For the love of the trees,
not the bottom line.

Why we made this

Bonsai practice rewards consistency more than expertise. The best growers we know aren't the ones with the rarest trees — they're the ones who never miss a watering in July, who fertilise on a rhythm, who notice when something is off. The hard part isn't the knowledge; it's the discipline.

Modern AI is unreasonably good at this kind of attentive, context-aware nudging. Give it your collection, your local weather, and a record of when you last fed everything, and it can write a sensible "here's what to do today" in seconds. We thought that was worth building.

Our mission

We want to help beginners and experienced keepers alike keep their trees healthy. A first-year hobbyist with a single juniper deserves the same gentle prompting as someone with a mature shohin collection — they just need it framed differently. Our AI guidance adjusts to your level and your local conditions, and it tries to err on the side of "check first, then act" rather than barking instructions at you.

The marketplace is here for the same reason: if you've grown a tree to a point where someone else can take it on, we want a quiet, low-friction way to pass it along. No fees on listings, no commission, no algorithmic shenanigans.

How we run it

• 🌍

  1% to climate

  1% of every subscription goes to verified carbon removal projects via Stripe Climate. It's a small thing; we'd rather make it the default.

• 🪴

  Low subscription fees

  £3 a month or £30 a year. That's set to cover the AI service, hosting and SMS costs — not to fund growth or pay shareholders. If those costs change, we'll tell you and adjust transparently.

• 🌳

  Hobbyist first

  This is a tool for people who care about trees, run by someone who does too. No dark patterns, no upselling, no AI-generated marketing email sequences. If you want to leave, the cancel button is right there.

• 🔒

  Your data is yours

  We don't sell, share or train on your collection data, photos or care logs. The AI summary uses Anthropic's API with no data retention beyond the call itself. Read the privacy policy if you want the full detail.

Who we are

Kentai Bonsai is part of Hix Digital Ltd, a small studio in Bath. The site is hand-written in plain PHP because we wanted something that'd outlast trends, ship fast, and be easy to fix at 7am with a coffee.