Who Is Verdigris Bonsai?
Verdigris Bonsai started life with a couple of seedlings in what might as well have been a cereal bowl. No drainage, no frost resistance, too deep and glazed inside and out. The clay was thin.
The instructions assured me that the four "bonsai tree seeds" were easy to germinate on damp kitchen towel. They were not wrong. Unfortunately, no further instructions were included and I was very much on my own from the moment the sprouting seeds were placed in the (horrible, cheap coir) soil.
If this story sounds like your first experience of bonsai, welcome to the club; you are far from alone. You probably either found helpful advice from someone with experience or... they died.
Mine died, one after another.
Those first seedlings never became bonsai, but they taught me something invaluable: good advice makes all the difference. Verdigris Bonsai exists to provide the guidance I wish I'd had when I started.
Everyone deserves the chance to enjoy bonsai without feeling overwhelmed.
My first bonsai didn't fail because I lacked enthusiasm; they failed because I lacked guidance.
Verdigris Bonsai exists to make bonsai approachable through honest advice, clear care guides and practical demonstrations. Whether you are buying your first tree or developing your fiftieth, my goal is to help you enjoy the journey with confidence.
Keep your trees alive and thriving – everything else is just adventure.
Our trees are grown with care, so that you can develop them with confidence.
Every tree is monitored closely for at least a month after undergoing any work or treatment. We never sell a tree with wire on it as we want to be confident that the tree will hold its shape and will have no wire bite resulting from our work.
For extra peace of mind, every tree comes with a double-sided, laminated, A4 care sheet.
We also share a new video on YouTube every Sunday at 10:00 AM.
Instead of selling "bonsai seed kits", we sell "blank canvas" trees in nursery and training pots. That means that each tree has already been growing and is ready to begin styling.
These videos introduce you to this year's tree species: Field Maple, Small-leaf Lime and Hornbeam.
The trees will be healthy, with plenty of roots. They are likely to have larger leaves than you would expect to find on a mature bonsai, but that will come as the trees age and develop.
This year, our "blank canvas" species have been selected because they are quite forgiving, are non-toxic and have no thorns, making them safe and accessible for all.