EU delivery included from €70
Bonsai grower and founder of Treevaset
I started Treevaset because I wanted to grow bonsai material the way I believe it should be done — from cuttings and seeds, with structure and long-term development in mind from day one. Before bonsai became my work, I spent years in finance. The trees were always there, though. What began as a personal collection of Japanese maples gradually became a nursery, and eventually a business focused on making quality pre-bonsai material accessible across Europe.
Treevaset has a special focus on non-grafted Acer palmatum cultivars for bonsai development. I propagate every plant from cuttings to preserve the true characteristics of each variety — consistent leaf size, internode length, and long-term behaviour. No grafts, no shortcuts. The nursery is based in Merate, near Lecco in northern Italy, where the climate allows year-round work with both deciduous and conifer species.
Beyond the nursery, I produce educational content on YouTube, covering practical techniques like air layering, thread grafting, structural pruning and species-specific development. The goal is always the same: share what actually works, based on what I see in the trees every day.
I believe bonsai works best when you understand the biology first and the aesthetics second. A tree that is healthy, well-fed and correctly timed will develop structure on its own terms — your job is to guide it, not force it. This is especially true with Japanese maples, where patience with internode control and seasonal timing produces results that no amount of aggressive pruning can replicate.
I also believe that bonsai should be accessible. You do not need decades of experience or expensive material to start building something meaningful. A well-selected young pre-bonsai, some basic knowledge and consistent attention will take you further than most people expect. That is why Treevaset exists — to provide the starting point and the guidance to go with it.
An Itoigawa juniper won a talent competition in 2014, then spent eight years in the ground and came back as a bush. Second year of restyling: why the winning front was abandoned, why the two best branches had to go, which stubs become jin, wiring only primaries and secondaries, and the few degrees of rotation that settle the final front.
A pre-bonsai is young raw material for bonsai — a real tree whose defining decisions are still yours to make. What separates good material from a garden-centre shrub, which species carry beginners best, and why growers plant their material in open ground: a guide from the grower’s side of the fence.
A wild olive with a spectacular triple-trunk base comes out of its pot to reveal clay, vertical roots and a step in the base. The correction — radical root pruning, a buried crown and a sphagnum ring — is all on video.
Two February work sessions on young maples show how a metal washer — or a blade and a length of wire — decides a bonsai’s nebari for life. Radial roots by construction, not by luck, with both sessions on video.
In January we removed most of the root mass of a collected twin-trunk hornbeam, and many viewers doubted it would survive. Five months later, the tree answered. The full story of a radical root pruning — and the conditions that made it survivable.
A Carpinus betulus collected in February gets its first styling six months later: how the front, apex and first branches of a yamadori hornbeam are chosen, and why the big cut happens in late summer.
Every tree in the catalogue is propagated, trained and cared for by hand at Luca’s nursery in Brianza — no imports, no reselling.
I offer 1-to-1 sessions: we look at your bonsai together, on video or in person at my nursery in Merate, near Milan, and you leave with a clear plan. From €29, and sending your request is free.
Come to my nursery near Milan: two hours, everything included, and you leave with a bonsai you shaped yourself. From €50, and sending your request is free.
Bonsai is not the result: that comes after. Your enjoyment is what is important.
John Yoshio Naka
