Catalpa Bonsai Early Updates - Seedling and Yamadori Examples

Source material: June 2025

            The catalpa says good morning! If you see any trees in the southern or eastern US this time of year (late spring) with large white and purple flowers followed by string bean-looking seed pods, you've found a native catalpa! Below I share some additional notes on working with this species for bonsai which I have started to learn over the past few years.

Sections:

1. Notes on Catalpa Seeds and Seedlings
2. Notes on Catalpa Yamadori and Wild Digging

In Vivo Bonsai Announcements/Upcoming Events in Columbus

• June 18, 6-9pm. Clip and Grow Styling for Succulent Bonsai - Lecture and Workshop with Central Ohio Cactus and Succulent Society.
• This is my next lecture/workshop here in Columbus. Since the Central Ohio Cactus and Succulent Society are already knowledgeable on succulent growing, for this educational day I will focus first on discussing styling via clip and grow. I will share some examples from Brucera (Frankincense), Jade, Dwarf Jade, and others so you can see the technique in action over time. Then you will get the opportunity to plant and style your own succulent bonsai. Species available include jade, gollum jade, dwarf jade, and others. Facebook event is here.
• July 3, 6-9pm. I will be presenting/demonstrating for the Akron-Canton Bonsai Society on the topic of deadwood! Bring a tree that you could use some advice on improving its deadwood if you happen to be in the Cleveland, Ohio area. I will have several stylistic examples of deadwood and potentially some manual carving tools available. Full info will be posted here.
• July 19-20. Columbus Bonsai Society Annual Show!
• Details coming soon but there will be vendors, workshops, and great trees! Facebook event here.

A catalpa flower. After a late spring rain, the flowers can often be found on the ground.

Plants that Signal an Early Spring in Ohio - Living Alarm Bells

            While seasons come and go the exact when of their coming and going is always an unpredictable and complex question. Predicting these events is important for people who work in natural seasonal cycles with plants and animals such as farmers, hunters, gardeners, bonsai artists, bird watchers, and other sorts of nature enthusiasts. Many people don't know this but within us all there are internal biological clock proteins - this is where circadian rhythm comes from. So this may be one way that critters and plants can tell the progression of time. However, an event like triggering a migration or waking up from hibernation is critical to get at the right time. Migrating too late or waking up from hibernation too early could mean death by cold and lack of food. Migrating too early could mean missing the window with the rest of your species to mate or not maximizing your own energy reserves before migrating. All things in nature are a matter of risk, reward, and natural selection. As these are such critical events for the survival of an individual plant or critter, they use multiple cues to detect when to get moving. One cue can be their internal clock as we discussed. Another could be the temperature. Another could be the day length. This combination of cues is how plants and animals can time their seasonal events according to seasonal variation. Thus, while humans are trying to predict how winter in February 2024 will progress using historical data, the farmer's almanac, and a groundhog's shadow, the plants around us already have a good idea of what is the likely scenario regarding our winter. Once you look around enough to know which plants are the first responders to spring, then you also can get warning signs to get your gardening and bonsai preparations into high gear. In this post, I will share some example species which are plant alarm bells, especially in Ohio, but some ornamentals or invasives we have here also are available and could act similarly across the temperate world.

Blog/Central Ohio Bonsai Announcements:

1. For people in Central Ohio, I will be teaching a beginner indoor bonsai workshop on Saturday 2/24 at Nocterra Brewing. Full details can be found on Eventbrite! Briefly, we will cover all the basics of caring for indoor bonsai, and basic techniques for bonsai maintenance such as how to prune, wire, and repot to create the miniature tree look. All workshop participants will be gifted 1-year memberships to the Columbus Bonsai Society and the Central Ohio Cactus and Succulent Society - A $55 value!  The total price for the workshop is $56 and also includes prebonsai trees and locally made pots for you to take home after our work and a drink from our gracious host.
2. I now sell pots! I received a special shipment to sell on behalf of Blue Nose Trading. See the pieces of her work I have available here or schedule an appointment to visit my nursery in Columbus, OH via the contact form here. These are mainly for local pickup/delivery only.
3. The Bonsai Time Podcast has moved! While I am still heavily involved in producing that podcast, the show notes for it now lives on its own website, its own YouTube channel, and it now has its own TikTok account.

Silver maple flower buds. In fall-mid winter those ball-shaped buds are not visible. Now they are about to release their pollen in the next few weeks.

Bonsai From Seed: Essential Steps for Success - Full Lecture

 Source material: Nov 20, 2022

        Have you ever tried one of those bonsai-from-seed kits and nothing grew? Or maybe you had a few seeds grow but had no idea what the next steps were to transform your seedling into a bonsai! Growing a bonsai from scratch is an intoxicating idea for beginners, but it is also one of the hardest feats to accomplish. In this lecture, I explain the basics of seed collection, storage, and germination to help you optimize your success at waking seeds up. I also explained the steps necessary to shape seedlings over the years following germination which will help you build sizable trunks and tapering branches to create a convincing and stunning bonsai. You can also participate in the active learning questions from home by commenting below and listening in on the discussions and questions from the Columbus Bonsai Society (CBS) members who attended. I gave this lecture in November 2022 for the Columbus Bonsai Society. Join us at www.ColumbusBonsai.org

Find the full lecture here:

Read on for more resources on growing bonsai from seed....

Crazy for Catalpa! Bonsai prospects for an unusual North American native

         If you're familiar with the northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, then you know it's a pretty strange tree and certainly not one which you would expect to be used for bonsai. Maybe it's a fool's errand for me to attempt to tame a tree with 12" leaves and 20" seed pods, however something about that staccato, memorable name has got me captivated. I've been observing specimen of it everywhere I go around Columbus as it is one of the more easily identifiable naive trees around - so much so, I've even got my girlfriend shouting "Catalpa!" every time we pass one. From this foundation, basic identification skills had led me to observe the species more intimately. As with any unknown species, the more scenarios you observe a specimen, the more you can observe its potential for bonsai. In the case of the catalpa, observations of a full-sized specimen, the seeding frequency of seeded, the fast growth of those volunteers, and the discovery of one naturally stunted catalpa all inform my plans to experiment with this species for bonsai.

 Sections

1. Catalpa Characteristics (General)

2. Catalpa Assessment for Bonsai

    2A. Catalpa seeds prolifically and grows quickly

    2B. Catalpa can dramatically reduce leaf size... in the right condition!

    2C. Catalpa respond to pruning with reliable backbudding

    2D. Catalpa deadwood is durable

3. Potential Disadvantages

    3A. Brittle branches

    3B. Possible poor ramification

4. Closing Thoughts

5. Blog Announcements

Catalpa is capable of producing a variety of leaf sizes. The left-most leaf is typical for a healthy catalpa, while the right leaves are from a naturally stunted catalpa.

Seed Experiment #1 - Survival Methods for Early Germinators (Brewer's Oak)

Source content: 12/20/2020

Hellooooooo bonsai world! It’s been a minute since I posted but I'm happy to report I am alive and well in Ohio. To celebrate surviving the first semester of my Ph.D. program, it's only fitting that my first blog post of 2021 focuses on a bonsai experiment I'm designing - the first of many I have in mind.

Of course, throughout the move to Columbus and starting graduate school, maintaining my bonsai collection has remained a priority even if new articles and videos were put on hold. In August, I packed my trees into a UHaul and drove my trimmed-down collection across the country. Since then, I’ve also found time to scout for local Ohio yamadori, service trees for my first local client, attend two workshops at Yume-en (Rob Hoffman’s new bonsai nursery in Marysville, OH), assemble my first grow tent for overwintering my tropicals, collect new seeds stock for 2021, and join the Columbus Bonsai Society’s Board for 2021. All of these and more from my archive could be future blog posts so stay tuned!

Sections:

1. Purpose

2. Introduction

3. Materials & Methods

4. Results

5. Discussion/Conclusions

6. References

7.  Blog Announcements

A young Brewer's oak seedling emerges!

Germination, Taproot Removal, and Trunk Training - Oh My!

         As I've said before, there is a widespread, primal appeal in watching a seed sprout firsthand. The bonsai community can and should harness this craze for bonsai seeds by informing beginners rather than shaming them for not starting with more established prebonsai material. I hope that through my comprehensive Bonsai-From-Seed Guide, more of you will readers become disciples of our bonsai hobby and more of you will be successful at creating beautiful trees you can enjoy for decades to come.
          Last month in my serial Bonsai-From-Seed Guide, I already discussed some basic knowledge about the pros and cons of alternative ways to start a bonsai tree and bonsai seed myths which will hinder your seedling's progress if you aren't armed with the correct knowledge. This week, I'm going to start exposing the step by step, year-by-year methods you will need to employ as you watch your seeds sprout and grow. The transformation of your seeds into the bonsai of your dream won't happen just by waiting, it happens with because of your guiding hands (but yes, also with lots of waiting)!

Sections

1. Week 1: The Root of All Bonsai
2. Week 2: Bonsai Seed Myths
3. This Week: Germination, Taproot Removal, and Trunk Training - Oh My!
      3A. Before Germinating
      3B. Getting Started
      3C. Year 1 - Watch Them Go!
      3D. Year 2 - Train the Trunks & Trim the Roots!
4. Next Time...
5. Blog Announcements
      5A. Seeds for Sale
      5B. Send me your tree pictures!

I know glamorous pictures of mature bonsai get more attention, but like the seeds you will plant, today we are starting humbly - with a handful of larch seedlings. 

Bonsai Seed Myths

          For people new to the art of bonsai, the idea of growing your own bonsai tree from seed is often irresistible. In theory, growing a bonsai from seed can be a rewarding journey that allows you to give birth to your own ideal image of what a bonsai should be, but unfortunately, in practice, seed-growing is a journey which is fraught with frustration for the vast majority of beginners. It has been said that it takes 10 years of experience in bonsai before you understand how to grow from seed well. I share this not to discourage you, but to brace you for the challenge ahead. If you're a new reader, I would encourage you to check out the first post in this growing from seed series, "The Root of All Bonsai." In that previous post, we talked about the various alternative ways to start your bonsai and the advantages and disadvantages of each method. However, if you are dead-set on growing from seed, you're in luck! Drawing on my own 15 years of bonsai experience and the 60+ years of experience of my bonsai teacher Dan Robinson, today we're going to cut through the BS and dispel common myths about growing bonsai from seed before we proceed to analyze the essential concepts that will help you realize your bonsai-from-seed dreams in the subsequent weeks. 

         If you're looking to buy seeds for bonsai - full disclosure - I am writing this series with the intent to sell my own seeds for growing bonsai (see here). At the risk of sounding too sales-pitchy, I am sending an exclusive hard-copy version of this blog series to all my customers. The hard-copy guide will simply guide you through the complicated 10+year challenge of growing bonsai from seed. If you can't wait for our weekly release of future blog articles in this series, you will receive the full guide right away with your purchase of seeds. Thank you in advance for supporting my bonsai work!

Sections

1. Last Week: The Root of All Bonsai
2. This Week: Bonsai Seed Myths
      2A. "Bonsai seed kits are a great gift!"
      2B. "Bonsai seeds are rare."
      2C. "All bonsai are grown from seed."
      2D."Growing from seed is the best way to learn about bonsai."
      2E. "Bonsai should be pruned often and pruned hard to build their trunk."
      2F. "Growing from seed is a waste of time!"
3. Next Week...

Stay tuned to this series to learn how to transform these...

Left a Japanese black pine, and right a European beech. Both 2-3 years old. 

The Root of All Bonsai

          Many people don't know this but bonsai are actually made by magical, elven wizards disguised as humans. The best of these wizards channel the universe's energy into their green thumbs to create unbelievable works of art and captures the essence of a century-old tree into one small pot. Although millions of people around the world appreciate the art of bonsai, the methods of these bonsai wizards are somehow a total mystery to outsiders. Luckily, with dedication (and a little time reading my blog), you can learn their secret methods too.
          To illuminate these magical methods for creating bonsai, I'm excited to announce that today's post is the first from my five-part "How to Grow Bonsai From Seed" series (yes, this is what I've been keeping myself busy in quarantine!). Before we can even discuss how to grow from seed, it is only logical to discuss alternative ways to jumpstart your bonsai addiction, as growing from seed might not be suitable for everyone. Each source of prebonsai material has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each will challenge you to build your bonsai skills differently.

         If you're looking to buy seeds for bonsai - full disclosure - I am writing this series with the intent to sell my own seeds for growing bonsai (see here). I plan to send a hard copy guide to everyone who buys seeds from me and supports my work in bonsai. As I'm still drafting the final parts of this series, sales will probably not open until next week when I publish the next article in the sequence. Stay tuned! Even if you collect your own seeds, I hope this series will be a widely useful resource to all!

Sections

1. Where do bonsai come from?
      1A. Seeds
      1B. Cuttings
      1C. Air Layers
      1D. Nursery Material
      1E. Urban Collection / Yardadori
     1F. Wild Collection / Yamadori
2. Next Week...

Here I am with one of my first collected trees. Of course, some bonsai owe their origins to natural environments! I estimated the age of this pine at about 30 years. Whitebark pines retain their needles for 3 years, so I was able to count using bud scars on the branch for this estimate. If you start humbly like this, collecting from wild, legal places can be one way to accumulate prebonsai trees.

The Cost of Sex

Source material: 2017, April-July

          In the course of my biology education, the cost of sex and reproduction to an organism has repeatedly come up across specialties—and plant sex is certainly no different. For mammals, females usually carry most of the energetic burden due to long gestation and lactation periods relative to other animals. However, sometimes males in the animal kingdom also pay a cost to pass on their genes. For example, a male walrus in "rut" undergoes a reproductively active period of a few months, where the walrus directs massive amounts of energy to its sole focus of reproducing and vocalizing for potential mates. During this period, male walruses can lose their coat of brown fur, have increased disease susceptibility, and their eyes start to turn red and bulge out as an odd indicator of systemic bodily neglect. There is also the famous example of a praying mantis male literally sacrificing itself to offer nutrients to the mom and in turn, increases the fitness of his offspring. The aptly named black widow spider undergoes a similar ritual.

          With such examples in mind, it should come at no surprise that all those flowers in last month's blog post, Spring at Elandan Gardens, have a cost to those trees too. The trees' hard-earned sugars and nutrients were spent in exchange for beauty, pollen generation, pollinator attraction, wind pollination (for less showy trees with cones, most maples, etc.), and seed maturation. For a healthy tree, these expenses are not a problem, but we may still have reason to intervene and choose whether to allow our bonsai to reproduce or not. I will demonstrate some examples of how one might acknowledge the energetic cost of plant reproduction and control it as a tool to speed development, increase health, or maintain the balance of vigor of your bonsai.

Sections:

1. For Trunk Development
2. For Recovery
3. For Disease Resistance
4. Final Thoughts and Tips

One of Dan's Azaleas covered with flowers and reproductive energy.