An inspirational guide from an internationally known Bonsai master. Principles, styles and techniques: more than 90 illustrations, including over 60 specifically commissioned photographs

Miniature gardens are becoming increasingly popular. Bonsai Landscapes reworks the enduring appeal of the bonsai to create whole mini-landscapes. The author, Peter Adams, has 40 years experience in bonsai design and growing and has created some of the bonsai held in the British National Collection.

The book is designed to take the enthusiast through the process of creating these landscapes. Adams begins by looking at the different examples of miniature landscapes, using plants including Japanese and trident maples, “Seiju” elm, and American larch. He includes some interesting examples from both well-known growers and amateurs, using plants from a variety of nurseries worldwide. All of the landscapes featured have been planted for a number of years. Adams gives the height and age of the plants as well as details of the container used so that you can recreate a similar effect.

The book begins with the basics, listing the tools and materials you will need to create your bonsai landscape. Adams considers the differences among accent plants that define the landscape, accessory plants that create surface texture, and rocks that are brought in to suggest cliffs and ravines. Soil type, container, and tools and sundries are all listed for a successfully completed project.

Adams goes on to offer advice on choosing and shaping plants and includes a glossary of the most commonly available bonsai plants and how they will work within a miniature landscape. The back of the book has a tree-care directory. Adams’s methodical analysis of 13 projects, with accompanying line drawings and photographs, makes it easy for anyone to achieve this novel effect. –Karen Homer

Bonsai, the art of growing a potted plant in miniature, is becoming increasingly popular. Adams, a leading bonsai expert, gives detailed instructions on creating 13 individual landscapes, including a 7-trunk Chinese juniper resting on a Japanese stone, a 9-tree grouping of elms, an 11-tree landscape-box evergreen, and a 5-trunk grouping of western hemlocks on a volcanic stone. Instructions list the components needed for each project, suggest methods of assembling the groupings, and give specific feeding and watering requirements. There are also chapters supplying general information on tools and materials, choosing and shaping plants, creating landscapes, and making a rock planter. Any reader with perserverance will be greatly rewarded with the results. Photographs by Bill Jordan, along with helpful drawings, are included George Cohen

Chye Tan, a well-known bonsai expert, has over 20 years’ experience of growing bonsai. He has studied with various internationally renowned bonsai masters, including the Japanese expert Hotsumi Terakawa and Belgian master Danny Use, who organises the most prestigious bonsai show in Europe. Chye lives in Holland.

Adapts the basic principles and techniques of the Japanese art of dwarfing trees to soil types, weather conditions, fertilizers, and native species found in the United States.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Every bit as good as the first volume. Though both show the master at work, the focus in volume 2 is more on how-to, step-by-step transformations and the thinking that goes into creating some of the worlds greatest masterpieces.

Master Masahiko Kimura, also known as The Magician, is the most famous bonsai master ever. Because of his willingness to break with convention, many in Japan refused to take him seriously, at least in the early years. Now, no one disputes Kimuras genius or his pioneering position in the bonsai world.

8 x 11 1/2 178 pages

((Revised author bio for the new in paper edition of Bonsai with Beginners))
About the Author
Craig Coussins travels around the world teaching about bonsai. He has worked in the United States, South Africa, Ireland, Russia, England, and Italy, studying the indigenous species and working toward developing them. He is also a writer for many bonsai magazines.
–This text refers to the

Paperback
edition.

This book is a record of the first exhibit of North American Bonsai staged by the North American Bonsai Society in Saratoga Springs, New York in the spring of 2006.

About the Author

Hon Non Bo, or the art of creating miniature landscapes, is an important aspect of Vietnamese culture. For centuries Vietnam’s mountainous terrain of caverns and outcrops, sinuous rivers, and verdant plant life has inspired the arrangements of stones, water, and plants set in shallow pots. With this book as a resource, admirers of bonsai and Asian art can obtain an effective historical perspective on a little-known living art form, and formulate a context encompassing the spiritual and aesthetic symbolism of Hon Non Bo. Photographs help explain the association of artistic elements and the meaningful countenance of trees, huts, bridges, and animal and human figures used in the creation of the landscapes; a step-by-step approach to making the concrete container basins is also illustrated. A commendable handbook, introducing technical information along with the fundamental precepts of building a miniature landscape. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Large, easy to follow, instructive photographs clearly [define] the Vietnamese art. . . . The book is a pleasure to enjoy. — William N. Valavanis, International Bonsai, No. 1 2002

The explanations of the historical, religious, and philosophical significance of this art are understandable and very informative. — Barbara S. Jones, California Garden, May – June 2002

What a fascinating and hiterto completely unknown field. . . . I can hardly wait. — Stefan Buczacki, Bookseller Buyer’s Guide, Autumn 2001

English reprint of 1963 Japanese book. Explains how to create mystical miniatures of forests using bonsai’s

PREFACE

The art of bonsai, together with that of ikebana or Japanese flower-arrangement, originated in Japan and is now admired throughout the world. Among the lovers and admirers of bonsai are many who find infinite pleasure in growing their own bonsai? The satisfaction of creating with their own hands the beauty of nature in miniature. Although there are several publications on bonsai, very few books have been published for beginners.

This book is designed to equip those who wish to embark upon growing their own bonsai with the knowledge and skills to do so. To this end, we have included as many photographs and illustrations as possible in the hope of giving the reader a complete and comprehensive explanation of the pleasurable and rewarding art of bonsai growing.

You will find outlined in this book every step, from the basics of how to choose a tree, what fertilizer to use and when to water, to the more skilled techniques such as wiring the branches of your tree into the desired shape. This book will be a practical help and welcome companion to all those who desire to grow bonsai, emphasizing both the growing techniques and the pleasures to be gained from viewing your plant as a work of art.

Bonsai changes with the seasons, so will give the grower enjoyment throughout the year-a pleasure that cannot be obtained from growing flowers in the garden. And, as it grows older, the more your bonsai will come to exhibit the beauty of its full-sized counterpart in nature. This is the pleasure that the authors wish to share with as many people as possible.

KYUZO MURATA was born in 1902 in the historical city of Takayama in Gifu Prefecture, deep in the mountains of central Japan. Although he entered Tokyo’s elite Keio University, he was forced by illness to leave before graduating. Having always had a great interest in bonsai, after his recovery he decided to devote himself completely to the art of bonsai growing. In 1926 Kyuzo moved to Omiya City, Saitama Prefecture, where he established the Kyuka-en Bonsai Garden. Here he grew many high-quality bonsai. Kyuzo was the Highest Councillor to the Japan Union of Bonsai Growers and also Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Kokufu Bonsai Association until his death in 1993.

ISAMU MURATA, Kyuzo Murata’s son, was born in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture in 1936. In 1959 he began to study the art of bonsai at Kyuka-en and since 1993, following the death of his father, has run Kyuka-en. Today Isamu continues to raise bonsai and to promote the art that he loves, based on a new sense that suits the modern era. His books include Four Seasons of Bonsai (Kodansha), Bonsai of the Imperial Family (Mainichi Shimbunsha), and A Guidebook to Wildflowers (Kodansha).

Kyuka-en was established by Kyuzo Murata between 1926 and 1931 in Bonsai-machi, a section of Omiya City. Even now, the shelves of Kyuka-en display a large variety of bonsai throughout the year, all created with great devotion. The general public is free to visit Kyuka-en and see the bonsai.

Shohin bonsai cost less, take less time to develop, take less space, are easier to move, are less apt to be overwatered, and are a delight to behold. This thorough and beautiful exploration of the art of small bonsai is for experienced bonsai enthusiasts and daring beginners. If you already practice shohin, it will deepen your understanding. If you dont, now is the time to unlock the secrets of small trees.

Bonsai is the ancient Japanese art of dwarfing and shaping trees in small containers to produce miniature versions of mature trees. A single bonsai may only be a foot tall, but looks identical to a full-grown tree in nature. Careful trimming, pruning, wiring, and other techniques are necessary to produce this appearance. Bonsai outlines the constant and proper care that will allow the bonsai to blend with it container in a natural and aesthetically pleasing manner.
–This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Creating your own bonsai is simple, calming, and serene, and best of all, it lets you bring the outdoors inside, even if you don’t have a lot of space.
Learn everything you need to know to become accompished at the art of bonsai growing–how to pick a plant, what tools you’ll need, and how to trim and style your plant. At the heart of the book is a species directory with 10 easy-to-grow plants that are great for getting started, as well as another 40 species that need a little more care.

“It is not only the length of its lifespan that distinguishes the immobile tree from birds that fly, fish that swim, and men and beasts that walk over the earth; it is also the only living thing that creates, within itself, annual rings spelling out the history of its life.” Bonsai, dwarf trees, contain “a record of our ancestors’ trials and tribulations” in “less space than a man can encompass with his arms.” This (ironically) oversize book includes 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs of Japanese specimens ranging in age from a mere five to 1000 years, and from the cheerful winter jasmine, bedecked with yellow blooms, to wizened junipers with twisted limbs. Bonsai specialists Naka, Aragaki and Marushima detail history, cultivation and stylistic nuances. Presented in an oddly luxe fashion for such an understated art, the trees–bathed in startlingly unambiguous light–appear larger than life, but more legible for that. A Garden Book Club selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an alternate

Hardcover
edition.

This sumptuous, oversize book features over 200 high-quality color and black-and-white photos of classic bonsai selected from a 12-volume series published in Japanese for specialist growers. The photos illustrate bonsai of various ages, including examples that are hundreds of years old. An appendix of brief descriptive comments for each plant gives valuable information including age and size. A narrative section provides background on the history of Japanese bonsai and good descriptions of growth styles of various types. This pricey but beautiful book focuses on examples of classic bonsai that will inspire growers and collectors.
- Dale Luchsinger, Athens Area Technical Inst. Lib., Ga.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
–This text refers to an alternate

Hardcover
edition.

With their delicate foliage, seasonal color changes, and intricate pattern of branching, Japanese maples are among the most popular and suitable plants for bonsai design. In this long-awaited book, internationally renowned expert Peter Adams discusses the specific horticultural needs of Japanese maples as bonsai subjects and illustrates proven techniques for creating and maintaining beautiful specimens.

In this long-awaited book, Peter Adams discusses the specific horticultural needs of Japanese maples and illustrates proven techniques for creating and maintaining beautiful bonsai.

Presenting a unique blend of information and ideas, The Complete Book of Bonsai is a comprehensive, practical guide to the traditions and artistic principles of growing and maintaining bonsai trees. Over 300 bonsai trees and shrubs are described, over 100 of them in an outstanding full-color photographic catalogue.

“Incorporating advice from his son, a tree doctor, the author teaches how to produce splendid specimens.” — The Washington Post

“Incorporating advice from his son, a tree doctor, the author teaches how to produce splendid specimens.” -The Washington Post