Sometimes the smallest things bring the greatest joy.

Shohin Deutzia gracilis, or this small flowering grass below, is for the bonsai display or just to enjoy. A summer flowering Shitakusa, Needletip Blue-Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium mucronatum.

Sometimes bonsai is about spectacular huge trees, and at other times it is the beauty found in simplicity and understatement.

Both the Shohin and the companion (or accent) plant is combined with one of my favourite Japanese potter Bikoh Horie.

Flowers

Spring and summer is a wonderful time for flowering bonsai and accents. I also enjoy decorating my water storage container with a few Azalea flowers from the garden.

Deutzia is Shohin bonsai species I have grown for some years now. It is not a single trunk tree, but better trained as a clump style. It is a summer image tree because the flowers are the attraction of this bonsai. Stand 14 cm from the rim of the pot.

For developed trees with enough ramification the way to set this year’s flowers are made by cutting it back some in late winter, or early spring, and let the new growth develop freely and flower.

If you do not cut back early, the new growth will develop and be far too long for this size of a tree. If you have a tree in development, flowers are removed and pruning is focused on developing ramification.