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What Bonsai Growing Involves
By Frank | April 25, 2008
Bonsai is the art of growing trees in containers. The art originates from East Asia, primarily from Japan, China, and the surrounding East Asian nations. It was originally first developed in China during the Han dynasty, but it was the Japanese which developed bonsai up to the level we now know of. Bonsai is actually the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word, “penzai.”
Bonsai growing suits city slickers with busy lifestyles due to not requiring a large backyard in order to grow them successfully. It can be grown in apartments without the need for a proper garden yard. Most bonsai trees do not have difficult requirements, and can be grown without too much fuss. There are specific requirements between the different species of trees, but unless you are concentrating on styling your bonsai in a certain style, you do not need to be tending to your tree every single day. Bonsai mostly just needs proper watering, feeding, and some pruning techniques to ensure the tree grows healthily, yet remains small. A common misconception is that bonsai involves genetically modifying trees, but this is entirely not true. Bonsai trees stay small due to careful pruning, watering, and feeding techniques over a sustained period of time.
In growing bonsai trees, several styles have become staple practices. Among these are the formal upright and informal upright, cascade and semi cascade, broom, and slanting styles. In order to achieve specific styles, careful pruning and wiring is a must. Wiring here refers to the usage of thin wires to wrap around the tree branches and keeping them in this state for controlled periods of time, during which the branches will “learn” how to stay bent at the direction they are forced to grow in.
You don’t really need to learn expert techniques just so you can grow bonsai. Most trees will survive and grow anyway, provided they get enough feeding, watering, and pruning. Many people buy a bonsai tree for its aesthetic appeal, and would be quite content to just maintain a pretty looking bonsai as a part of their indoor or outdoor décor plans. The idea that you can grow a beautiful looking miniature tree in a container or pot, is fast gaining appeal among casual and serious gardeners all around the world.
Topics: Gardening |
