Watching bonsai trees develop and shaping them into amazing sculptures is an absorbing and very rewarding hobby. Growing bonsai trees is not an expensive hobby with few tools being required, but a fine bonsai tree can be more of a statement in your home than many ornaments can. A bonsai is a living ornament.
Bonsai are pot planted trees that are developed to be miniatures of its full sized plant. Bonsai trees can be grown from nearly any perennial wood stemmed trees and shrubs that produce branches and can grow in miniature through container confinement with the assistance from root and crown pruning.
A Bonsai tree can be grown from seeds, from young shoots taken from the wild, (please observe any local laws regarding taking wild plants or trees in your region), or can be bought as mature planted bonsai. Obviously growing bonsai trees from seed is the slowest route, but you do have total control over how your bonsai tree will look.
Bonsai trees are planted in bonsai pots that restrict the development of the roots but will also enhance the look of your bonsai. Specialist soils can be bought that provide the perfect environment for your bonsai tree to develop.
Many techniques are employed to sculpt and give character to your bonsai tree including leaf trimming, wiring branches, grafting on other plants, short term dwarfing and deadwood, (aging and adding character to bark). Few specialist tools are needed to sculpt bonsai, and these are readily available very cheaply. Everything you require to get started can easily be bought from a bonsai nursery.
Bonsai are available as indoor and outdoor types, and some bonsai are improved if they are left outdoors in the summer months and brought inside in the winter.
And for anyone that likes the idea, but does not want to maintain bonsai, you can even buy artificial bonsai.
If you are wondering if developing bonsai is for you, I would say give it a try, bonsai trees are simple to grow, take a small amount of your spare time, each and every bonsai tree is individual, and who doesn’t admire a bonsai every time they see one.
