Bonsai is a rewarding art form, and every year more people fall in love with it. Many find it hard to start, though, or to work out whether bonsai is for them.
Before the internet, finding bonsai resources was the problem. Now the problem is sorting the great ones from the not-so-great. That’s where this guide comes in.
We’ve gathered the best resources for beginners, with advice for Australian growers. This guide won’t turn you into a bonsai master, but it will help you decide whether bonsai is for you and what your first few steps should be.
Bonsai Basics
Bonsai can be hugely enjoyable, but it’s not for everyone. This chapter takes a bird’s-eye view of bonsai to help you decide whether to pursue it or enjoy it from afar.
Bonsai in a Nutshell
Bonsai has a long history. Its roots go back more than a thousand years to the Chinese art of penjing, but what we call modern bonsai developed in Japan over the last few hundred years. The two arts grew apart over time: bonsai focuses on the tree, while penjing often takes in the wider landscape as well.
The word comes from two Japanese characters meaning “tray planting”. It is a living art form that takes ordinary trees and grows them in pots to restrict their growth. A bonsai isn’t a dwarf species; it’s kept small by the pot and by pruning.
The aim of a bonsai artist is to create a perfect miniature of a tree as it grows in nature. That is the opposite of European topiary, where trees are clipped into something that looks like anything but a tree.
It is often called a hobby, but most people involved see it as an art. It is most popular in Japan, where many trees have been passed down through generations.
Unlike a painting or sculpture, a bonsai is never finished. You never truly own a bonsai; you take care of it for the next generation.
The Different Forms of Bonsai
Every bonsai is unique, and the artist is limited only by skill and imagination. Even so, classification systems have emerged that help artists create bonsai that mimic the forms of natural trees. The five main forms are formal upright, informal upright, slanting, semi-cascade and full cascade:
There are plenty more styles beyond these five. If you’d like to learn about them, here are some useful links:
The Different Sizes of Bonsai
Because the size of the pot sets the size of the tree, deciding how big you want your bonsai to be is another choice you’ll have to make.
There’s no right or wrong answer. Start with the size that appeals to you, then weigh the pros and cons: smaller bonsai tend to be cheaper, take up less space and are easier to move.
In Japan, bonsai are classed by size. This makes exhibitions a fair contest and helps people understand the scale of a tree in photos, where there’s often no reference point.
The classes range from the tiny keshitsubo, just a few centimetres tall, to imperial bonsai of up to about two metres. Wikipedia has a good list of the Japanese size classes. Here are some of the more common sizes:
Indoor vs Outdoor Bonsai
Despite what a lot of people think, most bonsai can’t live inside. It’s tempting to keep your trees where you can see them during the day, but the reality is more complicated.
Most trees need a period of dormancy to thrive. In deciduous trees this is triggered by cold, so a tree kept inside in the heating never gets its rest and its lifespan will be short.
Light is the other problem: even a bright room gives a tree far less light than it would get outdoors. Air-conditioning dries the air too, and bonsai need some humidity.
A few species cope indoors. Ficus and some other tropicals can live inside with bright light, which is why figs are the usual choice for an office or apartment. Most bonsai, though, belong outside.
What’s Required to Get Into Bonsai?
Before starting, it’s important to know what you’re getting into, just as you wouldn’t take on a pet without understanding the commitment.
Beginners often want to know how long it takes to have a beautiful bonsai of their own. When you read about bonsai, it’s easy to come across trees that are a hundred years old. Does it really take that long? Of course not.
Turning a basic tree into a bonsai can take a few months if you’re careful and know what you’re doing. Much of the work is shaping the tree, and that depends on the species and the season. Even then, a tree is never “finished”; it’s a living thing and always a work in progress.
Beginners also want to know how much time bonsai takes. It’s a bit like caring for a pet. You’ll need a little time each day (bonsai don’t need walking), plus a few bigger sessions a year. Watering and fertilising don’t take long, but if you forget to water, your bonsai won’t live long.
Are bonsai hard to grow? You won’t master them in an afternoon, or from a single guide on the internet. But just about anyone can learn enough to enjoy the hobby.
What Equipment Do You Need?
To care for and style your bonsai, you’ll need some basic tools. Julian Adams, a renowned bonsai artist, recommends:
Concave pruner
Bud scissors
Wire
Wire cutters
Knob cutter
Root hook
Root cutter
You’ll also want a few smaller items, such as a fine-rose watering can and chopsticks for bare rooting.
Adams prefers Japanese tools and finds that even cheap Japanese tools outperform more expensive ones made elsewhere. Bonsai Empire has a good guide to bonsai tools.
What Are the Costs Involved?
As with any hobby, the true cost is hard to pin down. Beginner trees start at nursery prices, while prize specimens sell for hundreds of thousands. What you pay for in a great bonsai is years, often decades, of work, plus its artistic value.
Tools are the same. A basic tool kit is enough to start, and you can add better tools as your interest grows. Even on a limited budget you can really enjoy the art of bonsai.
Choosing Your First Bonsai
Choosing a Bonsai for Your Climate
Your climate limits which trees you can grow, and trees grow best in climates like the ones they come from. Before you buy your first bonsai, check that it suits where you live.
Tropical north (Darwin, Cairns, Townsville): figs, including the native Port Jackson fig, plus Chinese elm, bougainvillea and Fukien tea do well. Cold-loving trees such as maples and many pines struggle without a winter.
Temperate south and east (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Hobart): most beginner species grow well, including junipers, Chinese elm, trident and Japanese maples, azaleas and figs. Give trees afternoon shade in summer heatwaves.
Frost-prone inland and highlands (Canberra, the tablelands): hardy deciduous trees such as maples and elms love the cold, but roots in a pot freeze more easily than in the ground, so shelter pots from hard frosts. Keep figs and other tropicals indoors or under cover in winter.
Many overseas guides quote US hardiness zones. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a useful reference, but go by your local conditions, and ask a local nursery or bonsai club what grows well near you.
The Best Bonsai Species for Beginners
You can turn almost any tree into a bonsai, but some species are more forgiving than others. For Australian beginners, good first trees are:
Chinese elm: tough, fast to recover from mistakes and happy in most of Australia.
Port Jackson fig (Ficus rubiginosa): a native fig that grows quickly, tolerates heat and can live indoors with bright light.
Juniper: the classic bonsai conifer, and the tree most people picture (Mr Miyagi’s trees in The Karate Kid were mostly junipers). Keep it outside.
Trident maple: a hardy deciduous tree with good autumn colour, best in the temperate south.
If you’re in a hurry, figs are among the fastest-growing bonsai. If you’d like flowers, azaleas and bougainvillea bloom well; Bonsai Empire has a list of ten flowering bonsai. To explore more species, see this list of species used in bonsai.
Where to Get Your First Bonsai
Many beginners start with a “mallsai”, a cheap bonsai sold in shopping centres. They can be fun, but if you’re serious there are better ways to get your first tree. Here are the five main ones.
Seed. There’s something special about a tree you grew from nothing, but it takes around two years before a seedling is strong enough to style.
Cuttings. You take a branch from a healthy tree and plant it to grow as a new tree. It keeps the character of its parent, but it still takes time, and you need a good tree to take the cutting from.
Grafting or layering. These also take time and skill you probably don’t have yet. Bonsai Empire explains air layering and grafting if you’d like to read up.
Collecting from the wild. Trees shaped by nature are called yamadori, and fans of The Karate Kid films will remember a tree collected from a cliff face. It’s not for beginners: you need to know which trees are suitable and how to move them safely. In Australia, collecting plants from the wild needs the landholder’s permission and is illegal in national parks.
Buying a pre-grown tree. This is the best place to start. The learning curve is gentler and you’ll have something beautiful sooner. You still need to judge a tree for yourself, so take someone experienced along if you can, or watch Mark D’Cruz of Mă-Kè Bonsai explain how to choose a bonsai tree. Specialist bonsai nurseries and club sales are better places to buy than a shopping centre.
Once you have your first tree, the next job is keeping it alive.
Keeping Your Bonsai Alive and Healthy
You can have all the styling skills in the world, but they’re wasted if your trees keep dying. Many people kill trees when they start out. Follow the tips in this chapter and you won’t be one of them.
Watering
Watering is one of the fundamentals of bonsai care. Most people know trees die without water, but fewer realise that overwatering can also be fatal: if water sits in the pot, the roots rot.
Water when the top of the soil just starts to dry out, never on a fixed timetable. In an Australian summer, that can mean every day for many trees, and sometimes twice on a hot, windy day. Use a watering can with a fine rose, and water until it runs from the drainage holes.
Yellowing leaves are a common warning sign. The usual cause is overwatering or poor drainage, but underwatering, too little light, cold or simple seasonal leaf drop can do it too.
Here’s a good guide to watering bonsai.
The Right Soil
Using the right soil from the start is just as important. Bonsai soil is classified by texture and type. The size of the pot sets the texture you need, while the species, and whether the tree is in training, decide the type.
Soil gets complicated quickly: you need to understand drainage and the many components you can use. Kaizen Bonsai has a great guide to choosing soil for bonsai, and this research by a Finger Lakes Bonsai Society member is well worth a read.
Repotting Your Bonsai
Repotting is another skill you’ll need to master. A tree’s roots grow outward looking for nutrients, and your bonsai doesn’t know it’s in a pot. Eventually the roots become so dense that the tree struggles to feed itself.
Before that happens, take the tree out of its pot, trim the roots back and repot it. This repotting guide explains the process step by step, and this masterclass with Nobu Kajiwara shows how it’s done.
Bare Rooting
Even the best soil doesn’t last forever. Over time it breaks down, usually within about five years, and stops doing its job. Replacing all the old soil with fresh soil is called bare rooting: you take the tree out of its pot and carefully remove the soil from the roots, often with bamboo chopsticks.
Whether to bare root is debated among bonsai growers, but if you’d like to see it done, here’s a video on bare rooting bonsai trees.
Fertiliser
Trees in the wild send roots far and wide in search of nutrients. A bonsai is confined to its pot, and the soil quickly runs out of food, so you need to fertilise regularly.
A balanced fertiliser, with similar amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, suits most trees. Don’t overfeed, as too much can damage the roots. Orlando Bonsai TV explains fertilisers for bonsai in more detail.
Pests
Humans aren’t the only creatures that enjoy bonsai. Make a close inspection part of your weekly routine: ants, aphids, scale and boring insects can all do serious harm, and caterpillars can strip a small tree quickly.
This guide to bonsai problems and solutions will help you identify and treat common pests.
Weeding
Weeds steal the nutrients your bonsai needs, so pull them as part of your regular routine. It’s straightforward, but the AusBonsai wiki has a short guide on how to weed a bonsai.
Bonsai and Pets
Shrinking a tree doesn’t change its chemistry: a plant that is toxic at full size is just as toxic as a bonsai. Jade (Crassula), azalea, sago palm and fig (Ficus) bonsai are all toxic to cats and dogs, according to the ASPCA plant list. Keep them out of reach of pets that like to chew, and check any new species before you bring it home.
For flowers that are safe around animals, see our list of 15 pet-safe flowers for cats and dogs. If you think your pet has eaten a toxic plant, call your vet or the Animal Poisons Helpline (1300 869 738) straight away.
Is My Bonsai Dead?
Scratch a twig gently with your fingernail. Green under the bark means that part is alive; brown and brittle means it’s dead. Check several branches and the trunk before you give up, as a tree can lose some branches and still recover.
Styling Your Bonsai
Once you can keep a bonsai alive, you can start on the fun part: turning an ordinary tree into something breathtaking.
Styling Fundamentals
Styling is the heart of bonsai. It’s what people picture when they think of bonsai, and it continues for the life of the tree.
Before you do anything drastic, study the tree as it is and decide what you’re aiming for. Look at other bonsai for inspiration.
Styling usually starts with the trunk. Once the trunk is right, wire the branches into shape, then prune the tree to refine it. That’s easier said than done, so the resources at the end of this guide go into the specifics.
Thickening the Trunk
A thick, tapering trunk makes a bonsai look old. The trunk thickens fastest when the tree grows freely, so many growers plant it in the ground or a large pot for a few seasons, or let “sacrifice” branches grow long before cutting them off. This video on how to thicken trunks shows the main techniques.
Wiring Your Bonsai
Wire lets you bend branches into the shape you want and hold them there until the tree sets in its new position.
How long that takes depends on how fast the species grows and on the season, which also varies by species. Typical times range from two or three weeks to several months. Check often, because wire left on too long bites into the bark.
Remove the wire carefully so you don’t damage the tree. Some experienced artists unwind it by hand, but many more simply cut it off at the bends. Ryan Neil of Bonsai Mirai has a fantastic tutorial on detail wiring.
Pruning Your Bonsai
Once the trunk and branches are where you want them, it’s time to prune. Pruning the roots and branches, and pinching back new growth, is also what keeps a bonsai small. Pruning is a deep subject, and good training materials help. This short video from Peter Warren will get you started: Styling Your First Bonsai Tree.
Choosing Your Pot
Bonsai isn’t bonsai without a pot, and the pot matters for looks as well as function. The right pot shows off your tree the way a frame shows off a painting.
Bonsai pots are shallow because the pot restricts the roots, and so the size of the tree. As a rule of thumb, slanting bonsai suit round pots, upright bonsai suit oval or rectangular pots, and cascades need tall pots. The colour should contrast with the tree.
These videos will help you choose: bonsai pots by Bonsai Empire and a pot selection guide by Mark D’Cruz.
12 Tips From Bonsai Experts
We recently published an article featuring some of the most influential bonsai artists from outside Japan. We asked them for tips for beginners, and here’s what they said.
Beginners need to get guidance from those who have gone before through clubs, literature, the internet, etc. However, there is no substitute for hands on experience creating one’s own bonsai. With practice, one learns and improves. A great book for beginners is “BONSAI” by Peter Warren. – Julian Adams
Buy a decent pre-trained tree or at least find a nursery plant already with a good trunk that you can form your bonsai from. A good start is the best start. Get all the knowledge you can and listen to experienced people in a local club. – Morten Albek
My advice is do not have too many trees. Only have the number of trees that you can comfortably look after. In the initial stages one collects, grows and buys everything to feed your passion and you end up with a garden full of mediocre trees at best that all need care.
Limit yourself to just a few each year but make the ones that you do obtain special. The material you select is also very important. You cannot make a good bonsai out of poor material and choose only plant that are suited to your garden. – John Armitage
Latch onto a mentor that you feel really knows how to do bonsai and can back it up with the trees they have. Also, jump in but keep in mind the most important aspect of bonsai; healthy trees! You can work on the advanced techniques later. – Lee Cheatle
Never be afraid to try something new… whether it be a design, technique, or something that’s just simply not in the “books.” Start inexpensively. – James Doyle
Don’t have too few trees. Get enough so you can keep occupied, and learning, and most importantly not be nags to our trees. They need a break, they need to grow. And don’t specialize too early. Explore.
Ultimately about 20-30 trees is more than enough for even serious, skilled enthusiasts to keep in top shape. The most useful study is from blogs, videos, and especially in-person teachers—all those are preferable to books. – Michael Hagedorn
Learn as much as you can from people that have good trees. Once you have learned, start with the best possible material so that your trees can be the best they can be. – Rob Kempinski
I suggest to all beginners to seek out the most accurate and scientific based information that is available to them. There is a lot misinformation in the world of bonsai, particularly anecdotal information that can lead practitioners down the wrong path. – Ryan Neil
Start with a great trunk. Starting with a seedling is unproductive and fraught with time waiting for it to become great. It’s a 200 year plan. Growing a top is easy. So start with an interesting or exciting trunk. – Dan Robinson
My most important advice would be to find a good teacher to start your study with. Although there are a few professionals who self taught, it is much more advantageous to learn from someone who is proficient at it.
Secondly, have an open mind with your chosen teacher. There is a lot of bad information on the internet and in old books that you will probably assume is true but can be corrected with better information. – John Romano
Try to find someone to guide you, whose work you like and you can relate to. Someone who actually creates bonsai, rather than someone who buys finished specimen bonsai. Or someone who talks bonsai but you never see them create a bonsai. There are a lot of the latter about. – Steve Tolley
Understanding how trees grow as living objects is the first step, appreciating and empathising with their light, water and temperature requirements to thrive. If you can keep it alive, then you can worry about the style. Also pruning the tree should make it stronger by generating younger newer branches. It isn’t going to damage it. – Peter Warren
Recommended Resources
By now you should have enough to whet your appetite, but not nearly enough to make you an expert. The hard part today isn’t finding resources but knowing which to trust. These are ones we’ve found useful or that bonsai experts have recommended to us.
The Best Books on Bonsai
There are more than a thousand books on bonsai. Here are a handful of our favourites:
Bonsai by Peter Warren (DK)
Bonsai: The Beginner’s Guide by Bonsai Empire
The Complete Book of Bonsai: A Practical Guide to Its Art and Cultivation by Harry Tomlinson
Bonsai Techniques (Vols 1 and 2) by John Naka (hard to find, but worth the effort)
The Best Bonsai Websites
The Best Bonsai YouTube Channels
Bonsai is a visual art, so video is one of the best ways to learn. These channels are a good starting point:
Bonsai Clubs
Hands-on experience is one of the best ways to learn, and a local club is the easiest way to meet people who can teach you. Every Australian state has bonsai clubs and societies, and the AusBonsai community is a good place to connect with Australian growers. For clubs elsewhere, Bonsai Empire keeps a list of bonsai clubs around the world.
Bonsai and Plants as Gifts
Our aim was to take you from complete beginner to knowing the path ahead, and whether it’s the right path for you. A bonsai makes a thoughtful gift for a patient gardener. If it all seems like a bit much, a potted plant is an easier way to start.
Browse our indoor and potted plants, with same-day delivery when you order before the daily cut-off.