Bonsai E-Book

Bonsai Empire

• Herausgeber: Bonsai Empire
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

How often do I need to water my Bonsai tree? 
Should I prune my tree?

Although caring for a Bonsai tree is not nearly as difficult as most people believe, you need to learn about some basic techniques in order to keep your tree thriving. Our beginners guide contains all the essential information you need in order to succeed. It covers the basic techniques, well illustrated with over two hundred images, and explains everything you need to know in an understandable way.

The book includes:
- Over 200 stunning images
- Over 100 pages
- Explanations of the basic techniques and tools
- Care guides on the 10 most popular tree species
- Background on the history, definition and styles

Bonsai Empire is the world's most visited Bonsai website and has provided beginners with quality information for over a decade. We have developed this guide to help you get a taste of this fascinating and living art, and hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

Walter Pall:
"Now here is the ultimate book to lead beginners. I am happy to have been able to contribute to this"

Leseprobe

Contents

1. INTRODUCTION

2. DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND INSPIRATION

3. THE HISTORY OF BONSAI

4. BONSAI STYLES

5. SELECTING YOUR BONSAI

6. CARE GUIDES

7. TECHNIQUES

8. START NOW

9. CONCLUDING REMARKS

1. INTRODUCTION

Introduction to Bonsai

Bonsai trees are small, potted trees that are well-known parts of the Japanese culture. The living art of Bonsai represents peace and tranquility, as well as long-lasting determination and patience.

A "bon" is a flat tray or shallow pot, and "sai" means plant or planting. Originally from China, Bonsai trees date back hundreds of years and are well known for their miniature appearance. Bonsai trees can come in an array of types and can be grown in a variety of ways. They require daily grooming, but aren't high maintenance.

In this book, you'll learn more about the art of Bonsai and the history behind it, as well as tips for caring for your own Bonsai tree.

2. DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND INSPIRATION

Introduction to Design Principles

The ultimate goal of growing a Bonsai is to create a miniaturized but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree. Bonsai are not genetically dwarfed plants, in fact, any tree species can be used to grow one. The best Bonsai - whether a single tree or a multi-plant or rock landscape composition - touch us, make us take notice, stop us as they catch our experience and imaginations to show us something new.

Thick trunks, textured bark, an interplay of twisting live wood and deadwood, surface roots, fine branch and twig ramification, foliage pads, relatively small leaves or needles, a complementary and relatively shallow container, tiny fruit or cones or flowers - these are just a few of the features that can be used to help portray a miniature landscape.

They are not all needed or possible in any one given composition, and they cannot simply be included "just because". A true master artisan knows, feels what is needed. And his or her creation touches us, also. Those true masterpieces are the ones which, when you first look at them, can momentarily take your breath away and raise a smile.

Bonsai-in-training (also known as "potensai", potential Bonsai) should point to a future, more mature creation, in which the artist has somewhat in mind. And because these are made with living, growing things, those future pieces are never complete or finished. They will be presented within certain biological parameters, subject to health issues or remodeling by the tree with the caretakers' assistance.

The oldest and longest-containerized Bonsai because of natural changes can undergo several different styles throughout their long lives. These trees can, in fact, live longer than their full-size counterparts because of our increased attention to their health, water and nutritional needs, protection from weather extremes, injuries needing care, or pest infestations requiring containment or removal.

Techniques such as pinching buds, pruning and wiring branches, and carefully restricting but not abandoning fertilizers are used to limit and redirect healthy growth. Most commonly kept under four feet (or about a meter) in height, Bonsai are not genetically dwarfed plants.

However, plants with smaller leaves do make these compositions easier to design. In fact, any plant species that has a woody stem or trunk, grows true branches, can be successfully grown in a container to restrict its roots/food storage capability, and has smaller or reducible-leaves can be used to create a Bonsai.

Look around at your trees, bushes, hedges, the copses in your yard or park, plants in the nursery or wild landscape - essentially any of those can be starter material.

Carefully collected during the appropriate growing or dormant season with proper permission, your composition is begun.

Bonsai Size Classification

The ultimate goal of Bonsai is to create a realistic depiction of nature. As a Bonsai gets smaller (even down to a few inches/centimeters) it increasingly becomes abstract, as opposed to resembling nature in a more precise way.

Several classifications of Bonsai have been put forward, and although the exact size classifications are disputed, they help to gain understanding of the aesthetic and botanical aspects of Bonsai. The classifications are originally based on the number of men needed to lift the actual tree.

Related arts

While "Bonsai" specifically refers to dwarf potted trees based on the Japanese model, it is also used as a generic term for related art forms in other countries, which include but are not limited to the following:

3. THE HISTORY OF BONSAI

Introduction to Bonsai History

Although the word 'Bonsai' is Japanese, the art it describes originated in the Chinese empire. By the year 700 AD the Chinese had started the art of 'pun-sai' using special techniques to grow dwarf trees in containers. Much later, the Japanese took over the art and refined it to what we know today as Bonsai.

China

From about the year 706 AD comes the tomb paintings for Crown Prince Zhang Huai, which included depictions of two ladies offering miniature landscapes with small plants in shallow dishes. By this time these were the earliest written descriptions of these pun wan - tray playthings.

As the creation and care of these was already somewhat advanced, the maturation of the art had taken place (but its documentation has not yet been discovered by the west).

The earliest collected and then containerized trees are believed to have been peculiarly-shaped and twisted specimens from the wilds. These were "sacred" as opposed to "profane" because the trees could not be used for any practical, ordinary purposes such as lumber. Their grotesque forms were reminiscent of yoga-type postures which repeatedly bent-back on themselves, re-circulating vital fluids and said to be the cause of long-life.

Over the centuries, different regional styles would be developed throughout the large country with its many varied landscapes; earthenware and ceramic containers would replace the porcelain ones displayed on wooden stands; and attempts would be made to shape the trees with bamboo frameworks or brass wire or lead strips.

Many poets and writers each made at least one description of tree and/or mountainous miniature landscapes, and many painters included a dwarfed potted tree as a symbol of a cultivated man's lifestyle. After the 16th century these were called pun tsai or "tray planting." The term pun ching ("tray landscape," now called penjing) didn't actually come into usage until the 17th century.