Indoor Bonsai

Rating:
Summary: Very informative and helpful
Review: As a bonsai beginner, I found this book contained very good answers to most of my questions. It is more helpful than my other 3 bonsai books, combined.

The text can be divided into two "sections":

GENERAL INFORMATION: e.g. constant care, repotting and root pruning, shaping, propagation from cuttings, fertilizing, tools you need

SPECIES-SPECIFIC INFORMATION: very clear instructions on how to apply (at what time of the year and with what frequency) the general techniques mentioned above, on the most popular indoor species; for each species there's a picture of a magnificent finished bonsai.

I learned a lot reading about pruning, shaping and growing bonsai over rocks; also air-layering. I didn't find anything about grafting, though. I also appreciated the part about "first steps toward an indoor bonsai": it shows a lot of pictures of plants "before" and "after" a few months of training.

At the end there's a list of "Tropical and subtropical plants suitable for training as indoor bonsai", with a short description of each species and short directions for optimum conditions and care.

To save time, there's also an index of plant names and a general index.

Rating:
Summary: Very informative and helpful
Review: As a bonsai beginner, I found this book contained very good answers to most of my questions. It is more helpful than my other 3 bonsai books, combined.

The text can be divided into two "sections":

GENERAL INFORMATION: e.g. constant care, repotting and root pruning, shaping, propagation from cuttings, fertilizing, tools you need

SPECIES-SPECIFIC INFORMATION: very clear instructions on how to apply (at what time of the year and with what frequency) the general techniques mentioned above, on the most popular indoor species; for each species there's a picture of a magnificent finished bonsai.

I learned a lot reading about pruning, shaping and growing bonsai over rocks; also air-layering. I didn't find anything about grafting, though. I also appreciated the part about "first steps toward an indoor bonsai": it shows a lot of pictures of plants "before" and "after" a few months of training.

At the end there's a list of "Tropical and subtropical plants suitable for training as indoor bonsai", with a short description of each species and short directions for optimum conditions and care.

To save time, there's also an index of plant names and a general index.

Rating:
Summary: Ok Beginners book
Review: This is a good general basics book -- it has beautiful color plates and some good diagramming on prunning and training.

I found the index of specific species to be very lacking and there is no "problems" section so if you have a problem that is not pest or disease related -- you can't find answers to pretty common situations(like leaf drop) here.

Rating:
Summary: Ok Beginners book
Review: This is a good general basics book -- it has beautiful color plates and some good diagramming on prunning and training.

I found the index of specific species to be very lacking and there is no "problems" section so if you have a problem that is not pest or disease related -- you can't find answers to pretty common situations(like leaf drop) here.

Rating:
Summary: A must for for indoor Bonsai newcomers.
Review: This is an excellent book for newcomers and pros alike. It encourages one to break with many of the old traditions and grow your Bonsai indoors! It covers all aspects of tropical and sub-tropical tree cultivation and gives hints and tips on every page. Excellent value for money at any price.