The honest bonsai reference,
reviewed by named experts.
Most bonsai content online is recycled folklore — “water once a week”, “indoor bonsai is fine anywhere”, “junipers are easy”. This site isn’t. 1,950+ guides, every claim cited to USDA, ASPCA, university extensions and 18 named masters. Reviewed by an ISA-certified arborist, licensed horticulturist, and DVM.
New to bonsai? Start here →
My tree looks sick
Yellow leaves, drooping, dropping needles, brown tips? Walk through the diagnostic in 60 seconds — symptom → cause → fix.
Start diagnostic →I just got my first bonsai
Identify the species, set up the right light and water for week one, and read the 5 mistakes that kill most first trees.
Beginner guide →I’m choosing a species
Filter 195 species hubs by zone, indoor/outdoor, difficulty, and pet-safety. Latin names and care snapshots included.
Browse species →I’m learning a technique
Canonical guides — watering, repotting, wiring, pruning, styling. Cited to named masters and university research.
Technique library →From identifying your first tree to wiring your hundredth. Each pillar maps to a real reader need — not an org chart.
Species
195 species hubs — juniper, maple, ficus, pine, oak, more. Each with botanical profile, USDA zone, ASPCA toxicity, care snapshot, common problems, propagation, varieties.
Browse species →
Care & Techniques
Watering, soil, repotting, fertilising, placement, seasonal calendars. The canonical method per task, with species-specific deviations flagged.
Browse care guides →
Styling & Design
The 18 classical forms — from chokkan to bunjin. Wiring, pruning, deadwood, branch development. Cited to Naka, Yoshimura, Valavanis.
Browse styling →
Problem Solving
Yellow leaves, pests, root rot, branch dieback, watering stress. Diagnostic-led — symptoms in, cause and fix out.
Diagnose a problem →
Beginners
Picking your first tree, indoor vs outdoor, the 8-week first care routine, and the 5 mistakes that kill most first bonsai.
Start with the basics →
Inspiration & Culture
History from Heian Japan to today, named masters (Kimura, Naka, Pall), gardens and museums, kokufu-ten, related arts.
Browse culture →Every guide that touches their domain crosses their desk before publishing. State licences, ISA numbers, and university affiliations linked in each bio. Not “our team” — names you can verify.
Your tree is telling you something.
Most bonsai problems are reversible in their first 14 days. Pick the symptom you’re seeing — the diagnostic walks you through the likely cause and the specific fix, by species.
Open diagnostic tool →Three things that make this site different from the recycled bonsai content you’ve already found.
Every claim has a named source
USDA hardiness zones cite the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Toxicity cites ASPCA per species. Care claims cite university extensions (Cornell, Oregon State, UF/IFAS) and peer-reviewed journals (HortScience, Scientia Horticulturae). Technique claims cite named masters — Valavanis, Hagedorn, Neil, Dupuich. No “many growers say” filler.
Sources policyEvery guide is dated and reviewed
Each guide carries a visible “last reviewed” date. Cornerstones get a full editorial review at least annually; problem and seasonal pages refresh quarterly. When evidence shifts we update — and we log corrections publicly, never silently. The methodology page lists every change we’ve made.
Review cadence · Correction logWhere we ran the experiment ourselves
Eight original research datasets — akadama bulk-density across six brands, watering-frequency by species across twelve months, cold-hardiness real-world survival, pot-material drainage tests. Raw CSV datasets published openly under CC BY 4.0 so other practitioners can verify or challenge.
Original research · /data/Deep, regularly-reviewed reference guides. Each shows its last review date — and what changed at that review.
Each species hub covers botanical profile, ID, hardiness, ASPCA toxicity (DVM-reviewed), care snapshot, problems, propagation, varieties and a gallery.
Pet-safe
Pet-safe
Pet-safe
Pet-safe
Pet-safe
Pet-safe
We update visibly
Bonsai evidence changes. New research, corrected myths, reader-flagged errors. We log every meaningful editorial change on a public page — no silent rewrites.
See the full correction log →Where we couldn’t find a reliable source for a reader’s question, we ran the experiment. Eight datasets, CC BY 4.0, cited from the relevant care guides.
Selected from comments, emails, and the onboarding survey. Edited only for length; verifying details kept.
The bonsai industry sells the dream. We’d rather sell you on the reality first — because the people who succeed are the people who weren’t sold to.
Still here? The Picking Your First Bonsai guide walks through indoor vs outdoor, your USDA zone, and the 5 species worth your first try — plus the 5 mistakes most beginners make.
This site is written and edited by working bonsai practitioners — not freelance content writers. Every guide is grounded in trees we actually maintain, sources we can point you to, and the honest admission that some questions still don’t have clean answers.
The bonsai starter pack.
A printable PDF: the 8-week first-tree care calendar, the watering chopstick test, the 5 species worth your first try by USDA zone, the 5 mistakes that kill most first bonsai. Plus one short email a week — new guides, seasonal reminders, no spam.
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