Using This Site

This is a brief overview of the concepts you need to understand to use this site.

Navigating BonsaiBench.com

When you come to this site for the first time, there are four tabs at the top of the screen.

• Bonsai Calendars – this tab contains one or more bonsai calendars, which are a summarized view of one contributors opinion on caring for a species as bonsai.
• Bonsai Care Recommendations – this is where you can look up recommendations for species you are interested in.
• Sign In – click on this tab if you are already using the site and have a user name.
• Create Account – this tab allows you to create a user name for yourself and enter information in the site.

If you have already created a user for yourself, other options become available in the navigation.

• Profile – there will be a the third tab titled “Profile”, which allows you to modify your personal information, including your user name and password.
• Bonsai Calendars -> Favorites – when you select the Bonsai Calendars tab, the favorite calendars you have selected will be displayed.
• Bonsai Calendars -> Recommendations created by [you] – clicking on this link displays the calendars that you have created.

The Bonsai Calendar Tab

A calendar is a summarized view of a set of recommendations on caring for one species of bonsai. A sample calendar is shown below.

Each calendar has five major components:

• Species name and user identification
• Characteristics for the species
• Calendar Icons
• Descriptive Text
• Actions & Notes

1 – Species name and user identification

The top line indicates the species that the calendar applies to. The common name is in bold, and the botanical name is in italic, bracketed in parentheses. The line below is the name of the author/contributor who entered the information, and the hardiness zone that he/she lives in. For details on hardiness zones, see the FAQ page.

2 – Characteristics for the species

These four ‘meters’ indicate pH level, cold protection, heat tolerance, and watering needs of the species according to this contributor. Remember that you need to view this recommendation in the context of the author’s hardiness zone.

3 – Calendar Icons

The main visual elements of the calendar are rows of icons indicating which months to fertilize, prune, wire or repot. Each row has 12 icons – one for each month of the year – for one of these types:

• Fertilizing – [number indicates how many times to fertilize in that month]
• Pruning – [notes]
• Wiring – [notes]
• Repotting – [notes]
• Other – [notes]

4 – Descriptive Text

[descrip]

5 – Actions & Notes

[descrip]

Selecting care recommendations for a species

[click on species detail tab]

[pick species you are interested in]

[pick a care recommendation from list]

Viewing details of a care recommendation

Once you select a recommendation for a species, the details will be displayed.

Click on the link at the top to add this to your favorites.

Creating your own care recommendation

The purpose of BonsaiBench.com is to allow people who have experience growing bonsai to share that experience, and other users to easily review and understand the advice. A contributor to the site should simply document his or her experience with a particular species in their particular climate. The resulting recommendations may not apply to all users of the site, but the goal is for everyone to see what other users are doing and learn from them.

• (you won't be able to do this unless you are a registered user and logged in)
• select a species (reg are tied to at least one species; when you edit you can add more)
• if species doesn't exist, create one
• add detail
• Save (publish or not)‚ will be made public after review for graffiti or content not related to bonsai.