Bonsai

Watching bonsai trees grow and forming them into beautiful sculptures is an absorbing and very rewarding hobby. Growing bonsai is not an expensive hobby with only a few tools required, but a fine bonsai tree can be much more of a statement in your home than many an expensive ornament. A bonsai tree is a true living sculpture.

Bonsai are pot grown plants or trees that are developed to be small versions of the natural sized counterpart. Bonsai can be created from almost any perennial woody stemmed trees or shrubs that produce branches and is able to grow small through pot confinement with the aid from crown and root trimming.

Bonsai can be grown from seed, from young shoots lifted from the countryside, (please have regard for any local laws in respect of removing wild plants in your area), or can be bought as mature grown bonsai. Obviously growing bonsai from seed is the slowest method, but you do then have total control over how your bonsai tree will look.

Bonsai trees are grown in pots that restrict the development of the roots but also enhance the look of your bonsai. Specialist soils are available that provide the perfect conditions for your bonsai to grow in.

Many specialist methods are used to shape and give unique character to your bonsai including leaf trimming, wiring, grafting on other plants, dwarfing and deadwood, (a method of aging bark). Not many special tools are needed to shape bonsai trees, and these can easily be bought very cheaply. All that you require to get started can easily be purchased from a specialist bonsai nursery.

Bonsai trees are available as both indoor and outdoor types, many bonsai trees are best if they are left outdoors in the summer and then grown inside during the winter.

And for those that like the idea, but doesn’t want to maintain bonsai, you can even buy artificial bonsai.

If you are considering if developing bonsai is right for you, I would say give it a try, bonsai are easy to grow and maintain, and take very little of your spare time, every bonsai is unique, and who doesn’t admire a bonsai tree whenever they see one.