Customer Reviews

Herbal Bonsai

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This is the first book I have seen on the use of herbs as bonsai material. It is great book. It is informative and very descriptive with many black and white illustrations used to help explain text. Having only one-hundred pages, it is packed full of information on selecting herbs (including author recommended choices) suitable for use as bonsai. Training, developing, potting, shaping, caring for, and displaying herbal bonsai are all covered in detail. References and resources include mail-order nurseries. Terrific for beginners who don't want to invest a lot of money, but would like to try their hand at this hobby.

Why wait 125 years to have the perfect bonsai when you can create one quickly with herbs by reading this book. That is the theme of this book. It is an out of the ordinary idea, but from the very few pictures in here, not many of them really look liked true bonsai; so just realize that. The illustrations are mostly black and white line drawings that really look more like trees than the herbs that are used. Those drawings that do look like real bonsai do not identify the herb that can be used to achieve this. I wish more of the herbs in these types of drawings were identified. The 8 pages of colour pictures do have the herbs identified and they look wonderful, but the black and white illustrations are often confusing.

Included is an interesting history of bonsai, selecting and training the herb and how to develop a mature bonsai in one growing season. Caring for the bonsai and displaying it are also covered. Some sources with addresses are given, but do not include phone numbers or web sites.
This is an interesting idea, but for the most part the finished plants do not equal or really look like traditional bonsai.