Bonsai has been a BIG part of my life – in a SMALL way!

One gift we received on our wedding day was a little bonsai Melaleuca with a note attached encouraging us to care for it as much as we would our marriage. 6 months later it was dead – the bonsai that is, not the marriage! I’m just so thankful we weren’t given a lucky bamboo!!
Fortunately we didn’t put a lot of stock into the attached note and the peril that would await us should we fail – we’ve been going 11 years now.
I once worked with a guy who was devoted to his art and would bonsai anything that would grow. My concept of the art up until that time was limited to oaks or conifers while he had more than 200 bonsais created from every tree imaginable – and predominantly Australian natives. This guy’s house was more an excuse for an indoor garden than it was inhabitable.
What amazed me though was the simplicity of what he was doing. There were a few things to consider as fundamental but the rest was purely left to the gardeners creativity.

Roughly translated bonsai means ‘planted in a tray’ and is defined as “The art of dwarfing trees by careful root and stem pruning coupled with root restriction.” So what are the key fundamentals of this art?

• Good Stock to start off a bonsai you need a sapling that doesn’t have any disease or imperfections (that you don’t want!) and is still small enough to begin on. There are 5 main styles that are better defined here so you need to take this into consideration when preparing your bonsai.
• Select a Pot this is not critical in the beginning, in fact my friend had the majority of his in plastic pots as they began to grow and contort. However, there will come a time when you want to show your bonsai off and the choice of pot does become critical. There are many factors needed to consider; size of bonsai, flower colour, the scene you’re trying to create and possibly even where you will store your growing bonsai.
• Training the Branches once you’ve decided on a form for your bonsai the process of shaping the branches begins. Use pliable copper wire to retrain the growth habit of specific branches forcing them horizontally or in a weeping fashion as your style depicts. The wire gives enough weight to hold the branch in place without snapping them or marking the trees cambian layer.
• Trimming the Roots this is what really sets bonsai apart. We can all train and trim our garden trees and shrubs but we would never dig them up periodically to trim their roots. With bonsai this is essential otherwise the tree will want to continue growing to its normal height. The roots need to be confined within a small pot so trimming them keeps the tree healthy and growing.