.

How to grow Bonsai trees.