Bonshira

Plant a seed and grow your own bonsai, day by day, in real time.

Bonshira is a zen garden in your pocket. Your tree lives on even when the app is closed: it drinks, grows and sometimes falls ill. In 30 days it goes from seed to mature bonsai, and its shape is the sum of your choices.

LOOK AFTER IT • Water when the soil is dry: touch it with your finger to feel whether it needs it. • Mist the leaves, feed it with the right dose, choose where it lives: windowsill, balcony, garden. • Every species has its own needs: Japanese maple, Chinese elm, ficus, carmona, juniper, pine, ginkgo.

SHAPE IT • Prune branches with the scissors, pinch shoots that grow too strong. • Wrap the wire and bend trunk and branches into soft curves, up to three bends per branch. • Turn the pot: the canopy reaches for the light and the bend turns with you. • Repot at the right moment, even over a rock or as a little forest.

WATCH CLOSELY • Use the lens to spot the first signs of aphids, spider mites or powdery mildew before they show. • Welcome visits from ladybugs, little birds, butterflies and a cat dozing next to the pot. • The Master gives you small tips and three tasks a day.

KEEP IT • At the end your bonsai is judged and recognized for its style: Chokkan, Moyogi, Shakan and more. • A diary with your notes and photos, a time-lapse of its growth, a collection of finished bonsai. • Cuttings in the nursery, gifts to send to your family by AirDrop or Messages. • See it on your table in augmented reality, as a real 3D bonsai.

AND MORE • Home Screen widget and an Apple Watch app. • Save your progress to a file and carry on on another iPhone. • In 37 languages.

No ads, no account, no data collection: everything stays on your iPhone.