Create A Bonsai Garden
Bonsai is an ancient art form of growing miniaturized trees. The art itself is over 2000 years old, and started 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 named bonsai by the Japanese, who adopted the practice in the ninth century.
Bonsai gardening is certainly one of the most unique and beautiful forms of art in the area of gardening. Since its early beginning in ancient China to the present day, it has developed into many interesting individual styles. Once miniaturized, however, maintaining the look and well-being of the bonsai requires an amount of care and attention on the part of the gardener.
There are several styles that comprise 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 have upright trunks that are straight and tapering. Cascade style bonsai are intentionally trained to resemble trees that grow on the sides of mountains. Forest style bonsai are fairly self explanatory. They are comprised of a number of trees planted together in odd numbers. This type of bonsai gardening has the intention of copying the diversity of age and height which is common in the wild.
Slant style bonsai are aptly named. Their trunks are straight, as in 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 generally 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 part of bonsai gardening is knowing how to care for your bonsai. Bonsai require a warm location with plenty of light in order to thrive. Don’t place them near window sills, because of the varying temperatures that can occur from drafts.
It’s not necessary to water bonsai as you would typically water a normal houseplant. Bonsai trees require immersion of the whole pot or tray in water for several minutes. Once taken out of the water, allow the bonsai to drain. During the summer, bonsai should 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 watering. 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 so will grow and develop new branches and limbs as time passes. When it’s time to prune this new growth, stay true to the original style of your bonsai. Remember, you just want 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 starting out, there’s a lot to learn. So it’s a good idea 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 simple 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