Bonsai

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

Bonsai are container grown trees that are grown to be miniatures of its full sized counterpart. Bonsai are created from nearly any perennial wood stemmed trees or shrubs that produce branches and can grow in miniature through container confinement with the aid of root and crown pruning.

Bonsai can be developed from seed, young shoots taken from the wild, (please have regard for any local laws in respect of taking wild plants in your area), or can be purchased as ready grown bonsai trees. Obviously growing bonsai trees from seed is the slowest method, but you will have total control of how your bonsai tree will grow.

Bonsai are grown in special pots that restrict the development of the roots but also enhance the look of your bonsai tree. Special soil mixtures can be purchased that provide the ideal conditions for your bonsai tree to grow in.

Many techniques are employed to sculpt and give unique character to your bonsai including leaf trimming, wiring branches, grafting on other plants, dwarfing and deadwood, (a method of aging bark). Not many specialist tools are needed to sculpt bonsai trees, and these can easily be purchased cheaply. Everything you need to start growing bonsai can easily be bought from a specialist bonsai nursery.

Bonsai can be had as both indoor and outdoor varieties, and some bonsai are improved if they are left outside in the summer months and then brought inside in the winter.

And for those that like the idea, but would rather not get involved in growing bonsai, you can even buy artificial bonsai trees.

If you are considering if developing bonsai trees is right for you, I would say have a go, bonsai trees are easy to grow, take very little of your time, each and every bonsai tree is unique, and who cannot help but to admire a bonsai every time they see one.