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Bonsai

How to Revive a Bonsai Tree

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Is your Bonsai tree starting to look a little bit tired? Perhaps you received your Bonsai as a gift or maybe you bought it from a garden centre? The point is, unless you correctly look after your miniature tree then things can go wrong, and all too quickly!

If your Bonsai tree is starting to look past it’s best there are certain things you can do to give it a new lease of life.

It’s a good idea to think about re-potting your Bonsai tree every couple of years or so, and early spring is an ideal time to do this. You will need some good quality potting compost with a mix of grit or sand to help drainage.

Also consider trimming the roots if your Bonsai tree looks really confined and compacted down there. The roots maybe getting too big for the pot, so a quick root haircut can often work wonders. You will obviously need to remove the old soil first to expose the roots. An ideal tool to help you do this is a humble ice-lolly stick.

Like any tree a Bonsai tree is most suited to its natural habitat, and therefore should be outdoors. If your Bonsai tree is located somewhere inside your house, try moving it outside for a while and see if it recovers.

Don’t be afraid to move your Bonsai tree outside during the winter months either. Most trees are dormant at this time and well adjusted to the cold. Just make sure that you pick a well sheltered spot, and ensure that the compost doesn’t freeze.

When it comes to watering your Bonsai tree you need to keep the soil moist all of the time. Never let your tree dry out and never let it get waterlogged. Trapped water will likely rot the root system and kill your Bonsai tree quicker than anything else. Therefore you need to make sure your Bonsai pot or container has enough holes to allow adequate drainage.

Bonsai trees need pruning, so if yours is getting too big, simply cutting the top off will stop it getting any taller. Just make sure you use a sharp pair of scissors or secateurs as you don’t want to cause any infection. Also, this will cause your Bonsai tree to grow new branches and therefore will appear wider and fuller. When pruning branches, always cut back to a bud, any new branch will then follow that route…

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Bonsai

A Few Bonsai Basic Keypoints

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Starting from the bottom of the tree would be the pot. Having the right pot can make the difference in how your bonsai tree is perceived and give the impression of a real tree. By having a pot too large, your bonsai tree will look more of a plant in a pot rather then a full grown bonsai. Usually you’re training a bonsai tree to make him look like a real tree but in miniature. So in resume, the pot must be less massive then the tree.

Moving up would be the soil, or covering the soil. Some bonsai enthusiasts prefer to cover their soil with moss. The Kyoto moss is popular because it is a fine bright green moss. Moss can be grown on a separate plate and then place over the soil once you have done a re potting. However, some prefers to sprinkle the moss spore over the soil once they have re potted their bonsai tree. Moss needs humidity and shade to grow.

Next are the exposed roots or in Japanese they are called “Nebari”. This is one of the fundamental elements of a great bonsai tree. The exposed roots will add a few impressions to the bonsai. First they will give a sense of a mature tree very well anchored in the soil. It will also help the illusion of a perfect trunk by starting the taper of the trunk.

The trunk, needs to have character and not look like a stick in a pot. This is why, as previously mentioned, exposed roots are important. At the very bottom of the trunk are the roots, and when they are wide, the trunk will usually start wide and will taper as it goes up. On a mature tree, a great trunk is not a cylinder going up, but you can see some taper from bottom to top. Trunks can also have many forms, depending on the bonsai form you wish to give your tree.

Last would be the crown. The crown is composed of two elements. First being the branches and second being the foliage. Branches need to be in proportion and well detailed. The proportion of the branch is considered with the overall of the tree. Short and multiple internodes are essential for the illusion of a matured tree, while staying in proportion with the rest of the tree, being roots, trunk and pot.

Next is the foliage, the leaves must also be in proportion of the tree. Leaves can be reduced in size depending on the species of tree you have decided to make in bonsai. The possibility of reducing the leaves size will dictate the size the bonsai will have. For example, the Norway maple produce very big leaves, so if you want to make it in a bonsai you would need to make it a big bonsai since a 15 centimetres bonsai would have leaves half it size.

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