Bonsai

Watching bonsai grow and shaping them into beautiful living works of art is a fascinating and very rewarding hobby. Growing bonsai is not an expensive hobby with only a few specialist tools required, but a magnificant bonsai tree can be more of a statement in your home than many an expensive ornament. A bonsai tree is a living sculpture.

Bonsai are pot grown trees that are grown to be small versions of the natural sized plant. Bonsai can be grown from nearly any perennial woody stemmed trees and shrubs that produce branches and is able to grow in miniature through container confinement with the assistance from crown and root pruning.

A Bonsai tree can be grown from seed, from young shoots taken from the wild, (please observe any laws in respect of removing wild plants or trees in your region), or can be ordered as mature planted bonsai. Although growing bonsai from seeds is the slowest route, but you do then have maximum control of how your bonsai tree will develop.

Bonsai trees are grown in pots that restrict the development of the roots but also enhance the look of your bonsai tree. Specialist soils can be purchased that give you the perfect environment for your bonsai to grow in.

Many methods are employed to shape and give unique character to your bonsai including trimming leaves, wiring branches, grafting, dwarfing and deadwood, (aging and adding personality to the bark). Not many specialist tools are required to shape bonsai trees, and these are readily available for little cost. Everything you need to get started can easily be purchased from a specialist bonsai nursery.

Bonsai can be had as both indoor and outdoor varieties, many bonsai trees are best if left outside in the warmer summer months and brought inside in the colder winter months.

For those that like the idea, you can even purchase artificial bonsai.

If you are considering if developing bonsai trees is right for you, I say have a go, bonsai are easy to grow and maintain, take very little of your time, every bonsai tree is individual, and who doesn’t admire a bonsai tree whenever they see one.