Bonsai books you read?

I started Ikebana … an entire WE making compositions … loved it! Thank you again for sharing all those references!! :evergreen_tree:

If you enjoy ikebana… we now have an ikebana class one Saturday per month at the club :wink: It may be a bit far from your place tho.

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I’ve added a few books in the last few weeks

-The Little Book of Bonsai - Jonas Dupuich
-The Foundations of Bonsai - Harry Harrington
-Les oliviers en bonsai - Miquel, Font, Arnaud & Jeker
-Bonsai with Japanese Maples - Peter Adams

Heavier reading:
-The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation - Dirr & Heuser

I have just received a copy of “The Art of Growing Miniature Trees, Plants and Landscapes” by Tatsuo Ishimoto. Is anyone familiar with it? I understand it is one of the earliest books on bonsai published in the USA (1956).

Don’t forget about Bonsai from the Wild, by Nick Lenz! I got this book after getting interested in larches and it has been my favorite of all the bonsai books I’ve ready so far!

“Les oliviers bonsai 20 ans après” by Miquel, Font, Arnaud, Roig et Pascual - which is the follow-up of the one I bought in April
“Bonsai Heresy” by Michael Hagedorn
“Bonsai Aestethics” Volume 1 and 2 by Francois Jeker
“The mini bonsai hobby” by Katayama Teiichi
“Miniature bonsai” by Terutoshi Iwai

I have just ordered “Bonsai Maples” translated by Andrea Meriggioli, based on strong recommendations.

Ponderosa Pines as Bonsai by Larry Jakel. Bought it at Stone Lantern.
Great, simple to the point book. Easy to learn from.

The Art of Flowering Bonsai by Peter Adams; one of the best on flowering species; a very under-rated book. Regards Tom

That was actually quite an interesting read.

I have just started reading a collection of Japanese technical bonsai books from the late 70s “盆栽専科” (Bonsai Special Course). It’s a sort of compilation of articles on specific species by different authors. The Japanese White Pine section was of course written by Mr Abe. There’s 10 volumes in the set I bought, and they’re about 500 pages each. I think I’m set for the next few months… especially as I can’t speed read Japanese.

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I have just ordered Floral treasures of Japan by Alexander Kennedy from Amazon for £14.80 inc postage (about $20) so I’m really stoked.

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@Diabolo my two favorite Peter Adams books are Bonsai Design Japanese Maples and Bonsai Design. In the later he explores Scots Pine, Common Juniper, and Japanese Larch.

“Floral treasures of Japan” is not a bad book, but it is a bit dated and some of the explanations don’t mesh with the info from Japan.

It’s the only one I have seen before that’s why I went for it (apart from Janine Droste which I didn’t like much). Do you know of a more updated one?

“Satsuki Azaleas for Bonsai and Azalea Enthusiasts” by R. Z. Callaham. It’s unfortunately out of print… and the prices on the secondary market are really inflated. You can sometimes find it between $30 and $60, but it tends to sell for hundreds.

Stone Lantern was supposed to reprint it at some point, but that hasn’t happened yet.