Best japanese gardening books according to redditors

A bonsai post on /r/pics got me into it a few years ago.


First of all, it's a damn expensive hobby. Good tools cost money and if you go the route of buying trees from a real bonsai farm they are incredibly expensive. Like, $100 will get you something that looks okay but still needs about 5 years to be anything worth showing. It's obviously cheaper to buy stock yourself from a garden center, but you're still paying $20 for each bush you want to cut up.


The way I got into it was reading lots of stuff online. I was really taken in by the process of how you can start with something from Home Depot and get it to look interesting and then a few years later actually look like a small tree. It's pretty magical. The thing is it takes lots of practice and knowledge and that's where the classes and books and videos and blogs come in. Your best bet is to have someone help you either at a club or a class or something, but it isn't mandatory, I'm antisocial so I haven't yet been to one. I've been reading a lot of books and I've made a lot of mistakes but I've learned a ton.


Lastly, I'm going to suggest you don't buy what we call mallsai. These are the things they tell you are bonsai but are actually tiny-ass plants with rocks glued on. They tell you they can live indoors but that's a lie. They will die in a year or two and they are a complete rip-off. Go to Home Depot in the spring, buy a $10 juniper and cut it yourself. It will look better and you will have made your first bonsai.


TLDR; Read all of the books you can find. Read blog posts. Go to a club meeting if you have one nearby. Be warned its very expensive and don't get ripped off.

EDIJT: Here's a couple of great books: https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Workshop-Our-Garden-Variety/dp/0806905573/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1510269864&sr=8-11&keywords=bonsai+books

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Bonsai-Harry-Tomlinson/dp/0863184847/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&qid=1510269899&sr=8-26&keywords=bonsai+books

You'll notice there's never a simple, step-by-step and that's because there's different ways of making a bonsai and different things you have to do during the process. I've found that's it's one of those disciplines that is really learn-by-doing and figure-it-out-as-you-go. That's also why clubs are popular because hands-on instruction helps a lot.

I read the hell out of this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Bonsai-Workshop-Garden-Variety/dp/0806905573

Also you would be surprised at how many bonsai books libraries usually have. The information in them usually doesn't go out of date, except maybe concerning some equipment.

Gustafson covers everything you need to know at a beginner level in that book, from light to pests to repotting to tools to techniques to history to tree varieties based on climate. The guy is a cross between a genius and an encyclopedia when it comes to bonsai.

For the starter tree I would recommend getting a $20-40 ficus or box bonsai from home depot or similar. They're pretty common from asian companies, and they come in a crappy pot with some rocks super glued on top. I would repot it (with no root trimming) promptly into a larger pot, getting rid of the rocks and decorations.

You'll want to put it in your own soil mix based on Gustafson's recommendations. Imho there's nothing that quite gets you into the feel of a tree as making the dirt for it to grow in. I was a fan of mixing my own using peat, perlite and sand, sometimes using coarser materials for larger pots. You'll want to rinse the sand thoroughly as sometimes it's rather polluted from rivers. For a small ficus though, peat, perlite and sand will do you fine.

With mixing your own dirt you'll want to get some good quality fertilizer to use regularly as the dirt won't have fertilizer in it like miracle grow potting mix. Iirc gustafson has some recommendations about that also. Protip: I had a small aquarium that I never treated with chemical medicine with just some guppies, and the fish crap water I would suck up out of the gravel made the best fertilizer water I've ever used ever. That stuff was awesome, and because it wasn't strong and contained no salts, like miracle grow or similar products, I could use it daily if I wanted.

You'll want to get some tools based on the recommendations in gustafson's books, and there's tons of websites out there now that offer solid tools at affordable prices. I would just start with a solid pair of thinning shears, a pair of heavy duty shears for larger twigs and roots, and a pair of concave cutters. When you're accustomed to keeping the tree alive then you can move to wiring and all the fancy stuff, and you'll know where to go then. =)

Also if you're looking for decoration around your tree (if you have one inside) then I recommend these guys from the awesome california carnivores company: http://www.californiacarnivores.com/tillandsiaairplantcollection.aspx

edit

Interesting note that I remembered since I was recommending home depot, gustafson has several examples of pruning initially regular looking plants into shohin and mame bonsai in his miniature bonsai book. To be honest, chopping up a couple of boxwoods from home depot is probably the best way to get your feet wet the fastest in this art.

edit edit

I've run into a couple of shady places selling "kits" that include seeds. Don't bother. Your best bet is to start with a 3-5 year old shrub. The fastest way to fall out of love with bonsai is to start with a seed.

I bought a tree from bonsai boy on Amazon.com when I was stationed in Texas, along with some of the other things to raise it like a drip tray, fertilizer pellets, and this $5 book.

It arrived in great shape, was pretty low-maintenance, and had a soothing presence. It's still in good shape now from what former co-workers tell me. It worked great for a starter.

Harry Tomlinson - here - also this

Harry Harrington - basics

If you trunk chop at the right time of year (very early spring), new shoots will grow below the cut that will eventually form new branches.

This is a good book on japanese maple bonsai, and covers trunk chops, among other techniques.

It's a long process, but will eventually achieve the results you are looking for.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you get an appropriate species
  
  
• Look carefully for grafting marks. Often what you see on the top of the tree has been grafted onto a trunk of a different species or cultivar. In other words, you could do a trunk chop and what grows back won't be what you were expecting.
  
  
• Focus on trunk width and roots (nebari). If you're going to do this much work, you may as well start with something desirable.
  
  
• If you wait until the end of the season, you can often get a much better price. I've gotten some great deals in September/October.
  
  Also, if you don't want to do this much work, you could always order one online if you can't find one local.
  
  It also looks like you have the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society as well - you might have some luck with that. On their site, they list some local shops that aren't too far away from Philly.
  

I ordered Peter Adams’ maple book after seeing loads of people here recommend it

Buy it new and support his estate -- he was a great man that never really fiscally benefited from the artistic rigor he brought to our hobby. Not shaming, simply suggesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Shipping a tropical tree in winter is a terrible idea. If temps drop and shipping gets delayed (both likely around Christmas), you end up receiving a very dead tree.

The only way I'd get a tropical right now is if I could go to an actual garden center/greenhouse and buy one that I could see and immediately take home with me that day.

And as the guy who wrote that wiki page on gifting trees - my strongest possible recommendation is to buy her some really nice bonsai books instead, or a bonsai class in the spring if there's a place near you that offers them.

• This is a good book
  
  
• So is this.
  
  
• And this one too.
  
  You can even make it a couple's project to go and pick out some nursery stock in the spring (or a finished tree, if you prefer) and work on it together. Or you could buy two seats to that bonsai class instead of one.
  

Yes, I can definitely expand on those subjects - I just didn't want to go into more detail on a subject you didn't originally ask for unless you were interested.

1. Indoors, I imagine your temperatures are above 60 or even 70F (sorry, my Celsius knowledge is sorely inadequete - 23C?) year round. If the tree senses colder temperatures below a certain level, the tree will drop its leaves and go dormant like all the oaks or maples. If the tree is only exposed to the warmer conditions, the tree will mostly maintain its leaves throughout winter.
   
   
2. Indoor conditions are very static compared to outdoors. There is less airflow, less temperature fluctuation, less difference between day and night cycles based on artificial light use, and generally less light in total compared to outside. Trees have evolved to grow best outdoors and although outdoor trees are more susceptible to pests and weather, we as bonsai hobbyists can monitor conditions to help our trees if their natural defenses fail or if a unseasonable storm is coming. The light, temperature, and humidity outdoors compared to indoors especially I think contribute to our bonsai growing faster and being healthier outdoors. A lot of indoor bonsai especially away from windows are less vigorous and that means they may be less tolerant to a mistake on your part of watering or may die of their own accord.
   Also, make sure any tree you keep indoors is tropical. Junipers are commonly sold to beginners as bonsai, but they are advertised by those who don't know better as indoor trees. Such species need winter dormancy or they will eventually die.
   
   
3. Thanks for filling in your flair - I hope you will enjoy your bonsai and grow in this hobby with us!
   
   
4. I don't know exactly how amazon works over there or if you will have the same sales as the US, but I was recommending some beginner books to someone else recently and noticed both are on sale. I highly recommend a thorough beginner book to help you with basic concepts when starting out.
   This is the book I first got when I entered bonsai many years ago - still good and sustained my interest even after some initial trees died.
   https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Survival-Manual-Tree-Tree/dp/0882668536
   
   I got this beginner book a while back and it also Is well written and has tons of useful basic information for your beginner journey.
   https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586

That book looks like it actually has useful detail. Think I'll pick up a copy. Here is a link to a substantially cheaper copy if others are interested--$20 instead of $56.

Saredo Tsumibito wa Ryuu to Odoru -Dances with the Dragons

Miss Fabre no Almas Givrer

9S

The internet is an excellent place, and honestly I would start with subreddits. Once you have exhausted their FAQ's, there are a lot of books on bonsai, I really like The Complete Book of Bonsai. It is the only non-internet, non-human rescource I have needed. Great guides on every aspect of raising, buying, and caring for a bonsai. Your best bet would be to do some preliminary research and talk to someone at a nursery with bonsai. With beekeeping, I cannot state how beneficial a local beekeeper was for me. I offered to work for free for a weekend and learned more in one day than I had from almost all the internet. I guess I would say do research online, find out basically how they work, then get out there and see it! You will probably make a few small mistakes early on, but just having a person to talk to helps greatly. Hope I helped and keep the questions coming.

Here's an earlier edition. That tree on the front cover! and the first sentence of the description says

'Don’t buy a scrawny, mass-produced bonsai tree from the shopping mall.'

http://www.amazon.com/Indoor-Bonsai-For-Beginners-Selection/dp/0706375831

Does anyone know anything about the author? I recently bought the book below, which I thought was quite good, but now I'm not sure. Maybe he just didn't choose the front cover.

http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Native-Werner-M-Busch/dp/0715303368

Love maples. Cuttings are difficult. Air Layer is easier and faster way to a specimen tree. If you control access to the parent tree, mulch under it and collect babies in the spring with a spoon after their second true leaves form. I've collected 50 at a time like this with 100% survival rate. Get Peter Adams book on bonsai with maples. He has lots of good techniques.

Fill in your flair. Honestly my advice is to pick up a couple of nice books with that money before you dive in. Here are a few you might consider:

• Bonsai Basics
  
• Bonsai4Me Series.
  
• Bonsai - techniques, styles, display ideas. Haven't read this myself yet but Peter Warren was involved so I'm sure its high quality.

Just start from a new tree and make one yourself. Great resource.

https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-Beginners-Bible-Peter-Chan/dp/178472369X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=peter+chan&qid=1570281843&sr=8-1

And


https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=bonsai+books&qid=1570281874&sr=8-2

Inb4 the Peter Adams book that I've ordered, not yet read - http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Heard good stuff about this one!

Plant them in the ground if possible. Wait at least 2 full growth seasons. Read this in the meantime.

If you can't plant them in the ground get them into some better draining soil, and a pot like an anderson flat. If you're serious, I'd also seriously consider purchasing Peter Adam's book on Japanese Maples.

Check the links on the sidebar ->

For now I will give a couple quick answers....

-I have never done seeds, so I don't know of the best seed places.

-There are no "good indoor deciduous trees." Deciduous means that a tree loses it's leaves seasonally. You can't have a tree like that indoors because when they aren't exposed to the temp changes outside, they will just die. I will go ahead and assume you meant "I want a tree with regular leafing, not needles, etc." In that case you can't go wrong with a ficus (benjamina or microcarpa would be good).

-For materials your really jumping-the-gun. At best you might need a small pot or series of small pots for your seeds, and soil. Before the seeds pop, a fluorescent light. Then it will be another 2 years at LEAST before you need to look into bigger pots, tools, wiring, etc.

-Same goes with root pruning. You are years away from that.

-For book, you don't NEED one. I have only ever had one. Nearly all the info it contains is available in the links on the sidebar, or in several bonsai forums, but the pictures are inspiring. The author also created a smaller and cheaper book with just the general stuff.

ha "winter" you don't know winter! :) you can grow almost anything where you are.

a bonsai is a bad idea as a gift, but a bonsai book is a good idea. i got a bonsai4me book by harry harrington (www.bonsai4me.com) on my kindle, and read a lot of stuff online but this book has been suggested.

bonsai's can literally last 100's of years, some are older than Canada and Australia. the most satisfying result i get from having one is watching it grow and the transformation that occurs yearly. The downsides are, if i was to go away for 3 weeks i would need to worry about my trees, but it's possible to leave them with proper precautions. I inspect my trees daily in the summer to make sure they're watered and pest free, so there is a daily time commitment that's required, in the winter we have snow here and most of them get buried in it, i hardly see my trees from dec-feb :)

so just to recap, don't buy a tree as a gift. A good bonsai book will be an eye opener to anyone that's interested in bonsai but has never dived in. good luck!

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

This cause i always wanted one and since that's cheap This so i don't kill it :P

Chuck Finley

if you like maples, may I suggest Peter Adams' quintessential work on maples in bonsai. THE best book on working with maples. Couldn't recommend it enough.

http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Just bought it on Amazon. Used hardcover.
http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425446690&sr=8-1&keywords=bonsai+with+japanese+maples
I browsed through the pages and it looks great. I'm actually going to give it to my friend. He has two 4 year old and really good looking Japanese Maples. He's my tree service buddy and basically creates actual size bonsai for a living. I'm pretty much trying to shove him into this hobby...

I assume you've seen these:

https://www.bonsaifocus.com/en/single-issues/english

http://www.kusamurabonsai.org/ClubLibrary/BonsaiFocus.pdf

​

https://www.amazon.ca/Index-Bonsai-Focus-Magazine-Issues/dp/0994453809/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=Bonsai+Focus+Magazine&qid=1556804873&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull

​

https://www.amazon.ca/Index-Issues-Bonsai-Focus-Magazine/dp/0987356224

That's a bit unconventional, but it could still be fun. There was a whole book about that kind of thing, but certainly not one would use for one's best trees.

Long internodes are common after a hard chop, because there are fewer buds that can receive the tree's energy from the roots. You're many years away from having to worry about ramification with these trees, though.

This is a solid book on maples that covers a lot of topics: https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Dont know if you're in europe, but here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bonsai-Workshop-Herb-Gustafson/dp/0806905565/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1419441507 this is even hardcover

Wow, what an incredible reply with so much good information! If its okay with you, I'd like to follow up in numeric bullets below:

1. I'm a little tight on money, so now getting a fabric pot would be something I couldn't immediately do. I will keep it in the plastic for the winter, and then do you think it would be okay to repot (possibly to a fabric pot) come spring? Should I look for a pot that's larger than its current pot so it has extra room to grow?
   
   
2. Come spring, would it be okay to do a little pruning to begin to reveal some of the trunk, etc and help promote some growth?
   
   
3. Regarding reading, I joined the Reddit subthread, and also picked up Bonsai Workshop and have been going throw that. Any other great books you recommend?
   
   
4. I picked up some tools already - these Shears, and this wire. I'm hoping to get some concave cutters next. Also, here's the pot I had picked up thinking that I would already be translating -- anything i can put in here for time being? haha.
   
   
5. Allshapes Bonsai is only an hour away, so that would be a nice Sunday trip with my wife. If I picked up an indoor Tropical guy, I assume it would be okay to put him in the new pot and prune, etc right? Any certain types you recommend for this?
   
   
6. I'm 15 minutes into that Bonsai Mirai video and I'm in love already. This is going to be really helpful, so thank you!
   
   

The only book I see by Walter is Bonsai: a beginners guide but I did find a post of his recommending Modern Bonsai Practice: 501 Principles of Good Bonsai Horticulture written by Larry W Morton, is that the one?

I have a copy of Bonsai 101 Essential Tips by Harry Tomlinson. It outlines the basics of bonsai in a quick and easy to digest manner. It will definitely get you started on your journey. That combined with some research into the types of trees your using should be more than enough to begin.

Heh, well welcome to the hobby. I must say that its been my experience that there are two... groups? in the hobby at the moment. Alot of the knowledgeable, experienced people tend to be a bit older, and hence not as computer savy. This can probably explain the lack of polished web pages devoted to bonsai.

If there is a bonsai club in your area, I'd suggest joining them and attending their meetings. There are two equi distant from where I live, and both of them have monthly meetings, demonstrations, etc. that are very informative. Both have many people who have been doing bonsai for longer than I've been alive.

If you are looking for a book, many of them will go over the same information (repotting, the basic styles, basic propagation methods, etc.) and then something else. This book is fairly decent in that it shows pictures of 50 trees at various points in their lives:

http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Life-Histories-Lives-Photos/dp/1552096157

Its very interesting to see the progression of a tree over a decade.

The last bit of adivce I can give is to subscribe to Bonsai Focus (http://www.bonsaifocus.com/) a bi monthly magazine devoted (obviously) to bonsai. Each issue contains a gallery of very nice bonsai, a tree critique (send a picture of a pre bonsai and getting different suggestions with drawings of how to style it), a "master class" where they demonstrate an advance technique, and a couple of styling demonstrations with explanations of why the artist chose to do it the way it was done. Plus a few other minor features... All in all, its very informative, and again, inspiring.

I'm pretty new to the whole bonsai thing myself and I found this book Bonsai 101 Essential Tips pretty helpful, it gives a ton of basic simple info and it's pretty cheap.