Bonsai Guide – Bonsai Trees

Just as creating a bonsai requires skill, patience; artistry and meticulousness because it is a difficult art to practice, similarly, bonsai requires special care to survive and bloom in all its resplendent understated beauty.

Unless you take proper bonsai care, your favorite masterpiece may perish or won’t be able to maintain its health.

Bonsai care guide – Watering

Just as you require water to survive, so does your bonsai friend. So don’t forget to water your bonsai plant regularly depending on the environment. Unless it gets sufficient amount of water, it won’t be able to prosper and may get dehydrated and perish altogether. On the other hand don’t pour one bucket of water over its head and saturate it.

Get hold of a water sprinkler or spritz spray/aerosol spray and spritz water from the top, from the sides, wetting the leaves. When you find that the soil has become moist and the leaves are sufficiently wet, you will realize that it has received adequate watering.

If you pour a mug of water at the roots it will wash away the soil and the fertilizers and damage the root system which is pretty fragile and make it rot. Equip the pot or tray with a hole at the bottom to drain out excess water.

Pruning

You have to clip and direct and prune new branches and new roots to train and stunt the natural growth of the plant and keep it as a bonsai. If there is a new branch that you don’t want you should prune it with the help of sharp secateurs and reduce it to a bud.

If you do this you will enable new branches, growing after this, to follow and grow in the direction of the face of the bud. This technique will allow you to sculpt your bonsai in whichever design and shape you want.

However you should stick to a natural shape that takes after the real big trees that grow on the ground. Too much playing around with nature or giving a free play to your artistic or creative/innovative side while sculpting the bonsai into an unorthodox or unusual shape is not advisable.

Bonsai leaves

Evergreen bonsais will retain their green leaves throughout the year.
Deciduous bonsais will naturally shed their leaves during fall season and of course in the winters and new leaves will grow back in spring.

Yellow, dry and brittle leaves are an indication that the plant is getting dehydrated and not receiving sufficient water. If you over water your bonsai, the leaves will turn yellow and start to fall.

Bonsai pot/container

Always choose a pot that is commensurate with the size of the bonsai and which does not feature a shiny or glazed or glossy inside.