Mankind has been trying to reshape planting in a way to make it everlasting. Plants with their green color and eye-catching texture urged growers to cultivate and modify their looks. In this post, you will discover what Bonsai are, how Bonsai trees are made, what the meaning of Bonsai is, and learn about Bonsai design elements.
Bonsai trees are made by choosing a tree, preferably one that doesn’t reach big sizes, has smaller leaves, and then pruned in a way to meet a specific style. Growth of Bonsai is limited by confining them to smaller pots.
What is Bonsai?
Bonsai is an art and science of growing plants in a pot. A large sized tree is converted into small or miniature tree, creating an art image. Bonsai needs a regularly changed medium with a shallow container to keep it alive. Conventionally, different species belonging to various genus were crossed to get a distinctive plant.
Simply saying, it’s a replica of a natural tree in a miniature form. Bonsai is a miniature tree with height less than one meter. It’s kept at this size, so that it can be fitted in a pot.
Bonsai are not cultivated for food or medicinal purpose, but rather it’s intended for viewing pleasure. A landscape always soothes growers and enhances their and love for plantation. Bonsai styles fascinated people, so its indoor cultivation was also adapted.
What is meaning of Bonsai in Japanese/English?
The word “Bon-sai” (usually misspelled as bonzai or banzai/penzai) is a Japanese term meaning “planted in a container”. This art form is derived from an ancient Chinese horticultural practice, which was then redeveloped under the influence of Japanese.
History of Bonsai
Bonsai is an ancient ornamental plant, grown since 2000 years ago. Basically, it originated in 700 A.D in China, when people started growing dwarf trees in small trays, or a similar type of containers.
The environment highly favored bonsai cultivation and Chinese growers made their gardens beautiful by everyday gardening. Chinese-style bonsai had twisted trunks floating in the lakes.
Japanese Bonsai
Bonsai trees are a well-known part of Japanese culture. A “bon” is a flat tray or shallow pot, and “sai” means plant or planting.
It is a tray planting cultivation with various techniques and practices to grow small trees similar to natural ones. The Japanese tradition dates back to the Chinese for over a thousand years.
What are Bonsai good for?
Bonsai is not only a great way to display trees, but helps a horticulturist learn a lot about caring for trees. Also, Bonsai are a great way to display trees and are seen as artistic masterpieces.
Bonsai design principles
As Bonsai is a miniaturized representation of a real tree, in which the landscape is ultimately based on design principles. Bonsai landscaping certainly depends on one’s own taste. Horticultural skills, along with creative skills are essential for recreating scenery in a pot.
What does a healthy Bonsai look like?
A healthy bonsai tree has a thick trunk, with evenly distributed branches making up a crown of the tree. It has small leaves with tiny flowers, pruned twigs, and an overall conical shape. Foliage, soil and roots should be free of any discoloration, cuts, and pests.
Bonsai Cultivation
Before getting started with Bonsai, styles and growing techniques/rules be kept under consideration. Style refers to the shapes and designs according to your selection. These are categorized as indoor, as well as outdoor. Meanwhile, climate and region are influencing factors.
Bonsai Style
You can choose from a few different styles of Bonsai training. Broom style bonsai, formal upright style, informal upright style, slanting style, cascade and double trunk styles are few common preferences.
How are Bonsai Trees Made?
A Bonsai tree is made from choosing a source material tree, which is then trained into classic or modern styles by root, foliage, crown and branch pruning, pinching, ramification. Bonsai is shaped into chosen styles and confined in pots to restrict their growth.
Bonsai tree growing methods
All bonsai can be grown using different methods, but mainly six are used.
- Growing from seed
- Propagation from cuttings, grafting or air-layering
- From young trees
- Using mature trees
- Using trees from the wild
- Purchasing ready Bonsai
Growing from seed
Bonsai are dwarf trees, and dwarf conifers are a good example. Different bonsai varieties easily grow from seeds. A good quality seed germinates easily in the right season. Dormancy in some seeds may cause issues while germinating, but is usually fixed after the winter season.
While, it’s a good idea to start from seeds, please note that it will take a lifetime to grow a Bonsai from seeds. It can take around 35 years to grow a mature Bonsai from seed!
Stratification
Stratification is a process of stimulating the growth of dormant seeds. In a dormant condition, seeds protect themselves from frost and low temperatures. To break the dormancy state, stratification is used. This process can be done in different ways.
Steps:
- Make a homogeneous compost mixture with sphagnum moss, peat and sharp sand in a container.
- Scatter the seeds and cover them with a 0.5 cm layer of compost.
- Seeds will germinate in two to four weeks.
- Seedlings will be ready to move to a new pot on their own after about a year.
Growing Bonsai from cuttings
Cutting types involves soft-wood and hard-wood cuttings. Soft-wood cuttings are taken from the currently grown shoots. Hard-wood ones, on the other hand, are taken from woody and thicker ones grown in the last season.
Leaves from the lower portion of cuttings are removed and then placed into a rooting medium. Under ideal conditions, roots will grow in two to four weeks.
A few plants propagate through grafting method. In Bonsai, the Japanese White pine is a classic example. These are grafted on Japanese Black pine root-stock which is vigorous in nature.
Grafting
Grafting is a propagating method for reproducing fruits and flowers. In Bonsai, grafting of cultivars with two- and five- needle pines are common. It is mostly done in late winter or early spring to get the best results.
Air-layering
Bonsai with 2 inch (5 cm) thick branches are easily propagated using an air-layering method. Bark ring method and wire tourniquets are different types of air-layering.
In a bark ring method, a ring of bark, that is of same width as diameter of branch, is removed. Then, wet sphagnum moss is wrapped around it. It is then covered with plastic sheet and tied. Use of vitamin B1 liquid will cause rapid growth of roots. However without it, four weeks are enough to show results.
Using young garden center trees
To grow bonsai quicker, young nurseries and gardens are perfect sources. In nurseries, trees have been already growing in containers for a long time, so are easier to transfer to another pot without damaging the root ball.
Growing Bonsai from shrubs and nursery trees is a good method for beginners. It will take much less to grow than from seed, from 5 to 10 years to reach medium size.
In garden centers, roots or trunk of shrubs are deeper than usual and can allow safer transition. After transferring, place the tree in a greenhouse to allow fast recovery.
A few of the best Bonsai trees for beginners include Chinese Elm, Fig tree, Sweet Plum, Ficus, Junipers.
Buying mature trees
Large bonsai trees for landscaping are termed as “street trees”. Their development time span is short. A tree with 15-20 years old thick trunk is possible to grow.
Simply saying, a tree is cut to an appropriate height. A few branches are left for growth. Roots are undercut. The roots and remaining branches will develop over the next few growing seasons. By the end of that time the tree will be ready for lifting. It’s an attractive method for commercial bonsai growers.
Using trees from the wild
Original Bonsai were collected from mountains and other similar areas where trees were stunted and shades in interesting ways due to natural influences.
Those wild-caught trees were called yamadori, but are hard to take care of. However, wild-caught trees might never adapt to new conditions of your home. Please note, that uprooting wild trees requires legal consent. But either way, it’s rarely a good or successful idea.
In this process, a tree is lifted by digging a circular area of 12-18 inches (30-45 cm) away from a trunk. Main roots are pruned to allow growing fibrous roots.
Then, an entire root ball is moved without disturbing and placed where desired. It is then replanted it as soon as possible, to avoid the death of the tree.
Purchasing ready bonsai
Time-saving method is to buy a ready-made bonsai of your choice from nurseries. You may buy an indoor or outdoor bonsai, depending on your needs and climate/environment you live in.
This is a good choice for most beginners, who want to enjoy having at least one Bonsai to care for. If you are a beginner, you can get a medium-grown Bonsai, and have side projects by growing you own. You can buy various Bonsai, such as this medium sized Mound Juniper.
What is ramification in Bonsai?
Ramification is related to development of branches and their shapes. When it comes to the art of bonsai, crucial focus is to give a proper form to branches and their tips.
Deciduous Bonsai trees, covered with leaves and branches all around, will do not get enough light. For this purpose, pruning and pinching is done.
What is Shari in Bonsai?
Shari is a deadwood technique in Bonsai (mostly confers), when bark is ripped off a small part of the trunk. Technique of Shari can give a tree a unique, naturally ‘aged’ look and beautiful color contrasts.
What is Jin in Bonsai?
Jin is a deadwood technique in Bonsai (mostly conifers), similar to Shari. In Jin, a small part of bark is ripped off a branch that emerges from the trunk of the tree.
Thank you for reading this post! To learn more about Bonsai, please see this page.