3. Pot Colour

The most general rule when it comes to choosing the colour of the glaze for a pot is that the colour should reflect something in the tree: either in the bark, the colour of the leaves, or the fruit and flowers.

Therefore, the unglazed brown, grey and earth tones are the safer choices. They also provide warmth and stability to the tree. However with more feminine trees it can work well with contrasting colours like blues, yellows or cool green.

The colour can also be used to accentuate the characteristics of the tree. Warm colours such as browns, reds, oranges and yellows provide a feeling of warmth and stability to the tree whereas cold colours such as blues and greens can balance and refresh the overall composition. Warm and cold colours can be used to contrast with a bonsai. Warm colours are often used for shohin bonsai to exaggerate their colour but cool colours can be used to tone down bright-leaved species.

It is very difficult to create rules for the choice of colour for your pots but if you feel lost and want a guide these are the basic colour combinations:

Light browns/Oatmeals
Acer, Elm, Beech, Oak, Larch
Hawthorn, Ash, Gingko

Off whites/Greys
Hawthorn, Oak, Acer, Ash

Light greens
Acer, ash, beech

Dark greens
Acer, Azaleas, Chinese Elm, Cotoneaster

Medium Browns
Elm, Birch, Mountain Ash, Acer

Dark Browns/Red Browns
Unglazed Reds/Browns
Pine, Juniper, Cotoneaster, Larch
and other conifers, Azaleas

Light blue
Azaleas, Malus and other flowering species

Matt Blues
Acer, Juniper, Pine, Azaleas

Matt Blue/Greens
Pine, Junipers, Acer, Azaleas (this combination will also suit just about any tree as they are the colours that you see most trees framed by when in their natural state, the sky is deemed to be blue and the ground grass green.