Bonsai Home Page

"Bonsai" is a Japanese word. Bon means "tray" or "dish"; sai means "plant". So, a bonsai is a "plant cultivated in a dish", what keeps it very small, but healthy and with all fully grown plant's feature.

In this page I'll explain the technique to create and maintain a "bonsai", a really beautiful ornament and a nice gift to present to friends.

Choosing A Plant

The first thing to do to create a "bonsai" is to choose the species of plant you want. This choice is greatly dependent on the final size you want to your plant. Generally, the larger the average size of the "normally" grown plant, the bigger will be the final size of the "bonsai". Small "bonsai" are generally up to 15 centimeters high and bigger ones are up to 30 cm or even 50 cm high.

Typical plants for small "bonsai" are the specially selected Japanese dwarf plants (dwarf pine tree, small tomato plant, small orange plant etc.) and almost any small plant (mulberry and other "berry" plants are my favourites, because they become very colorful when the berries are ripening). Fast growing plants, like climbing plants (passion fruit, beans etc.), are generally very difficult, if not impossible, to be used in "bonsai", because they are very fragile, don't enduring the frequent handling a "bonsai" demands, they generally don't respect your will to keep themselves "small" and, most important, they decay as fast as they grow (or spread).

Big "bonsai" can be created from giant trees, like palm trees, fructiferous trees (citrus trees, sweetsop tree, peach tree etc.) and small plants with large leaves, like carrot, pineapple etc. The basic difference between a small and a big "bonsai" is that a big one must have a stronger structure to support heavier fruits and larger leaves. An apple tree "bonsai", for example, although small in size, will produce normal fruits, and the plant must be able to keep it.

Planting A "Bonsai"

Part of the secret of a "bonsai" is to choose a good vase to plant it. The vase must be at most half the height you want your plant to have.

The vase should have a hole on its base center. Cover the hole with a "wire screen" (see the figure below), which will allow the water to flow and avoid earth to escape. A vase with several small holes on the base is a better solution, because the water will be more equally distributed.

Make a lay of small pebbles in the bottom of the vase. This will avoid the obstruction of the drain holes by earth. You can find such pebbles in pet shops (they are used to give a ground to aquaria) and plant shops.

Fill the vase with earth. Don't compact it, because the young plants need a soft ground to grow its roots. If the plant is reproduced by seeds, put them in the center and cover with a thin lay of earth. If it's reproduced by stack, make a 2 or 3 cm deep hole and put it in. Water the vase and keep it in the half-light.

Note: to grow plants that are reproduced by stacks, like mulberry, take healthy branches, with shapes similar to that you want to your "bonsai". Do it after the fruit season, when the leaves are fading and beginning to fall. Remove all leaves, carefully, using scissors.

Maintenance of A "Bonsai"

The basic idea to keep a "bonsai" small is reducing the amount of energy and food it receives. The energy is easy to control, simply keeping the plant in the half-light or even inside a house, sustained by artificial light. To control the food, you have to prune leaves and branches that grows to directions you don't want and, also, prune the roots. The roots must be at most 1/3 the length of the plant.

Remove the plant carefully from its vase. Wash the earth out of the roots and prune them. Replant the "bonsai".

To control the growth direction, you can change the inclination of the vase or use wires to conduct the plant to the desired directions.

Wrap the wire around the branches. Be careful to not break them.

There are many types of "bonsai", some of them demanding special care to be created and maintained.

Small stones and crystals also give a beautiful appearance to a "bonsai".

To give the "ancient" looking to "bonsai", it's common to use moss to cover the ground around the plant, stones and even the plant itself. Moss generally appears on wet bricks set on the ground. It can be transferred using a sharp blade.

Page last modified on 1997-April-9 Wednesday.

Page under construction.