Bonsai from Nursery Stock

When selecting your potential bonsai from nursery stock look for material that has a lot of branches, medium to small leaves and if you know the flower size check that they are smaller rather than larger. In some nurseries they have a ‘throw away’ bin or somewhere they put their plants the general public do not want. They are usually on a discount or cheaper stand. They can also be looking quite disheveled and unloved. If they can meet the following suggestions then they can and sometimes turn into very good bonsai. It is this tough beginning of life that can put some character into the bonsai.

When you have identified a potential bonsai from the nursery stock then you need to start looking more closely at it to refine your selection. Scrape back the soil so that you can find the first major roots. Remember that the plants in the nursery are usually grown deep in the soil. This gives the young plant support. The trunk then grows straight up which for most cases does not make ‘natural’ looking bonsai. The best bonsai come from the shallow grown plant because the trunk can move around in the wind and does allow the trunk to bend. Generally you have to get through some fine roots before you get to the more substantial roots. This is where the soil level is going to be when the bonsai is established. While you have the soil scraped back look for the first curve of the trunk. If you put you finger into the curve and sweep it upwards the direction in which your finger goes is the direction of the bonsai apex.

The very next thing you have to look for is the taper of the trunk. It must go from the soil level up to the apex as a gradual taper. In a bonsai the taper is constant and although the trunk is bent and curved the taper must still be gradual. Branches can sometimes look as though they have a mind of their own and seem to be thicker than they should. When you come to do the initial shaping and styling of the nursery stock you can quite easily use that branch as the new trunk as long as the taper looks right and the apex is still going in the right direction.

Have a look at the structure of the nursery stock and see if your bonsai can have one trunk, three, five or seven branches throughout its length. Put the temptation of leaving more branches on the bonsai to one side because depending on the overall height the bonsai can look too cluttered. Remember that you are after a simple design for the style you have chosen for this bonsai that you have got from nursery stock.

Happy Bonsai

Bonsai Bevan

Chinese Bonsai Style V Japanese Bonsai Style

The Chinese bonsai style and the Japanese bonsai style are based on trees that have been shaped in nature by the strength and direction of the wind, the position of the tree on an open field or up the side of a mountain, the number and type of animals that may graze on it, the amount of water available to the tree and the climate zones of the world in which it grows. These trees growing in nature can and do exhibit all of the bonsai styles that we endeavor to follow. There are some that are of a style that does not fit into anything that has yet been acceptable to the bonsai community.

The Chinese bonsai styles allow the bonsai tree to grow in an unstructured way. I prefer to call it an unsophisticated bonsai style. The Japanese bonsai style however is what I like to call manicured. There is a serious attempt to have strict adherence to the styling rules. You can see that the strict adherence to the rules are reflected in what some people call their bonsai. Some bonsai trees are named to reflect what is seen captured in the bonsai. Some bonsai are shaped to represent what has happened in their lives. But all styles are a testament to the dedication that we all have for the living art of bonsai.

I have observed that the western countries have this infatuation with the manicured look of the Japanese bonsai style to the detriment of what is the more natural look of the Chinese bonsai style. I think it has come about because Japan has been opened up to the western countries longer than China. I suspect that there has been a conscious effort to please the western appetite for bonsai information and the Japanese adherents have been quick to react to the option of producing information and bonsai trees to satisfy the market.

For me it is important to think about combining both the unsophisticated Chinese bonsai style with the manicured Japanese bonsai style. I can see that with the rules written around an aesthetic balance we will be able to get to a yet unnamed and quite a unique bonsai style. The successful bonsai will still reflect the simplicity of style yet show the different ages of the bonsai.

In future blogs I will explore some of the design principles that I follow when I am styling my own bonsai trees. They are a combination of both the Chinese bonsai style and the Japanese bonsai style.

Happy Bonsai

Bonsai Bevan