Many trees like their roots far away from anything saturated, which is the bottom of the pot. Two in particular, pines and azaleas. And in muddling about the Western bonsai world I’ve been haunted by the number of pines planted in very shallow containers.

The pine that Matt Reel is working on is in a deep pot, and this is typical for pines. This has as much to do with horticulture as aesthetics.

‘Rules’ are slippery things, as anything in bonsai has exceptions. So consider this a ‘slippery-rule’, a ‘you might want to consider’, and not necessarily a ‘darn it you’d better do it or get swatted with a bamboo chopstick’ sort of offering—-but please, in general, get your conifers, particularly pines, in deeper pots, and your deciduous might go in shallower ones because you can get away with it horticulturally.

This maple in Shinji Suzuki’s tokonoma is in a…