Formal upright | chokkan (直幹)

A style of trees characterized by a straight, upright, tapering trunk. Branches progress regularly from the thickest and broadest at the bottom to the finest and shortest at the top.

Informal upright | moyogi (模様木)

A style of trees incorporating visible curves in trunk and branches, but the apex of the informal upright is located directly above the trunk's entry into the soil line.

Slant | shakan (斜幹)

A style with straight trunks like those of bonsai grown in the formal upright style. However, the trunk emerges from the soil at an angle, and the apex of the bonsai will be located to the left or right of the root base.

Cascade | kengai (懸崖)

The apex (Tip of tree) falls below the base of the pot.

Semi-cascade | han kengai (半懸崖)

The apex (tip of the tree) extend just at or beneath the lip of the bonsai pot.

Deadwood Bonsai

Trees with prominent dead branches or trunk scarring

Shari | sharimiki (舎利幹)

The portrayal of a tree in its struggle to live while a significant part of its trunk is bare of bark

Root-over-rock or sekijoju (石上樹)

Roots of the tree are wrapped around a rock, entering the soil at the base of the rock.

Growing-in-a-rock | ishizuke or ishitsuki (石付), Roots of the tree are growing in soil contained within the cracks and holes of the rock.

Forest (or group) | yose ue (寄せ植え)

Comprising the planting of several or many trees of one species, typically an odd number, in a bonsai pot.

Multi-trunk| sokan and sankan

All the trunks growing out of one spot with one root system, so the bonsai is actually a single tree.

Raft | ikadabuki (筏吹き)

Mimics a natural phenomenon that occurs when a tree topples onto its side from erosion or another natural force. Branches along the top side of the trunk continue to grow as a group of new trunks.

Literati | bunjin-gi (文人木)

A generally bare trunk line, with branches reduced to a minimum, and foliage placed toward the top of a long, often contorted trunk.

Broom | hokidachi (箒立ち)

Trees with fine branching, like elms. The trunk is straight and branches out in all directions about ​¹⁄₃ of the way up the entire height of the tree. The branches and leaves form a ball-shaped crown.

Windswept | fukinagashi (吹き流し)

A tree that appears to be affected by strong winds blowing continuously from one direction, as might shape a tree atop a mountain ridge or on an exposed shoreline.

A style of hedging in lavish Italian renaissance gardens. Consists of simple, large, clipped specimens in and among statues; beautifully ornate, clipped box hedges swirling around them in mirrored patterns or geometric designs. Ornamental gravel is used to produce a crisp clean effect and elaborate plants were added to give extra colour and interest.

The Normans introduced pleasure gardens with mazes and labyrinths formed from clipped plants. A number of private and public gardens still have such features today.

Popular in Great Britain during the reign of the Tudors and Stuarts. Clipped ornate shapes and formed from different coloured box, planted in crisscrossing patterns so that it appeared that the ribbons of hedges had been tied up in knots. Highly-scented herbs were also used as hedging plants, planted in and among the gaps to give a tapestry of colour.

A modern development consisting of standard, geometric shapes like pyramids and spirals; or a unique way to represent animals and figures, with its use in special displays such as at theme parks, festivals and promotional events across the globe. The shapes can be made by trimming a bushy shrub or tree down, or, by using a wire frame which can either be stuffed with moss or used as a pruning guide to grow plants around it.