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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This post was written by admin on May 10, 2009
