New World Bonsai

05/28/2026

This native muscadine grape went through the mercurial 25' Winter season and lost a few branches as a result. My area experienced a roughly 50F temperature swing in few days. This appears to be the reason for die back on many young branches of typically very cold hardy trees.

My joke is that every year you grow bonsai you'll have a brand new problem to figure out. So for that seems to hold true.

Photos from May and then before the major cold in 25'.

05/24/2026

A big thanks to BSF, all the volunteers, and everyone for coming out to the 2026 state wide show.

Today is the last day of sales and there are still a few gems left at my tables!

05/14/2026

Deciduous can take a long time to grow and heal the trunk but then it's a flury of work to build the rest!

This sarusuberi or monkey slip was already ready for another wiring after about five weeks.

Photo series show the tree from today in May -> April -> December 25'

04/14/2026

The Shuchu study group tackled two Trident maple this past weekend. We collectively talked about how to advance each tree to excentuate its best qualities.

The first maple, was a root over rock that we decided was basically ready to trunk chop. The top was air layered and then we added an approach graft to speed up this transition. This tree will be trained much lower to frame the rock with the a dramatic left branch hanging quite low.

The second maple was grown by Cliff Potberg in Florida and is roughly 30 years old. Although the trunk is a little funny and has some flaws we decided the age of the trunk was more important than trunk chopping to fix its flaws and increase taper. The final vision is penjing-esque, bringing the key branch dramatically down. We also drew inspiration from some of the less traditional but incredible maple Mr. Tanaka has grown.

03/30/2026

Had an incredible time at Larry's place in Dallas. I was lucky enough to be able to snag a beautiful one seed juniper and some Jim Barrett pots.

Thanks so much for having me out. I'm excited for the world to see more of your collected trees in the future!

02/05/2026

Just a quick announcement for all Shuchu bonsai study group members. This month we will meet on the 14th and 15th.

Lastly, in lieu of a monthly newsletter I've made a Shuchu compendium (linked below) with a care calendar to help you pick which trees to bring at each months meetup. I'll continue to update this compendium and would appreciate any feedback and suggestions. Thank you!

This Compendium is a regularly updated resource for the Shuchu study group. Soil is always available at each meeting 3/8" to 1/4" pumice 1/4" to fines black lava The following calendar will help you determine which trees should be brought in for work at each meeting. January Repotting all cold hardy...

02/05/2026

Hey folks, I'm excited to announce I will be Florida's sole supplier of Microlife organic fertilizer.

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To kick things off I'm offering preorder discounts for the following items. Please send me a message or text with what you'd like. I'm expecting the first shipment to come in by the end of March to make sure our Spring season is a big success.

MicroLife Ultimate 8-4-6 - 40lb bag $100 retail $85 preorder special
MicroLife Multi-purpose 6-2-4 - 40lb bag $80 retail $65 preorder special
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For more info please check out Microlife's website:
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01/26/2026

I was surprised when Boon asked me to wire his Mortal Combat juniper and jumped at the learning opportunity.

At this stage most primary branches have already been set and now the secondary branches were ready to be built. The focus at this session is on developing good branch structure as opposed to wiring for an instant bonsai. Building good structure allows shimpaku to be easily maintained as a bonsai for a decade or two without having to continually to wire.

Third photo is before working, second photo is my stab at it, and the first photo is after Boon's corrections. Awesome tree, can't wait to see how it matures!

01/22/2026

Some more trees making their way through the workshop. The large maple's branches were reset to rebuild better structure.

The large Sierra juniper's approach grafts all took and could be cut away from their own roots. This is the end result of the slot graft method.

01/20/2026

Happy to be able to help Boon with a client in Napa valley. The views and company are great.