How to Shape and Prepare the Rock for Root-Attaching (附根) Landscape Bonsai

By following the general guidelines when choosing our rocks for our landscape bonsai, we will be able to find some decent rock material for the mountains and cliffs in our bonsai. However, unless we are very lucky, the rock material we find will not 100% seamlessly match with the plants, or the bonsai pot, or other elements we will use in our landscape bonsai. In such case, we need to shape the rock by ourselves.

Landscape Bonsai – Design Stage

After we have picked the rock we want to use for our landscape bonsai, we have to decide how we want to attach our tree to the rock  in our landscape bonsai. Do we want the trunk/roots of our little tree(s) to go along or within the cracks and holes of the rocks? Or do we want the roots of the tree to be wrapped around the rock instead? How about the height of the tree? Will it be too tall? Or is there somewhere on the rock that looks too wide which we rather have it chopped off? These are examples of some questions that we will ask ourselves during the design stage, before any action is taken.

Preparation

Before we work on the rock, mark our rock with a marker so we will know where to align the die while cutting/grinding.

Protect Ourselves

Put on goggles to keep our vision clear of the water and protect our eyes from any rock chips that may be thrown from the die grinder. If we want to keep our clothes clean, we better put on an apron (or use a large plastic bag with holes cut for our head and arms) to keep water from spraying on our clothes.

Shape the Rock for Our Landscape Bonsai

To avoid the metal die getting too hot while grinding, we keep a stream of water flowing across where the die touches the rock.

Clean Our Rock

After use, wash our rock. Be careful of any rock chip. Rock chips can be very sharp, so take care when handling them.