Vance Wood

The key to the question is: If what you do, or what you have seen done does not look right then don't do it, do something better or something different. If you can find something better then by all means do it but in general most bonsai growers prefer some to a lot of moss on their trees. In the Japanese tradition there is a esoteric reason for moss having to do with customs and manners if I remember correctly.

Moss should be used to finish the display of the bonsai representing a tree in its natural setting. Keeping that in mind it is rather odd to present a gnarled, twisted broken up with drift wood style Juniper as though it were sitting in the fair-way of some golf course somewhere. In this Case the moss should be broken up and the soil element of the display dealt with in an artistic manner to reflect the plausible environment that produced the tree. On the other hand a Fir or group of Firs representing a coastal temperate rain forest could very convincingly have a lush carpet of moss underfoot and be believable.

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The only finished bonsai is a dead one; me 1992 MABA Des Moines Iowa