Bonsai for Beginners

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Bonsai for Beginners

Saturday, March 28th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Bonsai is an ancient art form of training trees to grow in minature shapes.  The art itself is well over 2000 years old, and is believed to have started during China’s Han dynasty.  The Chinese word meaning bonsai gardening, pen’jing, translates “tray scenery” or “tree or shrub planted in a shallow tray”.  It was named bonsai by the Japanese, who adopted the practice in the ninth century. 

bonsai gardening is definitely one of the most unique and beautiful forms of art in existence. Since its early beginning in ancient China up until the present day, it has developed into many striking individual styles.  Once miniaturized, however, maintaining the look and well-being of the bonsai requires a bit of care and attention by the gardener.

There are a number of styles that are common to the art form of bonsai gardening.  These styles include:
- formal upright
- cascade
- forest
- slant
- literati
- root-over-rock

Bonsai done in the formal upright style are trained to have upright trunks which are straight and tapering.   Cascade style bonsai are intentionally grown to resemble trees that can be found on the sides of mountains. Forest style bonsai are fairly self explanatory.  They are comprised of few trees planted together in odd numbers.  This style of bonsai gardening has the intention of duplicating the diversity of age and height that you would find in nature. 

Slant style bonsai are aptly named.  Their trunks are straight, as in the formal upright style, but lean at a slant from the surface of the soil.  Literati bonsai were inspired by ancient brush paintings of trees that grew in inhospitable climates.  Therefore they have few branches.  What branches they do have are usually concentrated at the top of the trunk, which is usually 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 plenty of light in order to thrive.  Avoid placing them near window sills, due to the variable temperatures that can occur from drafts.

It’s not necessary to water bonsai as you would typically water your average 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 second 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, reducing that to once a month for the rest of year. 

Bonsai are living trees, and will therefore grow and sprout new branches and limbs as time passes.  When it’s time to prune this new growth, stay true to the original pattern of your bonsai.  Remember, you only need to maintain the look of your bonsai, so don’t prune too much – just enough to remove the new sprouts and shoots. 

When you’re just beginning, 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