Bonsai species guides

Juniperus spp. (most commonly J. chinensis and J. procumbens)

Juniper bonsai care is where most people start, and for good reason: it's the tree everyone pictures when they hear the word bonsai, tough, endlessly shapeable, and one of the few conifers that genuinely forgives a beginner's mistakes.

Pinus thunbergii (Japanese black pine) and P. sylvestris (Scots pine)

Pine bonsai care is the technical test that separates people who've done a bit of bonsai from people who've done a lot of it, and the two-flush candle-pruning technique that makes a classical pine silhouette possible is worth learning properly rather than guessing at.

Ficus microcarpa, F. retusa, and F. benjamina

Ficus bonsai care is the easiest place to start if you want a tree that can actually live on a windowsill and survive the mistakes every beginner makes, and after twenty years of watching people kill trees they weren't equipped for, I still point almost everyone here first.

Acer palmatum

Japanese maple bonsai care rewards patience with the finest ramification and the best autumn colour of any species I grow, but that thin, delicate bark is genuinely unforgiving of strong afternoon sun, and getting placement wrong is the single most common way people ruin one.