Check the spread first to see whether a bonsai will fit your surface. Bonsai are sold by height, so that is the measurement you usually get. A twenty-inch bonsai can be eighteen inches deep and take a console over completely.
The smallest piece we carry, ten to twelve inches, on an ordinary desk.
The two measurements that matter
Height sets the presence. It is the number everyone reads, and a tape measure held upright against the wall answers it in five seconds.
Spread is the one that goes wrong. A bonsai silhouette is wide by design, because the whole form is built on horizontal branch lines, so a piece is often as wide as it is tall and sometimes wider.
The twenty-inch juniper we carry in a teak bowl is eighteen inches deep. The six-foot piece is between thirty-eight and forty-five inches across. Stand that six-footer on a console table thirty-six inches from front to back and it overhangs at both ends.
So measure the surface, not the wall. Depth first, then width, then the height of whatever sits behind it.
The four photographs below are the same question answered four times, at the four scales we sell. Judge each one against the desk, the counter, the console and the chair rather than against a number. That is how you will see it in the room anyway.
What we actually carry, by size
Thirteen pieces, ten inches to six feet, $122 to $1,709. The category page lists them all with prices, smallest first, so this guide will not repeat the list.
Price does not track height in a straight line. A triple mound at sixteen inches carries more trunk work than a single at twenty. The busiest part of the range is sixteen to twenty-two inches, because that is where most surfaces are.
A desk
Ten to fourteen inches. Anything taller starts competing with a monitor, and anything wider than about ten inches starts competing with the keyboard.
The piece in the photograph at the top is the smallest one: ten to twelve inches tall and about nine across, $122, in a five-inch bowl. It reads as a whole tree at that scale rather than as a cutting, which is what goes wrong with most desk plants.
A single mound at twelve to fourteen inches is the same idea with more presence. It wants a corner of the desk rather than the middle.
A preserved piece can sit straight on a veneer desk or on a pile of paper. There is no drip tray, no saucer and no watering, so none of the marks a live plant leaves.
A counter, a console, a shelf
Fourteen to twenty-two inches, and this is where the spread question bites hardest.
A shelf in a bookcase usually gives you eleven or twelve inches of depth, which rules out most of this band. A kitchen island or a reception counter gives you twenty-four or more, and takes the double and triple mounds comfortably.
Hall consoles are the awkward ones. They run thirty-two to thirty-six inches wide and only twelve to fourteen deep, so a piece at this scale wants to be the only thing on it.
The double-double, twenty to twenty-two inches tall and sixteen to eighteen across, $474, is the largest piece in the range that still reads as a tabletop object. Above it, everything looks like furniture.
Reception, a landing, a room people walk through
Three to four feet, on the floor or on a low plinth.
Use a piece at this scale to fill a corner and give the eye somewhere to stop.
Both the thirty-six inch at $664 and the forty-eight inch at $1,234 work here. The choice is usually ceiling height. In a room with a standard ceiling the thirty-six generally sits more comfortably, and the forty-eight wants height above it to look deliberate rather than squeezed.
Put it where people pass rather than where they sit. A preserved bonsai rewards close looking, and a landing gives people a reason to be close to it without making it the subject of a meeting.
Floor scale
Six feet, thirty-eight to forty-five inches across, in a zinc bronze container. The armchair in that photograph is the only honest way to show it. At this size the piece stops being an ornament and starts being furniture.
It is made to order, it travels by freight rather than by parcel, and we quote the piece and its delivery together, so the number you see is the number you pay.
Read what freight delivery involves before you order rather than after, because kerbside delivery means kerbside.
Measure the route in as well as the room. Doorway widths, the turn at the top of a stair and the internal dimension of a lift all matter more than floor area at this size.
The proportion rule, and where it fails
The usual proportion rule does not suit bonsai, because a bonsai pot is deliberately shallow. The rule says a plant should stand about one and a half times the height of its container.
It works well for topiary in planters, where we set the arithmetic out properly, because a topiary is tall and its pot is deep. Measured the same way, a bonsai commonly comes out at two to three times its pot height, and it is often wider than it is tall as well.
So a bonsai judged against the planter rule reads as under-potted when it is simply built differently. Check the surface it stands on instead of the ratio.
The rule that does hold: leave a hand’s width of clear surface on every side. A piece with nothing round it reads as a specimen, and the same piece with a lamp and a stack of post next to it reads as clutter.
Buying for a set of rooms
Vary the height and hold the species. If you are specifying for a building rather than a house, four pieces from ten inches to three feet, all juniper, look like a collection. Four at the same height look like an order.
The full range, smallest first, is on the bonsai category. If you want several, we will price them together.
Questions we get asked
Does the height include the pot?
Yes. The figure in the title is the piece as it stands, tree plus container, so it is the number to measure a shelf against.
Is it safe around pets and children?
Most pieces are dressed with small stones and preserved moss, and a child or a dog could swallow either, so treat one as you would any object with loose stones. There is no soil, water or fertiliser, so nothing to spill or over-water. With a toddler or a dog that chews, ask which floor-level pieces use moss alone.
Can I order a pair?
Yes, and it is one of the commonest things we are asked for. Tell us the two positions and we will match them as closely as natural wood allows.
