The blog’s top ten most popular posts April 2013.

1.- Ficus Bonsai Care.

If you have decided to try your hand at growing a bonsai tree, you are in for a real treat. While it takes a little time and patience to learn how to grow bonsai, the results are truly incredible.
As you begin your search for the perfect tree, you will be faced with all types of options. For example, bamboo is a nice bonsai option that is reminiscence of true Japanese gardens.
Then, you have the Braided Monkey Tree that is referred to in many Asian cultures as the “Bringer of Good Fortune”. When it comes to bonsai, this makes an excellent choice that is easy to care for and tolerant. Another option for bonsai is Jade tree, which makes an exceptional bonsai. Coming from South Africa, this plant is hearty and boasts succulent, green elliptic leaves and a thick trunk.
 
2.- Success With Indoor Bonsai.

Introduction.
Growing bonsai indoors is one of the passions that has kept me enthralled with bonsai for nearly 30 years. During that time I have grown bonsai on windowsills and indoors under various types of artificial light. Over the years I have learned some crucial concepts about growing trees indoors. This article will present some of these ideas that may help you save time, effort and avoid killing trees in your indoor growing efforts.
Indoors is not indoors.
At best growing trees indoors is a difficult task, and part of the problem is that indoor growing conditions are not at all similar to the natural conditions under which trees normally grow.
 
3.- Penjing: History, Aesthetics and Spiritual Background.

Penjing: History, aesthetics & spiritual background.
Many people think of bonsai as exclusively Japanese. But there is a long tradition of bonsai from China. Penjing is the Chinese art of creating a miniature landscape in a container.
The word consists of the two characters shown on the left:
“pen” - “pot” or “container”, and “jing” - “scenery”. An artist may use plant material and natural stone to portray an idyllic mountain retreat with a murmuring brook or a waterscape with a lush tropical island. Or he or she may design a much simpler scene where one single tree makes up the entire composition.
 
4.- An Introduction to Bonsai: History, Cultivation and Size Classifications.


Bonsai is the art of aesthetic miniaturization of trees by growing them in containers. Originating in Chinese pen-zai, Japanese bonsai developed its localization of techniques and aesthetics after its introduction to Japan by imperial embassiesKorean it is called bunjae (분재). returning from China in the ninth century.
In Western culture, the word "bonsai" is commonly used as an umbrella term for all miniature trees.At first, the Japanese used miniaturized container-grown trees for decorating their homes and gardens. 
 

 

5.- Bonsai Plant Guide: Trees and shrubs are suitable for traditional bonsai.

Specialty nurseries often have a wide selection of dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties of many species. Dwarf plants, however, do not always convey the same impression as their full size
counterparts because their growth habits are quite different.
Some trees and shrubs that work well as bonsai are azalea, beech, boxwood, ginkgo, maple, oak, pine, wisteria, and zelkova.
AZALEA: Hiryu, Rhododendron obtusum; Satsuki azalea, Rhododendron indicum; Kurume, Rhododendron obtusum.
BEECH: American, Fagus grandifolia ; European, Fagus sylvatica.
BOXWOOD: Buxus species.

6.- Plants for Bonsai.


PLANTS FOR BONSAI HERE LISTING
1 . Look up the plant desired by its common name in the left hand column. There are separate entries for the various common names for a given species to help locate it quickly.
2. Click on the name to go to our database information about that plant.
3. To go to a particular Group, click on that Group's button either at the top or bottom of this page.
 
7.- The Secret Art of Bonsai Revealed.

The History of Bonsai.
Although it is possible that the Chinese were the first to start planting small wild trees in pots there is no doubt that it has been the Japanese who have raised the culture of Bonsai trees to the
art it is today.
Interest in Bonsai goes back many centuries in Japan. The first authentic record is in a picture scroll painted early in the fourteenth century by Takakane Takashina. Originally Bonsai (the word simply means a plant in a tray or container) were more or less confined to grotesque and tortured shapes.
After this came the extremely formal pyramidal forms, developing towards the end of the 19th century into softer, more natural forms. Nowadays the majority of trees are trained simply to look like natural trees in miniature. We have come to a time when there is a place for all of Nature’s moods for the Bonsai enthusiast.
 
8.- Displaying Your Bonsai Outdoors.

Displaying Your Bonsai Outdoors aesthetics and bonsai should be displayed in an uncluttered environment where the details of the plant Remember that simplicity is very important in Japanese can be appreciated. This is, after all, a wonder of nature trees and shrubs made miniature. Gravel beds in the garden are good backgrounds for bonsai outdoors, and a simple stand or table before a blank wall makes an appropriate setting indoors.
Make sure that the front view faces the viewer. Your beautiful bonsai can greatly benefit by the right setting.
Outdoor Display
If you grow just a few bonsai plants, you will have no problem displaying them. All you need is something that elevates the pots so that you can view them from the front rather than from the top down. A patio bench, for example, will accommodate one or several bonsai plants, and can also define the edge of a deck or serve as seating.
 
9.- Thread Grafting New Roots onto Bonsai.


Threadgrafts are by far the easiest and most reliable grafts available to the bonsai enthusiast. Normally used to create new branches on a bonsai, a young, pliable shoot is threaded through the trunk of the tree.
As the shoot grows and fattens, the cambium layers of the shoot and the trunk are forced together and a join or graft is made.Threadgrafts can also be used to attach new roots to a bonsai. With the English Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) below, a new root is required to improve the nebari (rootspread) of the tree and this is provided by thread grafting a young Hawthorn seedling.

10.- An Introduction to Bonsai: Location, Overwintering, Mallsai, Collecting and Bonsai tourism.


Location.
Contrary to popular belief, bonsai are not suited for indoor culture, and if kept indoors will most likely die.
While certain tropical plants may flourish indoors, most bonsai are developed from species of shrubs or trees that are adapted to temperate climates (conifers, maples, etc) and require a period of dormancy. Most trees require several hours of direct or slightly-filtered sun every day.
However, many successful entrepreneurs in indoor bonsai have grown many hardy trees inside. Japanese black pine and Buddhist pine are two examples of common outdoor bonsai that can survive inside, although the Buddhist pine can tolerate more variation in lighting and cold.

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