Bonsai: Miniature Tray-Planted Trees

Bonsai Majesty

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“Bonsai” is the Japanese pronunciation of a Chinese expression “pensai.” For the purposes of this writing we’ll just assume and use the term “bonsai” in the common vernacular for “miniaturized tree.’ Any containerized tree that is ‘trained’ by pruning, weights or wires to suggest aged trees. Here is a magnificent specimen from the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is just about breath-taking to see genuine bonsai up close and in person. The depth of majesty just doesn’t quite come through in a photograph. There is a smell, a humidity and even an aura that one can only experience in the actual presence of a healthy, well-maintained bonsai garden.

Natural Damage is Suggested in this Bonsai Evergreen

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Containerized trees and other plant have a dated history going back to as far as the time of the Egyptians, 4000 BC. Hieroglyphic images depict small trees growing on rock containers. The Pharaoh Ramesses III donated entire gardens of olive, date and other trees/plant in miniature form to hundreds of temples. For medicines and foods, Pre-Common-Era India employed container-grown trees and plants as well. These would be considered ‘bonsai’ as well.

Adopted and adapted in Japan from mainland China, the Japanese began using shallower trays, thus making the trees even shorter and thus could be more stylized, with different forms. Formerly a pastime of the wealthy and affluent, the miniaturization of trees for landscape was practiced in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam before being discovered and adopted by the west.

Some of the oldest known bonsai trees still living today are in the Happo-en (this is a private garden/restaurant, in Tokyo, Japan) and it is believed that the bonsai there could be between 400 and 800 years old. Trees this old are often grown in era-specific dishes and thus, the containers are often as valuable for their age as the tree they contain.

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Bonsai trees are not special plants that grow small by genetics. They can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed shrub or tree with branches. It is through pruning and root confinement that smaller leaves and diminutive stature is achieved. Any type of tree or woody-stemmed plant can do nicely. The purpose of bonsai is for the enjoyment and contemplation of the person viewing it, and for the exercise of creating and maintaining this venerable state. It is the suggestion of a tree, not the implicit copy of one, that serves its purpose. In the mind of the person viewing the bonsai is where the success of the creation is realized.

Often, ingenuity and chance yield unexpected results. An injury or illness on the bonsai can be cut, carved or even slightly burned to suggest a natural injury. There should be no sign of the hand of man on the tree, no knife marks, no saw or snip ends as these erode the perspective of the tree. They must look 100% natural and untouched by man.

Close-up of a Bonsai Tree Trunk

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I have to admit being unaware that grafting is a technique often used to create bonsai. Some specie of trees do not lend themselves well to miniaturation as their wood-stock are not hard enough, so buds or trunks are often grafted onto hardier wood stock. This includes Japanese Red Maple and Japanese Black Pine.

Indoor bonsai are trees cultivated and intended for indoor display only. If temperate climate specimens are used and kept exclusively indoors, the will eventually weaken and die. They require some outdoor time and a dormant winter period that doesn’t completely freeze. Sometimes, people will keep indigenous species of deciduous bonsai trees in their refrigerator for a few months to ‘winter’ them. This dormant period helps the tree and yet, will not cause it to freeze solid either.

Some of the best bonsai are created from the common Ficus plants. They are however, frost and freeze sensitive and are exclusively indoor plants during winter and outdoors only when the weather permits. Direct sun exposure often damages Ficus, so they stay in shadier locations. Some ficus can do well reamining indoors all the time. Ficus become acclimated to their location and moving them to another room or another location often causes their leaves to yellow and drop off for while. It is best to leave a bonsai Ficus in one location permanently or, only moved for very short periods of time. Since bonsai trees rooted in short pots tend to dry-out fastest, these are best suited for indoor cultivation to monitor their moisture more closely. If their roots dry out for even short periods of time, the tree will suffer. Deciduous trees will shrivel and drop their leaves. Evergreen bonsai can withstand drier periods a bit better, but only show the damage of drought after the event has taken a serious toll upon the tree. Then, even adequate watering may not be enough to prevent some damage.

Bonsai trees are a bit of work and a special work of art. You can have the great trees of the mountain tops in your home to enjoy. Patience and time can yield some living creations that will last for lifetimes.