Bonsai - An Amazing Art You Can Do Too!

Bonsai, which literally mean “potted plant,” is the art of growing miniaturized trees by growing them in small containers.

The art of bonsai was first introduced into Japan by imperial embassies returning from China in the ninth century.

Often times, the term bonsai is used to refer to all miniature trees.

Bonsai trees are not forms of genetically dwarfed plants. Instead, these miniature trees are created from nearly any tree or shrub.

The potted bonsai tree stays small through a process of pot confinement and by specialized pruning. Crown and root pruning is performed on bonsai trees to keep them at their small size.

Typically, certain species of trees and shrubs are sought out to be miniaturized into bonsai plants. Specific species of plants are sought out to be miniaturized because they possess certain characteristics that make them appropriate for smaller bonsai arrangements.

Currently, there are several different ways to cultivate and grow bonsai trees.
The most common ways to produce bonsai trees and shrubs:

Growing from seeds: bonsai plants are grown from the seeds of regular sized trees and shrubs. The trees are miniaturized by pruning and different forms of confinement.
Cuttings: plant cutting is also known as cloning. In this technique, a small piece of the plant (which contains at least one stem cell) is placed in a growing medium. The cutting of the original plant will produce new roots, stems and thus becomes a new plant independent of its parent.

Air layering: natural layering occurs when a branch touches the ground. When the branch touches the ground, it produces adventitious roots.

As the roots grow, a new plant is formed because the connection with the parent plant is severed.

In air layering, the target region of a plant is wounded then surrounded in a moisture-retaining substance like moss, then surrounded in polyethylene film.

Often times rooting hormone is applied to the wounded portion of the plant to promote it to grow roots. When enough roots have grown from the wounded area of the plant, the stem from the parent plant is removed and planted.

Grafting: Tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with tissues of another plant. One plant is usually chosen for its roots and another is chosen for its stems, leaves or flowers.

The shaping and dwarfing of the bonsai tree is accomplished through a few different techniques. The small size of the tree and its foliage are maintained through a consistent regimen of pruning the leaves and roots of the tree. Pruning, as well as other methods of confining the trees to keep them small must be employed. This is because each species of tree exhibits different budding behavior. Improperly pruning a bonsai tree can kill it.

Wiring is a form of confining the tree to its small size. Most species of bonsai trees can be shaped by wiring. Copper or aluminum wire is usually wrapped around the branches and trunk of the bonsai. The wiring holds the branch in its place as it eventually maintains the desired shape. Some branches cannot be shaped by wiring because they are too brittle.

In cases where wiring is not possible, pruning is used to shape the bonsai tree.

To simulate age and maturity of a bonsai tree, techniques like jin and shari can be used. The jin technique is performed by removing the bark from an entire branch to create a snag of deadwood. The shari technique involves stripping the bark from areas of the trunk. Shari simulates natural tree scarring by limbs being torn free.

There are a number of different styles of bonsai. The most common styles of bonsais are Chokkan, Moyogi, Shakan, Kengai and Han Kengai. These different styles of bonsai are characterized by the shapes in which their trees are styled.


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