What are bonsai Trees?
Bonsai is the fine art of “growing trees in trays”, and it is an ancient art imported from the East. It doesn’t require much in the way of space and makes for a perfectly enjoyable and revitalizing hobby. Struggling with stress and feeling out of touch with nature? Growing bonsai has provided me with hours of enjoyment and communion with the natural world right here in the space of my home. Growing and shaping bonsai trees into fine specimens of art is no small thing in itself. A high level of discipline and patience is required in order to achieve any form of success in growing bonsai.
Whether you are a beginner in bonsai growing or an expert, you can be sure that growing bonsai is about experimentation and a dose of creativity. But even if your expectations out of growing bonsai are low, and all you want is a cute little miniature tree to decorate your workspace, you will still need the necessary knowledge to nurture your little bonsai tree and make it thrive. Growing bonsai should be the enjoyable and personally satisfying experience that it is.
Growing bonsai helps in soothing ones’ nerves after a stressful day at work, when you will find yourself looking forward to tending your bonsai trees, and gazing upon the little micro gardens that you have created in small trays or pots. And this is what growing bonsai is best defined as - artistic micro gardening.
History
Bonsai first appeared in China over a thousand years ago on a very basic scale, known as pun-sai, where it was the practice of growing single specimen trees in pots. These early specimens displayed sparse foliage and rugged, gnarled trunks which often looked like animals, dragons and birds. There are a great number of myths and legends surrounding Chinese bonsai, and the grotesque or animal-like trunks and root formations are still highly prized today. Chinese bonsai come from the landscape of the imagination and images of fiery dragons and coiled serpents take far greater precedence over images of trees- so the two forms of this art are quite far apart.
With Japan's adoption of many cultural trademarks of China - bonsai was also taken up, introduced to Japan during the Kamakura period by means of Zen Buddhism - which at this time was rapidly spreading around Asia. The exact time is debatable, although it is possible that it had arrived in there appears to be a reference to it in a Japanese scroll attributed to that period. Once bonsai was introduced into Japan, the art was refined to an extent not yet approached in China. Over time, the simple trees were not just confined to the Buddhist monks and their monasteries, but also later were introduced to be representative of the aristocracy - a symbol of prestige and honour. The ideals and philosophy of bonsai were greatly changed over the years. For the Japanese, bonsai represents a fusion of strong ancient beliefs with the Eastern philosophies of the harmony between man, the soul and nature.
Over time, bonsai began to take on different styles, each which varied immensely from one another. Bonsai artists gradually looked into introducing other culturally important elements in their bonsai plantings such as rocks, supplementary and accent plants, and even small buildings and people which itself is known as the art of bon-kei. They also looked at reproducing miniature landscapes in nature - known as sai-kei which further investigated the diverse range of artistic possibilities for bonsai.
The evolution of bonsai over the past two centuries is truly amazing - now a well known and respected horticultural artform that has spread throughout the world from Greenland to the U.S. to South Africa to Australia. It is constantly changing and reaching even greater heights, representative of how small the world is really getting.
Purpose of Bonsai Tree
A bonsai tree is usually kept for decorative purposes, although some also keep this type of trees for its flowers, fruits and so on. In those days when people started off this culture in China, bonsai trees were believed to have medicinal powers and mostly were transported in containers by the traditional medical healers.
Making choices : Indoor or out-door bonsai?
You need to decide if you want indoor our outdoor bonsai? It may seem to be strange at first, but indoor bonsai is a hell of a lot more difficult then out-door bonsai. When you think about it it’s logical: For indoor trees you need to provide the tree with tropical our sub tropical conditions. This generally means warm humid conditions, without forgetting plenty of light.These conditions are not easy to obtain! Certainly not in the northern hemisphere. Unless you have a kind of greenhouse, that can be kept at about 12-15°C in the winter. You do not have this kind of greenhouse you say? Well than forget about indoor bonsai! So this one was easy..… I more our less decide for you and for the rest of this page we are going to speak about out-door bonsai only.
