Beginning Gardening Vegetbale Gardening Guide.

Most bonsai trees are a deciduous or coniferous species, with the occasional fruit tree forming part of the collection. However there are more exotic bonsai choices that permit the bonsai artist to expand his or her skills.

Wisteria makes one excellent alternative to the run-of-the-mill bonsai. A native of China, Japan, and Korea, they can reach 30 feet in the wild. Shaping them into a bonsai is an interesting challenge, because they don’t conform to any of the usual styles.

The flowers, assuming a variety of colors – blue, white, pink, and purple – are both beautiful and aromatic. They blossom in the spring at which time they need a lot of water, so long as there is adequate drainage. Wisteria do well in full sun to partial shade. Provide ample fertilizer in spring just before they flower, then again in late summer while the leaves are still present.

Another option is Orange Jasmine which will provide a delight to the nose and beauty to the eye.  Orange Jasmine bears a bright red fruit and fragrant, white blossoms.

Orange Jasmine should be fed every three to four weeks beginning in early spring and continuing through mid-autumn. Light watering is sufficient for most of the year, with slightly more in the hotter season.

Because they generally grow better in moderate shade or filtered sun, Orange Jasmine is one of the few bonsai that can, and should be grown indoors.

The Mimosa tree, also occasionally known as silk trees due to their long silky filaments, offer another good alternative.  They are as fragrant as both of the two choices mentioned above and their puffy flowers and lacy foliage are also quite lovely.

The Mimosa’s flowers bloom in late April to early July and moderate water should be provided during the blooming season.  However, you should avoid getting water on the flowers because, much like a number of other flowering plants, the flowers will quickly deteriorate when wet.

The Mimosa will be one of the larger bonsai in your collection. They grow rapidly, have large leaves and are very difficult to sustain at a very small size. So give them lots of room on the display bench.

An additional exotic bonsai is the Desert Rose which can turn an ordinary bonsai collection into an exciting full color display.  The Desert Rose is a native of East Africa where it grows up to 10 feet tall and produces large, pink, trumpet-bowl flowers.

The Desert Rose should be kept outdoors most of the year as they need plenty of sunshine and lots of fresh air.  With their very bushy growing habit, they will make a fine design complement to the many traditional bonsai in your collection.

They’re sensitive to cold, though, so in cold climates they should be brought indoors. They don’t thrive below 50F (10C), though they will lie dormant and healthy from 50-60F (10C-15C). During this period they will need very little water.

These fragrant and beautiful flowering plants will challenge your bonsai gardening skills, expanding your horizons.  They will provide a season-changing display as they go through the seasons, blossoming in the spring and dropping their leaves in the fall, adding interest to your collection and when placed amongst the more traditional evergreens, such as firs, pines, and junipers, they add a nice contrast.

George Dodge provides bonsai gardening tips for beginning bonsai gardeners on his Bonsai Tree Gardening site where he encourages you to experiment with exotic bonsai choices to expand your collection. He has long enjoyed gardening and landscaping as a hobby.

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Bonsai gardening is a timeless art form of training trees to grow in minature proportions.  The practice itself is well over 2000 years old, and commenced during China’s Han dynasty.  The Chinese word for bonsai gardening, pen’jing, means “tray scenery” or “tree or shrub planted in a shallow tray”.  It was called bonsai by the Japanese, who adopted the practice around the ninth century. 

Bonsai gardening is definitely one of the most unique and beautiful forms of art in the area of gardening. Since it began in ancient China through to the present day, it has developed into many attractive individual styles.  Once miniaturized, however, maintaining the look and well-being of the bonsai requires some care and attention on the part of the gardener.

There are a variety of styles to be found in the art form of bonsai gardening.  These styles include:
– formal upright
– cascade
– forest
– slant
– literati
– root-over-rock

Bonsai done in the more formal upright style are grown to have upright trunks that are straight and tapering.   Cascade style bonsai are intentionally groomed to resemble trees that can be found on the sides of mountains. Forest style bonsai are relatively self explanatory.  They contain a number of trees planted together in odd numbers.  This style of bonsai gardening is intended to mimic the diversity of age and height that you would find in nature. 

Slant style bonsai are appropriately named.  Their trunks are straight, like those of the formal upright style, but lean at a slant from the garden’s surface.  Literati bonsai were inspired by ancient brush paintings of trees that grew in inhospitable climates.  They therefore don’t have many branches.  What branches they do have are usually concentrated at the top of the trunk, which is generally contorted.  In the root-over-rock style, the roots of the bonsai are wrapped around a rock at the base of the tree. 

An important element of bonsai gardening is learning how to care for your bonsai.  Bonsai require a warm location with lots of light in order to thrive.  Avoid placing them near window sills, because of the variable temperatures that can occur from drafts.

The process of watering is different to how you would typically water a standard houseplant.  Bonsai trees require immersion of the entire pot or tray in water for several minutes.  Once taken out of the water, allow the bonsai to drain.  During the summer, bonsai need to be watered daily, and every other day during the cooler months. 
 
Bonsai also require a lot of fertilizer.  Fertilizer should be given to the bonsai only after it has been watered.  A typical feeding schedule would be once every two weeks during the summer months, cutting that back to once a month for the rest of year. 

Bonsai are living trees, and will therefore grow and develop new branches and limbs over time.  When it comes time to prune this new growth, follow the original pattern of your bonsai.  Remember, you just want to preserve the look of your bonsai, so don’t prune too much – only enough to remove the new sprouts and shoots. 

When you’re just starting out, there’s a lot to learn.  So it’s worthwhile to have some bonsai information on hand, such as Bonsai Gardening Secrets.  If you want to create and own beautiful Bonsai Trees, then this quick and easy step by step guide to creating your very own Bonsai Trees is invaluable.

 To find out more about the art of bonsai, check out http://www.gardeningzoneonline.com

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