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Good Solid Bonsai Book for Beginners?

10 years ago

My husband is fascinated with bonsai and has made some attempts on his own. I would like to get him a nice pot and a really good bonsai book that a beginner would learn a lot from. It needs to be a meaty book though--he's very intelligent and an engineer, so I don't want to get something that he wouldn't want to really study.

Can anyone recommend a really good bonsai book and/or a source for some good pots?

thanks!
Mary

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Comments (9)

greenlarry
10 years ago
I would recommend The Complete book of Bonsai by Harry Tomlunson. It has a full colour A-Z species by species section. Very good.
Also Bonsai by Dan Barton. And anything by Peter Chan!
greenlarry
10 years ago
I would recommend The Complete book of Bonsai by Harry Tomlunson. It has a full colour A-Z species by species section. Very good.
Also Bonsai by Dan Barton. And anything by Peter Chan!
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Hi, the Tomlinson (1st here) is excellent - lots and lots of pictures, info., and basic care of many trees. Bonsai School (Coussins) may be a little heavy, but also very good. Mary M's new bk on Tropicals ('indoor' stuff) is very good, as is Totally Bonsai. Herb Gustafson is good, but that book is all about growing conifers in the Pacific NW of the U.S., not at all your thing at the moment, and most things by Colin Lewis would be great, but not that particular one as it's addressing something you may want to get into later on (you did ask about the future), but not yet. Paul Lesniewicz has a good book on Indoor Bonsai, and Deborah Koreshoff (Australia) has a big book on everything. You've got a few good ones to start with, and once you've got a better overall view of things, and have done a little practicing on some young 'starters' from a local nursery (for outdoor trees), or decided to definitely work on trops. indoors, then would be a good time to start trading info. on forums (e.g. the Bonsaisite is very active). Try www. bonsaihunk.com to learn ALL about growing ficus from an expert (Jerry) - a great start for your climate.
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Hi, I always have a hard time with notes like these because I always end up sounding stuffy and don't want to, but the thing is, while your DH might have better luck with a Ficus, or even Schefflera (maples must live outdoors year round), they are still plants and will only put up with a slow learning curve for so long, and in fact, can be killed off in a week if you don't know what to do from day one. It's not about an 'easy' tree, it's about being knowledgable from day one regarding the tree, and growing things in general. He must find a local bonsai club because that's where he's going to learn the most the fastest, and it's important not to get a 'stick-in-a-pot' from big box stores... the kind of thing with pebbles glued to the surface, with one-size-fits-all care tags (literally worse than useless) and some unnatural curve trained in by wire likely already digging into the bark. It's also not a great time of year to be starting out as early spring's much better - plants are more forgiving, you can do more with them and they won't croak overnight (believe it or not most trees are beginning to think about winter dormancy now, even though it's months away), and so much needs to be considered:- do you really know how to water bonsai properly? Do you know what it should be planted in (vs the $%*Y# they usually come in? Do you have the right kind of supplemental lighting at home for tropicals (the only things that should be tried indoors) and do you know how to use it? What about .... a thousand other things - no you're not expected to know everything at once, but knowing even the few basics necessary to keep your trees alive for a few seasons, getting them through the first month, matters. I could recommend various online growers who are extremely good, but that's not the place to start... books are and a club is, and places like www.bonsai4me.com, www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html, and www.evergreengardenworks.com (the 2nd is the best for indoor stuff, esp. ficus), the last for outdoor trees, and the first for a lot of everything.
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cwren58
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you both! :) Maybe I'll get him a little set of books.
penz
10 years ago
I would definitely recommend The Bonsai Book by Dan Barton, one of the best and most complete books on bonsai I know. Is easy to read, have a very explanative style and is complemented with great illustrations. I wrotte a full review about it if you want to know more:

Here is a link that might be useful: The Bonsai Book
cwren58
Original Author
10 years ago
thanks!
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
10 years ago
To be successful at bonsai, a good working knowledge of soils and plant physiology are essential, and more valuable than a collection of bonsai books, which tend to cover a variety of topics, and none of them well. Exceptions to that rule are Bonsai Techniques I and Bonsai Techniques II ~ John Naka, and Bonsai ~ Deb Koreshoff. These books are out of print, so buying them used might be required, but they are worth looking for.

I highly recommend Plant Production in Containers ~ Carl Whitcomb PhD, The Physiology of Woody Plants ~ Kozlowski/Pallardy or Growth Control in Woody Plants by same authors, and Growing Media for Ornamental Plants and Turf ~ Handreck/Black. Another out of print book that is excellent is The Growing Tree ~ Brayton Wilson

Another very good plant physiology book is Plant Physiology ~ Mohr/Schopfer, but this is a book for more advanced horticultural practitioners ....

Al
chickencoupe
10 years ago
Than you, Tapla and to OP

This is just what I was looking for, too.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
10 years ago
You're welcome - good luck!!

Al
rooftopbklyn (zone 7a)
10 years ago
I guess this is an old-ish thread, but with the holidays approaching its still relevant.

As a beginner myself, I've checked out a decent number of bonsai books in the past year. Despite many recommendations here and elsewhere, I found "The Complete book of Bonsai by Harry Tomlunson" to be so basic as to be almost useless. You can find similar info all over the internet by reading any introductory material on bonsai. At least for me, it was way too basic and high level to be of much use.

I did however have the fortune to be gifted a copy of Deborah Koreshoff's out of print Bonsai book, which I find invaluable and amazing. Quite accessible to a beginner, and I think it will be many years before I am at the point where I need more depth than is in this book. It's probably expensive to buy, but well worth it. I can't figure out why its no longer in print, given the high quality of the content.

I also had a chance to browse a friends copy of John Naka's Bonsai Techniques I, which I found very technical and difficult to relate to at my current skill level. I'm sure its a great book, but I decided its not for me, at least not now or anytime soon.

Daniel

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