At the request of our bonsai enthusiasts, we will be printing a monthly newsletter to augment our monthly clinics. It is our intent to bring to our clients, a history of bonsai, bonsai care guidelines, botany basics and tips on techniques to help you in your bonsai endeavors. We will also provide species specific information and care. In addition, each issue will have tips on that month’s activities. We will also try to honor any requests that you may have. We will begin this month with:

An Introduction to the Art of Bonsai
Bonsai (pronounced bone-sigh) is the art of miniaturizing plants and trees , in a container, to resemble their full size counterparts in nature. The same kanji characters in Chinese are read as Penjing. Both have the same meaning.

Today the hobby of bonsai is fairly well known and practiced in many countries around the world. Yet, as it has become more wide spread, its origins are tending to be forgotten. It is a hobby that has been introduced to the western world through Japan and it is for this reason that many people consider it to be originally a Japanese art. This is not so. Bonsai is a relatively recent art in Japan and did, in fact, originate in China. Other civilizations besides the Chinese have grown container plants since antiquity. Records indicate that ancient Greeks and Romans did, as well as Babylonians, Persians, Hindus, Egyptians and men of ancient Europe. There is no single date where we can say “this is when Bonsai began.”. It is suffice to say that bonsai was practiced in China some 4000 years ago and was introduced to Japan about 1200 years ago. Whereas, other cultures transplanted their container grown plants, as they out grew their container, to an ever larger one, the Chinese developed the techniques of keeping the plants small. The Japanese further refined these techniques.

Bonsai is a fine art. Like a sculptor, a bonsai artist shapes an object, but the sculpture is alive. Like a painter, the bonsai artist creates a miniature world, not to finish and frame it, but to groom and nurture it. It has been said that when a painter puts down his brush or a sculptors his hammer and chisel, their work is done. In the art of bonsai the work is never done. It keeps growing, therefore always evolving and needing further grooming.

Bonsai is first and foremost horticulture. Once the requirements of the living organism have been met, then the artistic expression comes to the forefront.

What Keeps a Bonsai Small ?
One aspect of bonsai that frequently amazes onlookers is the reasonably small size of the tree in conjunction with its great age. To many, this feat is looked upon as nothing short of a miracle. The opinion of many people is that the tree stays small because “something” that is done to the root system – more specifically – root pruning. Yet, this idea is not entirely correct, as seen by the increase in vigor and growth after root pruning and soil renewal. It is ,in fact, nature that keeps the balance. If the roots can’t continue to spread due to the confines of a narrow crevice in a cliff face or a bonsai pot, then the above ground portion grows at an extremely slow rate to balance the small increase of the root system. The tree is thus miniaturized due to the restricted size of the root ball. If the tree is left in a pot for many years, it grows slowly as the roots fill the container to its capacity and then when all the space and nutriment in the soil is exhausted, the tree actually stops growing, weakens and dies. The tree must be taken out of its pot and the roots cut back, periodically, and the soil renewed. Simply put, the roots and the top portion must always be in balance.

Bonsai Clinics are held at the Red Dragon, on the third Saturday of the month, from 10 AM to 4 PM.

Bring your trees and questions.