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bonsai

 
Dictionary: bon·sai   (bŏn-sī', bŏn'', -zī') pronunciation
 
bonsai
(Click to enlarge)
bonsai
juniper tree
( School Division, Houghton Mifflin Company)
n., pl. bonsai.
  1. The art of growing dwarfed, ornamentally shaped trees or shrubs in small shallow pots or trays.
  2. A tree or shrub grown by this method.

[Japanese, potted plant : bon, basin (from Middle Chinese bən) + sai, to plant (from Middle Chinese tsəj, tsaj).]


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The construction of a mature, very dwarfed tree in a relatively small container. Although bonsai is formally an esoteric branch of horticulture, it is firmly based in the social, historical, and cultural ethic of Oriental peoples and its introduction to Western cultures is a development of the twentieth century; indeed, Westerners had not even seen bonsai plants prior to the early decades of this century. At the fundamental level, the word bonsai means merely “plant in a pot,” and its origin can be traced back to China's Chou dynasty (900–250 B.C.), when emperors built miniaturized gardens in which soil, rocks, and plants from each province were installed as dwarfed representations of the lands held by the central government.

To a large extent, the technology of bonsai is derived from classical horticultural procedures which are the product of long tradition firmed up with considerations of many areas of plant physiology and ecology. There are, however, some techniques which are unique to bonsai. To maintain shape, not only must growth be controlled, but the branching patterns must be planned. This is done by selective pruning and by pinching out of terminal buds to release axillary buds from apical dominance. Root prunings, done at intervals as short as 2 or 3 months in some species, promote the development of a tight root ball with large numbers of young lateral roots whose ability to take up water and minerals is great. Branch and stem position is controlled by selective pruning and by the wiring techniques developed by the Japanese in the eighteenth century. Weighting or tying is used for the same reasons.


 
Word Origins: bonsai
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from Japanese
This word originated in Japan

In recent history, war and peace have brought Japanese and English together. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Japan had closed itself off from conversation with other parts of the world, but after the American Matthew Perry opened the country to foreign trade in 1854, the Japanese began to take an intense interest in learning from speakers of languages like English. By 1900 Japan was a world power, imitating the European powers in establishing its own empire. The climax and collapse of Japanese imperialism came in World War II. Afterwards, occupying Americans took charge in rebuilding a peaceful, democratic Japan. The two countries have kept close ties ever since, exchanging many words along the way.

One of these words is bonsai, the art of making much of little, noted in English as early as 1900 but popularized after the war. The word means "planted in a tray." The art of bonsai involves choosing a seedling tree or other plant that would naturally grow large, planting it in a container, and cultivating it to develop its full natural shape and beauty in miniature. "The difference between bonsai and ordinary potted plants," says a Japanese authority, "is that the latter are usually plant species in which the flowers or leaves are the focus of appreciation, while with the former, the beauty of the entire tree and its harmony with the container in which is planted is the matter of esthetic concern." Sometimes the container will create a whole harmonious landscape of trees, shrubs, earth, and rocks.

Bonsai is now an international art. The American Bonsai Society was founded in 1967, and many American cities have bonsai clubs. Bonsai growers sometimes also take an interest in the related arts of suiseki or viewing stones and ikebana or flower arrangement.

The hundred or so words of Japanese that have entered English express a wide variety of customs and attitudes. We have learned more than a skosh (1959) of Japanese: to eat sushi (1893) and plant kudzu (1876), write haiku (1902) and sing karaoke (1982), wrestle with a sumo (1880), become tycoons (1857) and honchos (1947), wear zori (1823), sleep on futons (1876), and say sayonara (1875). There is the old warrior spirit in samurai (1727) and a newer one in kamikaze (1945).

Thanks to the importance of Japan in the world's economy, Japanese today is one of the world's leading languages. Well over a hundred million people speak it. Although its writing system comes from Chinese, Japanese belongs to an entirely separate language family known as Korean-Japanese-Okinawan.



 

Bonsai pine.
(click to enlarge)
Bonsai pine. (credit: Judith Groffman)
(Japanese: "tray planting") Living dwarf tree or trees; also, the art of training and growing them in containers. Bonsai specimens are ordinary trees and shrubs, not hereditary dwarfs; they are dwarfed by a system of pruning roots and branches and training branches by tying them with wire. The art originated in China but has been pursued and developed primarily by the Japanese. The direct inspiration for bonsai is found in nature, in trees that grow in harsh, rocky places and are dwarfed and gnarled throughout their existence. Prized characteristics are an aged-looking trunk and branches and weathered-looking exposed upper roots. Bonsai may live for a century or more and are handed down from one generation to another as valued family possessions. Bonsai pots, usually earthenware and of variable shape, are carefully chosen to harmonize in colour and proportion with the tree. A sizable bonsai industry exists as part of the nursery industry in Japan; California is home to a small-scale bonsai industry.

For more information on bonsai, visit Britannica.com.

 
bonsai (bōn') , art of cultivating dwarf trees. Bonsai, developed by the Japanese more than a thousand years ago, is derived from the Chinese practice of growing miniature plants. In bonsai cultivation, woody plants are kept small and in true proportion to their natural models by growing them in small containers, feeding and watering them only enough for healthy growth, pruning, and training branches in the desired shape by the application of wire coils; the term bonsai also refers to the plants dwarfed by this method. Weathered trees in harsh climates serve as natural models for aged-looking, gnarled, bent, and overhanging miniature trees. The selection of containers, the position of the plant in the container, and the choice of single plants or plant groupings are important aesthetic considerations. In Japan, various native evergreens, i.e., junipers, spruces, and pines, as well as many flowering deciduous trees, are cultivated; in America many native species have been found suitable. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City houses an extensive bonsai collection.

Bibliography

See Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Handbook on Dwarfed Potted Trees: The Bonsai of Japan (1974).


 

The Japanese art of pruning and shaping trees and shrubs that produces long-lived miniature container plants.

bonsai

 
Wikipedia: Bonsai
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Bonsai at garden show in Tatton Park (Cheshire)
112 year old bonsai example, from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Bonsai.ogg Bonsai (盆栽?) (lit. bon-planted) is the art of aesthetic miniaturization of trees, or of developing woody or semi-woody plants shaped as trees, by growing them in containers. Cultivation includes techniques for shaping, watering, and repotting in various styles of containers.

'Bonsai' is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai (盆栽). A 'bon' is a tray-like pot typically used in bonsai culture.[1] The word bonsai is used in the West as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots.

Contents

History

Container-grown plants, including trees and many other kinds of plants, have a history stretching back at least to the early times of Egyptian culture.[2] Pictorial records from around 4000 BCE show trees growing in containers cut into rock. Pharaoh Ramesses III donated gardens consisting of potted olives, date palms, and other plants to hundreds of temples. Pre-Common-Era India used container-grown trees for medicine and food.

The word penzai first appeared in writing in China during the Jin Dynasty, in the period 265 CE – 420CE.[3] Over time, the practice developed into new forms in various parts of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand. Notably, container-grown trees were popularized in Japan during China's Song Dynasty, a period of cultural growth when the Japanese experienced and adopted their own versions of many Chinese practices. At this time, the term for dwarf potted trees was "the bowl's tree" (鉢の木 hachi-no-ki [4]?), denoting the use of a deep pot. The c.1300 rhymed prose essay, Rhymeprose on a Miniature Landscape Garden, by the Japanese Zen monk Kokan Shiren, outlines aesthetic principles for bonsai, bonseki, and garden architecture itself.

At first, the Japanese used miniaturized trees grown in containers to decorate their homes and gardens.[5] During the Tokugawa period, landscape gardening attained new importance. Cultivation of plants such as azalea and maples became a pastime of the wealthy. Growing dwarf plants in containers was also popular. Around 1800, the Japanese changed the term they used for this art to their pronunciation of the Chinese penzai with its connotation of a shallower container in which the Japanese could now style small trees.[6]

One of the oldest-known living bonsai trees, considered one of the National Treasures of Japan, is in the Tokyo Imperial Palace collection. A five-needle pine (Pinus pentaphylla var. negishi) known as Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu is documented as having been cared for by Tokugawa Iemitsu. The tree is considered to be at least 500 years old and was first trained as a bonsai by 1610.[7] Older plants have been made more recently into bonsai as well.[8]

Cultivation

Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species[9] which produces true branches and remains small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai. The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower).[10] By contrast with other plant-related practices, bonsai is not intended for production of food, for medicine, or for creating yard-sized or park-sized landscapes. As a result, the scope of bonsai practice is narrow and focused on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees in a single container.

Sources of bonsai material

All bonsai start with a specimen of source material, a plant that the grower wishes to train into bonsai form. Bonsai practice is an unusual form of plant cultivation in that growth from seeds is rarely used to obtain source material. To display the characteristic aged appearance of a bonsai within a reasonable time, the source plant is often partially-grown or mature stock. A specimen may be selected specifically for bonsai aesthetic characteristics it already possesses, such as great natural age for a specimen collected in the wild, or a tapered, scar-free trunk from a nursery specimen. Alternatively, it may be selected for non-aesthetic reasons, such as known hardiness for the grower's local climate or low cost (in the case of collected materials).

Propagation

While any form of plant propagation could generate bonsai material, a few techniques are favored because they can quickly produce a relatively mature trunk with well-placed branches.

Cuttings. In taking a cutting, part of a growing plant is cut off and placed in a growing medium to develop roots. If the part that is cut off is fairly thick, like a mature branch, it can be grown into an aged-looking bonsai more quickly than can a seed. Unfortunately, thinner and younger cuttings tend to strike roots more easily than thicker or more mature ones.[10] In bonsai propagation, cuttings usually provide source material to be grown for some time before training.

Layering. Layering is a technique in which rooting is encouraged from part of a plant, usually a branch, while it is still attached to the parent plant. After rooting, the branch is removed from the parent and grown as an independent entity. For bonsai, both ground layering and air layering can create a potential bonsai, by transforming a mature branch into the trunk of a new tree.[11] The point at which rooting is encouraged can be close to the location of side branches, so the resulting rooted tree can immediately have a thick trunk and low branches, characteristics that complement bonsai aesthetics.

Commercial bonsai growers

Commercial bonsai growers may use any of the other means of obtaining starter bonsai material, from seed propagation to collecting expeditions, but they generally sell mature specimens that display bonsai aesthetic qualities already. The grower trains the source specimens to a greater or lesser extent before sale, and the trees may be ready for display as soon as they are bought. Those who purchase commercially-grown bonsai face some challenges, however, particularly of buying from another country. If the purchaser's local climate does not closely match the climate in which the bonsai was created, the plant will have difficulties surviving and thriving. As well, importing living plant material from a foreign source is often closely controlled by customs regulations and may require a license or other special customs arrangement on the buyer's part. If a local commercial bonsai grower does not exist, buying from a distant one may be unsatisfactory.

Nursery stock

A plant nursery is an agricultural operation where (non-bonsai) plants are propagated and grown to usable size. Nursery stock may be available directly from the nursery, or may be sold in a garden centre or similar resale establishment. Nursery stock is usually young but fully viable, and is often potted with sufficient soil to allow plants to survive a season or two before being transplanted into a more permanent location. Because the nursery tree is already pot-conditioned, it can be worked on as a bonsai immediately. The large number of plants that can be viewed in a single visit to a nursery or garden centre allows the buyer to identify plants with better-than-average bonsai characteristics. According to Peter Adams, a nursery visit "offers the opportunity to choose an instant trunk".[11] One issue with nursery stock is that many specimens are shaped into popular forms, such as the standard or half-standard forms, with several feet of clear trunk rising from the roots. Without branches low on the trunk, it is difficult for a source specimen to be trained as bonsai.

Collecting

Collecting bonsai is the process of finding suitable bonsai material in situ, successfully moving it, and replanting it in a container for development as bonsai. Collecting may involve wild materials collected from naturally treed areas, or cultivated specimens found growing in yards and gardens.[12] Mature landscape plants which are being discarded from a building site can provide excellent material for bonsai. Some regions have plant material that is known for its suitability in form. In North America, for example, the California Juniper and Sierra Juniper found in the Sierra Mountains, the Ponderosa pine found in the Rocky Mountains, and the Bald Cypress found in the swamps of the Everglades.

The benefit of collecting bonsai specimens is that the collected materials can be mature, and will display the natural marks and forms of age, which makes them more suitable for bonsai development than the young plants obtained through nurseries. Some of the difficulties of collecting include getting permission to remove the specimens, and the challenges of keeping a mature tree alive while transplanting it to a bonsai pot.

Techniques

This juniper makes extensive use of both jin (deadwood branches) and shari (trunk deadwood).

The practice of bonsai development incorporates a number of techniques either unique to bonsai or, if used in other forms of cultivation, applied in unusual ways that are particularly suitable to the bonsai domain.

Leaf trimming: This technique involves the selective removal of leaves (for most varieties of deciduous tree) or needles (for coniferous trees and some others) from a bonsai's trunk and branches. A common aesthetic technique in bonsai design is to expose the tree's branches below groups of leaves or needles (sometimes called "pads"). In many species, particularly coniferous ones, this means that leaves or needles projecting below their branches must be trimmed off. For some coniferous varieties, such as spruce, branches carry needles from the trunk to the tip and many of these needles may be trimmed to expose the branch shape and bark. Needle and bud trimming can also be used in coniferous trees to force back-budding or budding on old wood, which may not occur naturally in many conifers.[11] Along with pruning, leaf trimming is the most common activity used for bonsai development and maintenance, and the one that occurs most frequently during the year.

Pruning: The small size of the tree and some dwarfing of foliage result from pruning the trunk, branches, and roots. Pruning is often the first step in transforming a collected plant specimen into a candidate for bonsai. The top part of the trunk may be removed to make the tree more compact. Major and minor branches that conflict with the designer's plan will be removed completely, and others may be shortened to fit within the planned design. Pruning later in the bonsai's life is generally less severe, and may be done for purposes like increasing branch ramification or encouraging growth in non-pruned branches. Although pruning is an important and common bonsai practice, it must be done with care, as improper pruning can weaken or kill trees.[13] Careful pruning throughout the tree's life is necessary, however, to maintain a bonsai's basic design, which can otherwise disappear behind the uncontrolled natural growth of branches and leaves.

Wiring: Wrapping copper or aluminium wire around branches and trunks allows the bonsai designer to create the desired general form and make detailed branch and leaf placements. When wire is used on new branches or shoots, it holds the branches in place until they lignify (convert into wood), usually 6–9 months or one growing season. Wires are also used to connect a branch to another object (e.g., another branch, the pot itself) so that tightening the wire applies force to the branch. Some species do not lignify strongly, and some specimens' branches are too stiff or brittle to be bent easily. These cases are not conducive to wiring, and shaping them is accomplished primarily through pruning.

Clamping: For larger specimens, or species with stiffer wood, bonsai artists also use mechanical devices for shaping trunks and branches. The most common are screw-based clamps, which can straighten or bend a part of the bonsai using much greater force than wiring can supply. To prevent damage to the tree, the clamps are tightened a little at a time and make their changes over a period of months or years.

Grafting: In this technique, new growing material (typically a bud, branch, or root) is introduced to a prepared area on the trunk or under the bark of the tree. There are two major purposes for grafting in bonsai. First, a number of favorite species do not thrive as bonsai on their natural root stock and their trunks are often grafted onto hardier root stock. Examples include Japanese red maple and Japanese black pine.[11] Second, grafting allows the bonsai artist to add branches (and sometimes roots) where they are needed to improve or complete a bonsai design.[14][15] There are many applicable grafting techniques, none unique to bonsai, including branch grafting, bud grafting, thread grafting, and others.

Defoliation: Short-term dwarfing of foliage can be accomplished in certain deciduous bonsai by partial or total defoliation of the plant partway through the growing season. Not all species can survive this technique. In defoliating a healthy tree of a suitable species, most or all of the leaves are removed by clipping partway along each leaf's petiole (the thin stem that connects a leaf to its branch). Petioles later dry up and drop off or are manually removed once dry. The tree responds by producing a fresh crop of leaves. The new leaves are generally much smaller than those from the first crop, sometimes as small as half the length and width. If the bonsai is shown at this time, the smaller leaves contribute greatly to the bonsai esthetic of dwarfing. This change in leaf size is usually not permanent, and the leaves of the following spring will often be the normal size. Defoliation weakens the tree and should not be performed in two consecutive years.[16]

Deadwood: Bonsai growers use deadwood bonsai techniques called jin and shari to simulate age and maturity in a bonsai. Jin is the term used when the bark from an entire branch is removed to create the impression of a snag of deadwood. Shari denotes stripping bark from areas of the trunk to simulate natural scarring from a broken limb or lightning strike. In addition to stripping bark, this technique may also involve the use of tools to scar the deadwood or to raise its grain, and the application of chemicals (usually lime sulfur) to bleach and preserve the exposed deadwood.

Care

Watering

With limited space in a bonsai pot, regular attention is needed to ensure the tree is correctly watered. Sun, heat and wind exposure can dry bonsai trees to the point of drought in a short period of time. While some species can handle periods of relative dryness, others require near-constant moisture. Watering too frequently, or allowing the soil to remain soggy, promotes fungal infections and root rot. Free draining soil is used to prevent waterlogging. Deciduous trees are more at risk of dehydration and will wilt as the soil dries out. Evergreen trees, which tend to cope with dry conditions better, do not display signs of the problem until after damage has occurred.

Repotting

An uprooted bonsai, ready for repotting

Bonsai are repotted and root-pruned at intervals dictated by the vigour and age of each tree. In the case of deciduous trees, this is done as the tree is leaving its dormant period, generally around springtime. Bonsai are often repotted while in development, and less often as they become more mature. This prevents them from becoming pot-bound and encourages the growth of new feeder roots, allowing the tree to absorb moisture more efficiently.

Specimens meant to be developed into bonsai are often placed in "growing boxes", which have a much larger volume of soil per plant than a bonsai pot does. These large boxes allow the roots to grow freely, increasing the vigor of the tree and helping the trunk and branches grow thicker. After using a grow box, the tree may be replanted in a more compact "training box" that helps to create a smaller, denser root mass which can be more easily moved into a final presentation pot.

Tools

Set of bonsai tools (left to right): leaf trimmer; rake with spatula; root hook; coir brush; concave cutter; knob cutter; wire cutter; small, medium and large shears

Special tools are available for the maintenance of bonsai. The most common tool is the concave cutter (5th from left in picture), a tool designed to prune flush, without leaving a stub. Other tools include branch bending jacks, wire pliers and shears of different proportions for performing detail and rough shaping.

Soil and fertilization

Akadama soil

Bonsai soil is usually a loose, fast-draining mix of components,[17] often a base mixture of coarse sand or gravel, fired clay pellets, or expanded shale combined with an organic component such as peat or bark. The inorganic components provide mechanical support for bonsai roots, and—in the case of fired clay materials—also serve to retain moisture. The organic components retain moisture and may release small amounts of nutrients as they decay.

In Japan, bonsai soil mixes based on volcanic clays are common. The volcanic clay has been fired at some point in time to create porous, water-retaining pellets. Varieties such as akadama, or "red ball" soil, and kanuma, a type of yellow pumice used for azaleas and other calcifuges, are used by many bonsai growers. Similar fired clay soil components are extracted or manufactured in other countries around the world, and other soil components like diatomaceous earth can fill a similar purpose in bonsai cultivation.

Opinions about fertilizers and fertilization techniques vary widely among practitioners. Some promote the use of organic fertilizers to augment an essentially inorganic soil mix, while others will use chemical fertilizers freely. Many follow the general rule of little and often, where a dilute fertilizer solution or a small amount of dry fertilizer are applied relatively frequently during the tree's growing season. The flushing effect of regular watering moves unmetabolized fertilizer out of the soil, preventing the potentially toxic build-up of fertilizer ingredients.

Location and overwintering

Bonsai are sometimes marketed or promoted as house plants, but few of the traditional bonsai species can thrive or even survive inside a typical house. The best guideline to identifying a suitable location for a bonsai is its native hardiness. If the bonsai grower can closely replicate the full year's temperatures, relative humidity, and sunlight, the bonsai should do well. In practice, this means that trees from a hardiness zone closely matching the grower's location will generally be the easiest to grow outdoors, and others will require more work or will not be viable at all.[18]

Outdoors

Most bonsai species are outdoor trees and shrubs by nature, and they require temperature, humidity, and sunlight conditions approximating their native climate year round. The skill of the gardener can help plants from outside the local hardiness zone to survive and even thrive, but doing so takes careful watering, shielding of selected bonsai from excessive sunlight or wind, and possibly protection from winter conditions (e.g., through the use of cold boxes or winter greenhouses).

Common bonsai species (particularly those from the Japanese tradition) are temperate climate trees from hardiness zones 7 to 9, and require moderate temperatures, moderate humidity, and full sun in summer with a dormancy period in winter that may need be near freezing. They do not thrive indoors, where the light is generally too dim, and humidity often too low, for them to grow properly. Only in the dormant period can they safely be brought indoors, and even then the plants require cold temperatures and lighting that approximates the number of hours the sun is visible. Raising the temperature or providing more hours of light than available from natural daylight can cause the bonsai to break dormancy, which often weakens or kills it.

Indoors

Tropical and Mediterranean species typically require consistent temperatures close to room temperature, and with correct lighting and humidity many species can be kept indoors all year. Those from cooler climates may benefit from a winter dormancy period, but temperatures need not be dropped as far as for the temperate climate plants and a north-facing windowsill or open window may provide the right conditions for a few winter months. [19]

Containers

Assorted bonsai pots

A variety of informal containers may house the bonsai during its development, and even trees that have been formally planted in a bonsai pot may be returned to growing boxes from time to time. A large growing box will house several bonsai and provide a great volume of soil per tree to encourage root growth. A training box will have a single tree, and a smaller volume of soil that helps condition the tree to the eventual size and shape of the formal bonsai container. There are no aesthetic guidelines for these development containers, and they may be of any material, size, and shape that suit the grower.

Formal bonsai containers are ceramic pots, which come in a variety of shapes and colors and may be glazed or unglazed. Unlike many common plant containers, bonsai pots have drainage holes in the bottom surface to allow excess water to escape the pot. The grower usually covers the holes with a piece of screen or mesh to prevent soil from falling out and hinder pests from entering the pots from below.

For bonsai being shown in their completed state, pot shape, color, and size are chosen to complement the tree as a picture frame is chosen to complement a painting. Containers with straight sides and sharp corners are generally used for formally-shaped plants, while oval or round containers are used for plants with informal designs. Many aesthetic rules guide the selection of pot finish and color. For example, evergreen bonsai are often placed in unglazed pots, while deciduous trees usually appear in glazed pots. Pots are also distinguished by their size. The overall design of the bonsai tree, the thickness of its trunk, and its height are considered when determining the size of a suitable pot.

Some pots are highly collectible, like ancient Chinese or Japanese pots made in regions with experienced pot makers such as Tokoname, Japan or Yixing, China. Today many western potters throughout Europe and the United States produce fine quality pots for bonsai.

Common styles

Semi-cascade style larch
Formal upright style Bald cypress
Forest style Black Hills Spruce
Informal upright style Juniper
Root-over-rock style maple on display at the Chinese Penjing Collection of National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, DC
  • The formal upright style, or Chokkan, is characterized by a straight, upright, tapering trunk. Branches progress regularly from the thickest and broadest at the bottom to the finest and shortest at the top.
  • The trunk and branches of the informal upright style, or Moyogi incorporate visible curves, but the apex of the informal upright is always located directly above the trunk's entry into the soil line. Similar to the formal upright style, branches generally progress regularly from largest at the bottom to smallest at the top, although this progression may be broken where the irregular shape of the trunk would make a branch abnormally prominent or obscure.
  • Slant-style, or Shakan, bonsai possess straight trunks like those of bonsai grown in the formal upright style. However, the slant style trunk emerges from the soil at an angle, and the apex of the bonsai will be located to the left or right of the root base.
  • Cascade-style, or Kengai, bonsai are modeled after trees which grow over water or on the sides of mountains. The apex, or tip of the tree in the Semi-cascade-style, or Han Kengai, bonsai extend just at or beneath the lip of the bonsai pot; the apex of a (full) cascade style falls below the base of the pot.
  • Raft-style, or Netsuranari, bonsai mimic a natural phenomenon that occurs when a tree topples onto its side (typically due to erosion or another natural force). Branches along the top side of the trunk continue to grow as a group of new trunks. Sometimes, roots will develop from buried portions of the trunk. Raft-style bonsai can have sinuous, straight-line, or slanting trunks, all giving the illusion that they are a group of separate trees—while actually being the branches of a tree planted on its side.
  • The literati style, or Bunjin-gi, bonsai is characterized by a generally bare trunk line, with branches reduced to a minimum, and typically placed higher up on a long, often contorted trunk. This style derives its name from the Chinese literati, who were often artists. Some painted Chinese brush paintings, like those found in the ancient text, The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, depicting pine trees that grew in harsh climates, struggling to reach sunlight. In Japan, the literati style is known as bunjin-gi (文人木[20]?). (Bunjin is a translation of the Chinese phrase wenren meaning "scholars practiced in the arts" and gi is a derivative of the Japanese word, ki, for "tree").
  • The group or forest style, or Yose Ue, comprises a planting of more than one tree (typically an odd number if there are three or more trees, and essentially never 4 because of its significance in China) in a bonsai pot. The trees are usually the same species, with a variety of heights employed to add visual interest and to reflect the age differences encountered in mature forests.
  • The root-over-rock style, or Sekijoju, is a style in which the roots of a tree (typically a fig tree) are wrapped around a rock. The rock is at the base of the trunk, with the roots exposed to varying degrees.
  • The broom style, or Hokidachi is employed for trees with extensive, fine branching, often with species like elms. The trunk is straight and upright. It branches out in all directions about 1/3 of the way up the entire height of the tree. The branches and leaves form a ball-shaped crown which can also be very beautiful during the winter months.
  • The multi-trunk style, or Ikadabuki has all the trunks growing out of one root system, and it actually is one single tree. All the trunks form one crown of leaves, in which the thickest and most developed trunk forms the top.
  • The growing-in-a-rock, or Ishizuke style means the roots of the tree are growing in the cracks and holes of the rock. There is not much room for the roots to develop and take up nutrients. These trees are designed to visually represent that the tree has to struggle to survive.

The most common styles include: formal upright, slant, informal upright, cascade, semi-cascade, raft, literati, and group/forest.

Size classifications

Class Size
tiny Mame Keshi-tsubu up to 2.5 cm (1 in)
Shito 2.5–7.5 cm (1–3 in)
small Shohin Gafu 13–20 cm (5–8 in)
Komono up to 18 cm (7 in)
Myabi 15–25 cm (6–10 in)
medium Kifu Katade-mochi up to 40 cm (16 in)
medium to large Chu/Chuhin 40–60 cm (16–24 in)
large Dai/Daiza Omono up to 120 cm (47 in)
Bonju over 100 cm (39 in)

Not all sources agree on the exact sizes or names for these ranges, but the concept of the ranges is well-established and necessary to both the cultivation and the aesthetic understanding of the trees. In the very largest size range, a recognized Japanese practice is to name the trees "one-handed", "two-handed", and so on, based on the number of men required to move the tree and pot. These trees will have dozens of branches and can closely simulate a full-sized tree. At the other end of the size spectrum, there are a number of specific techniques and styles associated solely with the smallest sizes, mame and shito. These techniques take advantage of the bonsai's minute dimensions and compensate for the limited number of branches and leaves that can appear on a tree this small.

Indoor bonsai

]

Indoor bonsai are bonsai which have been cultivated for the indoor environment. Traditionally, bonsai are shaped from temperate climate trees grown in containers but kept outdoors.[21] Kept in the artificial environment of a home, these trees weaken and die. A number of tropical and sub-tropical tree species will survive and grow indoors. Some of these are suited to bonsai aesthetics and can be shaped much as traditional outdoor bonsai are.


See also

Find more about Bonsai on Wikipedia's sister projects:
Definitions from Wiktionary

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References

  1. ^ ""bonsai"". Phoenixbonsai.com. http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Terms/Bonsai.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  2. ^ Koreshoff, Deborah R. (1984; pg. 1). Bonsai: Its Art, Science, History and Philosophy. Timber Press, Inc.. ISBN 0-88192-389-3. 
  3. ^ Liang, Amy (2005). The Living Art of Bonsai: Principles and Techniques of Cultivation and Propagation. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.. pp. 1-17. ISBN 1-4027-1901-9. 
  4. ^ ""hachinoki"". Phoenixbonsai.com. http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Terms/Hachinoki.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  5. ^ ""Early American Bonsai: The Larz Anderson Collection of the Arnold Arboretum" by Peter Del Tredici, published in ''Arnoldia'' (Summer 1989) by Harvard University". Arboretum.harvard.edu. http://www.arboretum.harvard.edu/plants/bonsai/intro.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  6. ^ Dalby, Liza et al. (ed.) (1984, pg. 44). All-Japan: The Catalogue of Everything Japanese. Quarto Marketing, Inc. 
  7. ^ Naka, John Yoshio (1982, pg. 258). Bonsai Techniques II. Bonsai Institute of California. 
  8. ^ ""Tree Collection"". Elandangardens.com. http://www.elandangardens.com/museum/trees.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  9. ^ Owen, Gordon (1990). The Bonsai Identifier. Quintet Publishing Ltd.. p. 11. ISBN 0-88665-833-0. 
  10. ^ a b Chan, Peter (1987). Bonsai Masterclass. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.. ISBN 0-8069-6763-3. 
  11. ^ a b c d Adams, Peter D. (1981). The Art of Bonsai. Ward Lock Ltd.. ISBN 0-7063-7116. :p. 71-714
  12. ^ Treasure, Martin (2002). Bonsai Life Histories. Firefly Books Ltd.. pp. 12 - 14. ISBN 1-55209-625-7. 
  13. ^ Lewis, Colin (2003). The Bonsai Handbook. Advanced Marketing Ltd.. ISBN 1-903938-30-9. 
  14. ^ ""Grafting as a Bonsai Tool"". Bonsaikc.com. http://www.bonsaikc.com/grafting1.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  15. ^ ""Root Grafts for Bonsai"". Evergreengardenworks.com. http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/rootgraf.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  16. ^ Norman, Ken (2005). Growing Bonsai: A Practical Encyclopedia. Lorenz Books. ISBN 9-780754-815723. 
  17. ^ "It's All In The Soil by Mike Smith, published in ''Norfolk Bonsai'' (Spring 2007) by Norfolk Bonsai Association". Norfolkbonsai.co.uk. http://www.norfolkbonsai.co.uk/default.asp?Display=39&Title=Its-All-In-The-Soil. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  18. ^ Pike, Dave (1989). Indoor Bonsai. The Crowood Press. ISBN 9-781852-232542. 
  19. ^ Lesniewicz, Paul (1996). Bonsai in Your Home. Sterling Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8069-0781-9. 
  20. ^ ""bunjingi"". Phoenixbonsai.com. http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Terms/bunjingi.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-28. 
  21. ^ Indoor bonsai, online article from the Montreal Botanical Garden [1]

External links



 
Translations: Bonsai
Top

Dansk (Danish)
n. - bonsaiplante

Nederlands (Dutch)
bonsai(boompje/ -struik)

Français (French)
n. - bonsaï

Deutsch (German)
n. - Bonsai (japan. Zwergbaum)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μπονσάι (καλλιέργεια μικροσκοπικών φυτών)

Italiano (Italian)
alberello in miniatura

Português (Portuguese)
n. - bonsai (m) (japon.) (Bot.)

Русский (Russian)
декоративное японское дерево

Español (Spanish)
n. - arte de cultivo japonés

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - bonsai

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
种植盆景的艺术, 盆景, 盆栽

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 種植盆景的藝術, 盆景, 盆栽

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 관목의 일종

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 盆栽

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) أشجار صغيرة جدا ( أقزام)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בונסאי (עץ גמדי), גימוד עצים‬


 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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