Garden Centre

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Bonsai pruning and styling

If you think that sounds like something a hairstylist might say to you, you’re not far wrong. All bonsai trees must be pruned during their growth cycle if they are not to lose their shape. The simplest way to develop a good bonsai is to start with a tree that has an excellent shape (also called its style) and simply (ha!) maintain that. If you’ve been given a tree, of course, it may not be particularly well-shaped, in which case you’re going to have to get in there and be ruthless.

A tree needs to be strong and healthy before you begin pruning, working on a weak tree can actually harm it, and a tree that is dormant won’t respond to the pruning until it comes back to growth, so you won’t be able to see whether it’s growing the way you want. Look for new stems that are getting longer, leaves that are slightly lighter than the old growth and some evidence of new buds developing.

Select the front of the tree, in other words, the viewing angle which shows the trunk to best effect. This is the angle you’ll show it from, so although you prune all the way round, you should constantly come back to this view to check how the tree looks.

Prune to leave at least two buds on each branch at the top of the tree and 4-6 buds on the lower branches. Your aim is to control growth and maintain style.

So what is style?

The basic rule is that style removes unattractive growth. This means branches are selected so that they grow out from all sides of the trunk without being overshadowed by a higher branch. Branches should also be appropriate in length to the height of the tree and elegant when bearing blossom or berries (so downward drooping branches should not be so low they let the berries touch the soil, for example.

Labels: bonsai, christmas gifts

The All Seasons Gardener at 5:48 AM 0 Comments

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Friday, December 28, 2007

Bonsai bonanza ...

A friend of mine got a bonsai for Christmas. She rang and asked my advice.

Should I have told the truth and said that unless she wishes to devote her life to a new horticultural hobby that will steal her hours and money, she should simply leave the poor thing outside and let it take its chances?

It’s not that I don’t like bonsai. I do. I think they are gorgeous. But they do require a lot of work.

Bonsai means literally to plant in a shallow container – the art of bonsai is to reduce a tree in size by pruning, directing the growth and limiting fertiliser and root expansion while preserving the natural form of the tree by developing its attributes to the maximum. In other words, you should end up with the illusion of a fully grown, aged and well groomed tree – but tiny!

Assuming your tree is from a hardy species, it should generally be grown outside in the fresh air. You should not move them from one extreme of temperature to another without giving them a chance to acclimatise in between. Liquid fertiliser should be given at fortnightly intervals from May to September or bonemeal can be added in the spring.

The tree must have sufficient water, which means watering the soil daily in summer, in winter daily watering will not be necessary but you should never let the tree dry out. Ordinary tap water is usually fine but if your water contains lime, you should use rainwater on any lime hating plants such as Azalea, Rhododendron etc.

And that's before we get onto pruning and shaping ... more next time!

Labels: bonsai, christmas gifts

The All Seasons Gardener at 3:08 AM 0 Comments

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