Bonsai and Tree Cultivation as an Art Form

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Somehow, the words bonsai and tree do not seem to go together. After all, the word "bonsai" comes from the Japanese word for 'tree in a tray' which at first thought would not seem to make sense, at least not for a real live tree. Yet the ancient Chinese managed to create an art form that results in exactly that, a tree in a tray.

Now when you first look at a bonsai, you think that the tree has to be some special dwarf variety, Yet the miniature form of the tree that you see is not produced by some genetic dwarf, but rather it is the result of years of patient shaping of ordinary species by a bonsai tree gardener.

While they are grown and shaped in small pots, they are produced from ordinary species, such as pine, maple, juniper, and many others, including some fruit trees!

Bonsai trees come in five basic styles, the formal upright, informal upright, slanting, cascade and semi-cascade as well as more than a dozen advanced types.

The more advanced styles are truly magnificent art forms produced by master artists who not only have mastered the artistic vision and skills required to produce the beautiful works of art, they have also had to learn and master a dozen sub-sciences to cultivate and maintain them as a healthy tree with so little soil and space from which to draw their nutriments.

An art of that kind is not mastered in a month.

Bonsai tree gardeners may labor for years to produce a single tree, which may then last a hundred years or longer. The bonsai trees are then frequently handed down from generation to generation, with each successive artist adding his or her own distinctive style. Although the tree is carefully and lovingly formed and shaped according to the personal aesthetic of each caretaker, past efforts are not discarded but rather venerated and serve as a source of learning.

Years of training and experience are required to become a skilled bonsai gardener. Ordinary horticulture is by itself a difficult craft. But to produce a miniature tree from ordinary species takes a lifetime of patience and learning. Yet, for a person who is patient, the art can be learned.

The results are widely regarded as well-worth the effort, though. Bonsai are admired all over the world for their uniqueness, their longevity, variety and beauty and for the skill that goes to produce them.

So as you can see, bonsai and tree do go together after all. The next time you see a bonsai, look carefully at it, study its harmony and begin to appreciate bonsai as an art form. Who knows, perhaps you'll take up bonsai tree gardening as a hobby yourself.

George Dodge has long appreciated the art of bonsai and has recently launched a Bonsai Tree Gardening website where you can discover much more about the cultivation of bonsai and tree gardening and see some bonsai examples.

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