Bonsai for Beginners
You don’t need talent, rare trees or ten years of patience to start bonsai. You need a healthy young tree, the right pot, and a handful of decisions made in the right order. These guides cover exactly that — written for your first tree, in plain language, by the nursery that grows them.
5 Trees You Should Never Try to Bonsai (and What to Grow Instead)
The fastest way to give up on bonsai is starting with the wrong species. These five look tempting in a garden centre and fail on a windowsill — and the ones that will actually forgive your first mistakes.
Good first trees
Junipers and Japanese maples are two of the alternatives the guide above recommends. These guides explain which ones to choose and how to keep them outdoors.
Juniper Bonsai (Juniperus): Species, Care and How to Start
Which junipers make good bonsai, how to keep them outdoors, and what a plant of two to five years is for.
Red Japanese Maple Bonsai: the Acer palmatum cultivars that are truly red
No maple stays red all year. Five cultivars that turn red in spring and again in autumn, each in its own way.
Your first decisions
Once you have the right species, three things decide how your first year goes: how you repot it, the first structural choices — where the trunk ends and where the first branch begins — and how you prune it. None of them needs experience. All three are easier to get right the first time than to fix later.
How to Repot Your Bonsai
When to repot, how much root you can safely remove, and the aftercare that decides whether the tree bounces back.
Apex and First Branch, Explained Simply
The two decisions that define a bonsai’s silhouette — simple enough to make on your very first tree.
How to Prune a Bonsai: When, What and How Much
The two kinds of pruning, when to cut, which shoots go and how far back — the rules from three filmed trees, written for your first year.
How Much Does a Bonsai Cost?
From €8 to more than a car: what sets the price (years, work, species, origin) and what to buy on each budget.
Skip the guesswork
Our Starter Kits put everything in one box: a field-grown tree that forgives beginner mistakes, the right pot and soil, tools, and step-by-step instructions from Luca’s nursery.
Already have a tree and not sure what it needs?
Book a 1-to-1 with Luca and get answers specific to your tree — no question too basic.