How To Select A Bonsai Tree
When learning how to grow bonsai one of the first considerations that must be given is what type of trees are suited to your lifestyle. Getting this right will be a major step to mastering the art of growing your own bonsai. Here is a summary of the varieties that are most widely grown.
Peaches and Pears.
Though rarely seen as dwarfed potted trees they make lovely ones. These are, with a few exceptions, called by the “dignified” connoisseurs merely “potted lowering trees”
Birches.
Every birch that attains one to two feet in height is limited and kept to that height easily, and needs only pinching to regulate growth. The dwarfed trees possess the fine slender white-barked trunks, with handsome foliage. I highly recommend that you try birch. Place the container, in summer, into another larger and shallower basin filled with water and carry it to your room.
Pines.
Pines, the inhabitants of the poor, dry, sandy soils, become weakened or die off if the drainage is poor in the containers. The bonsai basics involve removing the tree from the container, with its ball of soil. Some soil should be removed from all faces of the ball, and the exposed root and rootlets cut off. In repotting, put coarse sand sparingly on the bottom of the same container; place the pine on the sand and fill the container with new soil to take the place of the old.
For dwarfed and denser growth, pinching of new growth must not be neglected. As the tree becomes older the pinching should be lighter.
The thickly cork-barked Black Pines are much admired for their trunks; the bark is thicker than the trunk itself. Japanese Red Pines are not much appreciated, but their slender trunks with impressive reddish bark are very ornamental-whether planted singly or several trees together in a container.
The Japanese White Pine (Pinus parvifiora) is extensively grown and dwarfed, though there are also many naturally dwarfed, aged trees of this species. Pines symbolize longevity.
Japanese Flowering Apricots.
If you are in Japan in the midst of winter, you will see Japanese homes with flowering apricots (Prunus mume) in dwarfed potted forms. There are numerous named varieties, single flowered or semi-double, upright and weeping.
These dwarfed potted Mumes bring life-long joy with their delightful and very sweet fragrant blooms in late winter and early spring. Just after the blooms have faded, every shoot or twig that bloomed should be shortened to the lowest one or two buds, from which new growth soon comes to replace the twigs that were removed.
Bamboo.
The dwarfed potted bamboos are very decorative indoors and out. They require a lot of attention initially to remove one sheath per day whilst the plant is still immature.
In summary make sure you take the time to select the right tree to care for. Learn the art of bonsai with these basics and enjoy your cultivation of these lovely potted trees!