Bonsai

Watching bonsai develop and shaping them into amazing sculptures is a fascinating and extremely rewarding hobby. Growing bonsai trees is not an expensive pastime with only a few specialist tools required, but a beautiful bonsai tree can be more of a centrepiece in your home than many ornaments can. A bonsai is a living ornament.

Bonsai are pot planted trees that are developed to be a miniature of of the full sized tree. Bonsai are grown from nearly any perennial woody stemmed trees and shrubs that grow branches and is able to grow in miniature through pot confinement with the assistance of crown and root pruning.

A Bonsai tree can be developed from seed, young shoots lifted from the wild, (please have regard for any laws in respect of taking wild plants in your area), or can be ordered as mature planted bonsai trees. Although growing bonsai from seeds is the slowest route, but you will then have maximum control over how your bonsai will look.

Bonsai are grown in special bonsai pots that restrict the development of the roots but will also enhance the beauty of your bonsai. Specialist soils can be purchased that give you the perfect conditions for your bonsai to grow in.

Many techniques are employed to shape and give unique character to your bonsai tree including leaf trimming, wiring, grafting, dwarfing and deadwood, (aging and adding personality to the bark). Not many specialist tools are required to shape bonsai trees, and these can easily be bought very cheaply. Everything you need to start growing bonsai can be easily bought from a specialist bonsai nursery.

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

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

If you are considering if developing bonsai trees is for you, I say have a go, bonsai trees are simple to grow, take a small amount of your spare time, every bonsai is unique, and who can’t help but to admire a bonsai every time they see one.