Totally Bonsai: A Guide to Growing, Shaping, and Caring for Miniature Trees and Shrubs

Learn the ins and outs of proper bonsai design and care with this beautifully illustrated Japanese gardening book.

Creating your own bonsai tree 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. Imagine an enormous redwood shrunk to a size you can carry in one hand, but perfect in every detail. That is the joy of bonsai—the re-creaton of nature in miniature. With Totally Bonsai you can learn everything you need to know to become accomplished at the art of bonsai tree care and cultivation—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 detailing both outdoor and indoor bonsai. It includes 10 easy-to-grow types of bonsai plants that are great for the beginning bonsai enthusiast, as well as another 40 species that need a little more care

With Totally Bonsai you will:

• Discover the small but perfectly formed world of the bonsai
• Learn the secrets to growing a healthy tree
• Properly pot or repot your bonsai
• Recognize pests and diseases and how to treat them
• Discover the techniques for shaping, bending, and transforming your bonsai

Totally Bonsai is a wonderful introduction to bonsai tradition and practice, including a historical overview of many styles of Japanese, Korean, Singaporean and Chinese bonsai, or penjing. Whether you want to grow a bonsai with dramatic exposed roots, create a spectacular twin-trunked landscape or cultivate a romantic sweeping cascade, Totally Bonsai will show you how.

Craig Coussins started growing Bonsai in 1973. He has studied with John Yoshio Naka, the world famous Japanese-American Bonsai teacher, as well as the English Bonsai teacher Peter Adams. Craig was instrumental in the creation of the British Bonsai Societies. He has taught in California, Texas, Florida, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Italy and Belgium.