The Beginning of my Interest in The Art of Bonsai
 (Read 50+ times)
By Agnes Farside
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Many years ago I got interested in the Japanese art of Bonsai (pronounced Bone-sigh). The word Bonsai has a couple different meanings. One is “potted plant”, another is “tree in pot”, and yet another is “little tree in pot.” I prefer the latter, it sound cuter.
I started my interest in Bonsai by purchasing a miniature Bonsai kit at a nursery gift shop. I thought I would start off small. The kit came with a small, live juniper tree, small bag of dirt, small rectangle ceramic pot, about four inches by two inches and one and one-half inches deep, and a five page instruction booklet, also small.
When I returned home, I read the booklet and tried to follow the instructions for planting my little tree in the little pot, but somehow what came out just did not look like any Bonsai I had seen in pictures. As this was before the Internet, I was limited on resource about the art of Bonsai, so I decided to check with the local colleges to see if there were any courses offered, and there was. I quickly signed up.
The six week course happened to be starting the next week, so the first night I took my miniature Bonsai with me and showed it to my instructor. He said I had not done a bad job and showed me some things that helped my little tree look more like a real Bonsai. I had purchased the miniature kit thinking it would be easier to start off small, but my instructor quickly pointed out that miniature Bonsai is an art in itself and I should start off with larger trees and pots.
That first night I learned the different styles of Bonsai design, what trees and pots are good for Bonsai. I learned about the different gauge wires that are needed to train a Bonsai to specific shapes. I learned about the soil needed to grow health Bonsai, how to trim the Bonsai and what tools were needed to do the trimming and pruning.
My instructor related how you take a relatively young tree and make it look like an old one by bending the branches downward. He said the branches need to be separated and spaced properly and he gave the example so that a small butterfly could fly through the branches without touching them. I learned so much in that first night, it was remarkable.
I purchased all the tools, pots, trees, and soil I needed to make Bonsai during the duration of the course. It wasn’t a graded class, but that didn’t matter, because I came out way ahead in my knowledge of the art of Bonsai.
After that I have had several Bonsai plants in my home. I have had successes and failures. The success being I have had two healthy Bonsai for over ten years. I have found that the deciduous species does not work well for me, so I stay with tropical trees such as the Hawaiian Umbrella Tree, Ficus and Jade, just to name a few.
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Author Bio Box: Agnes Farside
 http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/110407/agnes_farside.html
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