Bonsai

Watching bonsai grow and forming them into beautiful living works of art is an absorbing and extremely rewarding hobby. Growing bonsai trees is not an expensive hobby with not many specialist tools being required, but a magnificant bonsai can be much more of a centrepiece in your home than many ornaments can. A bonsai is a living sculpture.

Bonsai are pot grown plants or trees that are developed to be miniatures of the full sized plant. Bonsai can be grown from almost any perennial woody stemmed trees and shrubs that grow branches and can grow small through container confinement with the help from root and crown pruning.

Bonsai can be developed from seed, young shoots lifted from the wild, (please comply with any laws regarding removing wild plants in your region), or can be purchased as ready grown bonsai trees. Although growing bonsai from seeds is the slowest method, but you will have total control over how your bonsai will develop.

Bonsai trees are planted in special containers that not only contain root growth, but are also designed to further enhance the beauty of your bonsai. Specialist soils can be bought that provide the perfect conditions for your bonsai to grow in.

Many methods are used to shape and give unique character to your bonsai including leaf trimming, wiring branches, grafting, dwarfing and deadwood, (a process used to age the bark). Only a few special tools are required to sculpt bonsai, and these are easy to come by for little cost. All that you require to get started can be easily purchased from a specialist bonsai nursery.

Bonsai trees are available as both indoor and outdoor types, many bonsai are improved if left outdoors in the warmer summer months and grown inside during the colder winter months.

For anyone that likes the idea, but would rather not get involved in growing bonsai, you can even buy artificial bonsai trees.

If you are wondering if developing bonsai trees is right for you, I would say give it a try, bonsai are simple to grow and maintain, and take very little of your time, every bonsai is unique, and who does not admire a bonsai whenever they see one.