In the pursuit of bonsai,
search for the ideal,
where the mind, heart, and hand are one.
Acknowledgments
Our life in horticulture in general and bonsai in particular has been enriched by the many wonderful people we have met working with plants and trees. We have studied with many of the leading bonsai artists in the United States, including John Yoshiyo Naka, whom we are honored to call friend and mentor.
We express our gratitude to the bonsai teachers who have given so freely of their knowledge, sharing with us their love of this wonderful art form.
To our students and readers we express our appreciation for their curiosity, which stimulates and excites our own study.
We cannot personally acknowledge all the people who helped with the book but we wish to thank our illustrator and photographer, Robert Johnson, well-known watercolor artist and teacher.
Finally, we appreciate the support and encouragement of our daughter Toby, a bonsai artist herself, and her husband Michael, our son Michael and his wife Barbara, and our grandson Sandy, whose smile lights up the day.
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759; and 61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12 Singapore 534167.
© 1992 by Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
LCC Card. No. 94-80694
ISBN 978-1-4629-0310-8 (ebook)
First edition, 1992
Printed in Singapore
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Contents
1 A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO BONSAI 5
2 BONSAI FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES 7
4 ESSENTIAL TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS 12
5 GETTING STARTED 22
6 FORESTS, GROVES, AND SAIKEI 38
7 CARE OF BONSAI: A FIVE-POINT PROGRAM 40
8 ROOT PRUNING AND REPOTTING 45
9 SEASONAL CHANGES 47
10 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES 49
11 VARIETIES OF BONSAI TREES 51
12 COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT BONSAI 56
FIG. 1 The juniper, with its needlelike foliage and aromatic wood, makes an attractive bonsai.
Bonsai is the Oriental art of creating miniature versions of nature's wondrous trees; it is the reproduction, on a small scale, not only of the dwarf trees of the mountains but also of the giant trees of the forests.
In ancient China naturally dwarf trees were collected from mountainous areas and revered throughout the country. The trees were potted in beautiful, highly decorated containers and enjoyed as "artistic pot plants," as they were then called. It is thought that little else was done to the trees to keep them alive other than attending to their basic horticultural needs. These "artistic pot plants" were kept behind palace walls for the ruling classes.
Over the centuries much of China's culture was sent to Japan. The Japanese absorbed and refined this culture, which included elements of religion, government, architecture, and the "artistic pot plants" that were sent to Japan as gifts for the aristocracy. These plants might have remained behind palace walls had not Chinese monks introduced them to the public as they taught Zen Buddhism to the common people. The miniature trees were ideal teachers of philosophical principles concerning the harmony of nature, man's place in the universe, and the harmonious blending of heaven, earth, and man. From this beginning, bonsai emerged as the horticultural art form we practice and study today.
Unlike the wealthy man, the common man could not travel to the mountains to collect trees. He had to rely on whatever was easily obtained, the trees and seedlings near his home or at the outskirts of his town or village. To these young trees he collected, he began to apply what he had seen nature do to trees over the years. He observed the wonders of nature that created strong, old trees, sometimes showing
