Every tree, properly recorded
Your own ID, common and botanical name, origin (seed, cutting, air layering, graft or yamadori), how and when it was acquired, tags and notes. A new tree is offered the next number in your scheme.
For iPhone and iPad
Your bonsai collection, beautifully kept.
Every tree and every pot in one place. Log repotting, pruning and wiring, keep a dated photo journal, and get a daily nudge when something is due. Widgets, Siri and Spotlight keep it a glance away. Synced through iCloud, stored on your own devices.
Requires iOS 26 or iPadOS 26. No account needed.
- No account to create
- No ads, no tracking
- Your data stays in your iCloud
- Full backup whenever you like
A look inside
Made to be opened every day.
Features
Everything a collection needs. Nothing it doesn’t.
BonsaiGlobe is a record book, not a social network. It is built for the collector who wants to know exactly what was done to which tree, and when.
A catalogue of your pots
Maker, origin, shape, finish, material, colour and measurements. Link a pot to the tree planted in it and the app keeps both sides in step.
A timeline of the work
Repotting, pruning, wiring, woodwork, fertilizing and defoliation, with soil mix, fertilizer, notes and photos on each entry.
Watch them change
A dated photo journal for every tree and pot, with captions. Pick any photo as the portrait, and pinch to zoom into the details.
A daily heads-up
One-off or recurring reminders per tree, optionally only during the growing season. Mark one done, or snooze it, straight from the notification, and the care entry is logged for you.
Fed the whole bench?
Log one entry to many trees at once. Filter by tag or search, select all, save. “Fertilized all outdoor trees” takes three taps.
Species at your fingertips
Pick from a catalogue of more than 200 species and cultivars, common and botanical names included, or type your own. Names stay consistent across the collection.
Widgets, Siri and Spotlight
A Tree of the Day widget for the Home Screen, reminders on the Lock Screen, Siri phrases such as “What’s due in BonsaiGlobe”, and every tree findable from the iPhone’s own search.
The collection in numbers
How many trees and pots, what was done this year and to which, the tree that has been with you longest, and what is due. A statistics page under Settings.
When a tree changes hands, its history goes with it
Hand a tree or pot over to another BonsaiGlobe user as a single file, photos and care journal included. Send it by AirDrop, Messages or Mail; they open it, and it joins their collection under their own ID.
Timeline
Know what you did, and when.
Each tree has its own timeline, newest first. Open an entry to see the photos you took that day, the soil you used, or the note you left for your future self.
- Six entry types with their own details: soil mix for repotting, fertilizer for feeding.
- Photos live on the entry itself, so the before and after sit next to the note.
- Logging a wiring or a repotting offers a follow-up reminder: check the wire in eight weeks, repot again in two years.
- Swipe to edit or delete. Deleted entries wait in the Trash until you empty it.
Reminders
One notification a day. Never a nag.
Pick the time of day you like. BonsaiGlobe sends a single notification listing everything that is due, plus anything overdue. The Reminders tab carries a badge until it is dealt with.
- Repeat every week, every two weeks, every year, or any number of days.
- Set your growing season, and seasonal reminders pause outside it.
- Done and Snooze Until Tomorrow sit right on the notification, no need to open the app. In the app, Mark All Done clears the day in one tap.
- Marking a reminder done logs the care entry on the tree, details included if you want.
Pots
Pots deserve records too.
A good pot outlives the tree in it, and often the collector. Keep the maker, the origin, the measurements and the story, and see at a glance which tree it holds today.
- Shape, finish and material from sensible lists, so your catalogue stays consistent.
- A photo journal of its own, for the day it arrived and every tree it has held since.
- Search trees and pots together from the search tab.
Widgets, Siri and Spotlight
A glance away, even with muddy hands.
The Tree of the Day widget puts a different tree from your collection on the Home Screen every morning. The Reminders widget shows what is due today and what is coming up, on the Home Screen or the Lock Screen. And Siri answers the question you actually have.
- Ask what is due, mark the day done, or log a feeding for the whole bench without opening the app.
- The same actions live in the Shortcuts app, ready to chain with anything else you automate.
- Every tree shows up in Spotlight, so a swipe down and its name opens it straight away.
Hand over
Give a tree away. Keep nothing back.
Trees and pots change owners: sold, swapped, gifted, inherited. BonsaiGlobe packs the tree with its photos and its full care journal into one file, ready for AirDrop, Messages, Mail or Files. Whoever opens it in BonsaiGlobe adds it to their own collection with a tap.
- The pot can travel with the tree, or stay behind.
- The receiver gives it their own ID and notes how they came by it. Your numbering stays yours.
- Set your name under Profile and the file says who it came from. Reminders stay with you, and afterwards the tree can go to your Trash, or stay.
Sync & backup
Yours to keep, on every device.
A collection is a lifetime of notes. BonsaiGlobe treats it that way: it syncs quietly, backs up completely, and lets you take everything with you in formats that will still open in twenty years.
iPhone and iPad
The same collection, with room to spread out.
On iPad the tree page shows the portrait, the reminders and more of the timeline at once. Add the photo on your phone out in the garden, write the note on the iPad in the evening; iCloud keeps the two the same.
iCloud sync
Sign in to iCloud and your trees, pots, entries and photos appear on your iPhone and iPad alike, stored in your own private iCloud database.
Backup and restore
One zip file with everything in the app, photos included. Keep it in iCloud Drive or wherever you like, and restore the whole collection on any device.
PDF report per tree
A clean document with the tree’s details, its portrait and the full timeline with photos. Handy for shows, sales, or simply for the shelf.
CSV export
Four plain spreadsheets: bonsai, pots, care logs and the photo journal. Open them in Numbers or Excel, or feed them to whatever comes next.
A trash you can undo
Deleted trees, pots, entries and photos go to the Trash first. Restore them with a tap, or empty it when you are sure.
Light, dark or system
Follows your device by default, or lock it to the look you prefer. The app icon has light, dark and tinted versions too.
Private by construction.
BonsaiGlobe has no account, no analytics and no servers of its own. Everything you enter stays on your devices and, if you turn on iCloud, in a private iCloud database that only you can reach. The camera and photo library are used only when you add a photo.
Questions
Good to know
Which devices does it run on?
BonsaiGlobe is built for iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 26 or iPadOS 26. There is no Android or web version.
Do I need an account?
No. The app works fully offline on the device. If you are signed in to iCloud, it syncs through your own iCloud account, and that is the only “account” involved.
What happens when I get a new phone?
With iCloud on, install the app and sign in to the same Apple Account, and the collection appears on its own. Without iCloud, make a backup on the old device, move the zip file across and restore it on the new one.
Can I get my data out again?
Always. A full backup is a zip with a readable JSON manifest and your photos as JPEGs. There is also a CSV export and a PDF report for each tree.
Can I give a tree to another collector?
Yes. Open the tree or pot, tap Share and choose Hand Over. The app writes one .bonsaiglobe file with the photos and the care journal and offers it to AirDrop, Messages, Mail or Files. The other person opens it in BonsaiGlobe, gives the tree their own ID and adds it to their collection. Both of you need the app.
Can two people keep one collection together?
Not at the moment. Each person has their own collection in their own iCloud, and a hand-over is how a tree or pot moves from one to the other.
Does it work with widgets, Siri and Spotlight?
Yes. Two widgets come with the app: Tree of the Day for the Home Screen, and Reminders for the Home Screen and the Lock Screen. Siri understands phrases such as “What’s due in BonsaiGlobe” and “Log fertilizing in BonsaiGlobe”, the same actions are available in the Shortcuts app, and your trees show up in Spotlight search.
Does it tell me how to care for my trees?
No. BonsaiGlobe records what you decide to do and reminds you when you planned to do it. The knowledge stays with you, your club and your books.
Start with the tree in front of you.
Add it, photograph it, note what you did today. In a year you will have a record you would not want to be without.
