MAKE A BONSAI

Creating your first bonsai is not as hard as you may think. In this section we will take you through four stages.

Selecting suitable stock to work with. Selecting a suitable style for your tree and creating it. Potting soils and wiring your tree. Care and maintenance of your new bonsai. If you follow these steps in progressive order you should end up with a passable tree that will only improve with age. Don’t be upset if it is not up to show standard on your first attempt, you will learn all the basic techniques in this exercise and the more you look at trees the more expert you will become. I still have the first tree I made although it has been through several incarnations and restyles and if I was doing it from start it would probably be quite different, but it still holds sentimental value. So start at stage one and return to this page until you have completed stage four.

Then send me a photo I would love to put it on this site to inspire others to take up this absorbing hobby.

Gibson on Blade Runner

bq. "About ten minutes into Blade Runner, I reeled out of the theater in complete despair over its visual brilliance and its similarity to the "look" of Neuromancer, my [then] largely unwritten first novel. Not only had I been beaten to the semiotic punch, but this damned movie looked better than the images in my head! With time, as I got over that, I started to take a certain delight in the way the film began to affect the way the world looked. Club fashions, at first, then rock videos, finally even architecture. Amazing! A science fiction movie affecting reality!" "#":http://www.brmovie.com/FAQs/BR_FAQ_BR_Influence.htm

Upon reading up on Moebius' "The Long Tomorrow":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tomorrow, which I have incidentally read--I think I found it online at some point--I came across this old quote from Gibson, on him seeing Blade Runner for the first time. It's one of my favorite 'lil' nuggets', so there you go.

All Consuming

So after "my recent query":http://binarybonsai.com/archives/2006/07/09/bookicious/, "I'm currently trying out All Consuming":http://allconsuming.net/person/Heilemann/. It doesn't quite fill all the points I'd like it to, but then again what does? It could do with a face lift though.

Letters From Lovecraft

Having just rewatched In the Mouth of Madness, I was wetted for some more Lovecraft insight (having played an abundance of Call of Cthulhu in my youth), and that's when I came across "this little fact":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Lovecraft#Letters on Wikipedia:

bq. Despite the fact that Lovecraft is mostly known for his works of weird fiction, the bulk of Lovecraft's writing mainly consists of voluminous letters about a variety of topics, from weird fiction and art criticism to politics and history. S. T. Joshi estimates that Lovecraft wrote about 87,500 letters from 1912 until his death in 1937 -- one famous letter from November 9, 1929 to Woodburn Harris being 70 pages in length. "#":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Lovecraft#Letters

the bonsai garden

The first thing to do when you acquire a new plant is to decide which style will be the best suited to the tree's basic shape. It can also be the contrary, you might be looking for a concrete form or the plant was recovered directly from nature so its basic form might be given by a special growth motivated by special conditions as there are freeze, wind, placement aso.

There are a lot of different style definitions to choose from. However, these styles can be classified into seven basic styles which depend on the overall form of the tree and how much the trunk is deviated from an imaginary vertical axis.
Chokkan
The trees most likely suited for this style are conifers because of their normally upright and straight proportions. Beginners should start to develop a Chokkan styled tree because it is the easiest form to develop. There is no need for complete wiring and pruning techniques, it is quite simple to form rapidly a tree nice to look at.

Essential for this style is a straight trunk with a naturally balanced branch structure. The trunk should not branch at the top. The form is conical with an erect trunk and horizontal branches, every one extending little farther from the trunk than the next. The lowest two branches should be trained to reach to the front side, one slightly higher than the other. Trim the branches that grow too near to the base as the trunk should be visible, specially in the case of conifers which have a beautifully textured bark.

The trees formed in this style are normally planted in rectangular pots as they shouldn't be placed in the center of it; plant them 2/3 away from on of the ends.
Moyogi
Similar to the formal upright style, but the top of the trunk instead of growing straight bends slightly to the front. The form of the branches are much the same but the bent stem gives the tree the look of motion, slightly moved by a light wind. Informal upright grown trees are one of the most common styles. The species I like most for this style are maples, especially Acer palmatum and buergeranium or flowering trees like pomegranates.

It is much easier to find young plants in this form because in nature trees normally grow this way, because of irregular light exposition, heavy winds or other parameters which influence growth. Another thing you can do is to move the root ball in the direction you want the trunk to slant. Doing this, you will have to prune and wire the branches back to horizontal position.

As the formal upright trees, Moyogi styles bonsai look best in oval or rectangular pots, planting them again 2/3 away from on of the ends. Informal uprights are one of the most common styles.


Shakkan
The trunk slants in much more angle than in the previously mentioned styles. It is also important that the top of the trunk bends slightly to the front and the lowest branches grow in the opposite direction to which the stem slants. Shakan styled bonsai show trees exposed to extreme weather and gravity conditions as there are heavy winds or heavy loads of snow.

The shakkan style can be considered the intermediate stadium between the informal upright and cascade styles as the tree still grows up, but tends to bend down. In nature, this kind of trees are normally called leaners as they seem to lean against an imaginary stake.

Contrary to the previously mentioned Chokkan and Moyogi styled trees, Shakan trees should be centered in round (also square) pots, as the goal is that the trees bends out of the container.

Kengai
The trunk starts growing upward, but then turns downward and reaches a point below the base of the pot and for this reason the bonsai should be placed on a higher base. My cascade style trees are positioned at the border of their stone basements. Normally a great part of the foliage is situated below the soil level as cascade style trees try to simulate natural trees growing at the edge of an embankment or the slope of a mountain.

It is not easy to force a tree into the cascade style as trees normally grow up and never down, so the plant is actually trained into a very unnatural position. The first thing to do is to move the root ball at least 45 degrees to the side where the cascade will be formed. The upper part of the root ball has to be removed and straightened. After that, the rest of the work will be fulfilled by pruning and wiring the branches in a naturally falling form.

Cascaded trees are usually planted in a round or hexagonal pot that is higher than it is wide. The tree is planted at one side of the pot, normally at the cascading side.

Han-kengai

The trunk grows straight for a while and then cascades down at a slight angle, not as dramatic as in the cascade style. I have a pine mugo in semi cascade with three main branches of which only one cascades, might be a special style but looks quite nice. Species to recommend could be al kind of junipers and especially flowering plants. Normally the cascading branch or branches should be the front of the tree, and the semi cascade should not reach below the bottom of the container as the full cascade does but should also reach down below the level of the soil surface.

Semi-cascaded trees are usually planted in the same kind of pot as the cascades with the only difference that the pot needs not to be that high. The tree is planted, as usual, at one side of the pot, always at the cascading side.

Fukinagashi
This windswept style simulates the effect of extreme exposure to strong winds. Every part of the tree is swung in the direction of the gust of wind, nude branches simulate foliage loss due to weather conditions. These trees are usually modeled on trees found in coastal areas (in Spain, particularly on the island Formentera), where ruff environmental have given them their shape.

Bunjingi
The Literati style is maybe the strangest of all the styles. There are lots of different shapes but they all have long thin trunks which can culminate in a small tree top or curve back down finishing in a cascading form. A species often used for this style is the Japanese Red Pine, but every kind of conifer is adequate.

The idea behind Bunjingi is that in nature the tree, under adverse environmental conditions, has found its way to survive, being forced to contortions and un normal shapes.

In conclusion there are a lot of other styles which finally derive of those mentioned previously. Also the trunks can grow in many different manners, imagine single and multiple trunks.

I haven´t either talked about other forms like forests (Yosu-Ue) or trees planted on or over or clinging to rocks, these are styles on their own, with their own characteristics, with a lot of varieties.

Before you plant a tree in a pot, it is very important to visualize what the tree will look like in its new container. No matter how you plant the tree, which style you choose to apply, keep always in mind that you are trying to reproduce a natural scene and that is roots showing up at surface, irregular trunks, dead branches (Jin) etc. You can read more about bonsai styles in the Terms section.

Simple Styles and Techniques...

Every experienced bonsai enthusiast has his/her own personal idea of what bonsai is to them and what defining factors make them aesthetically appealing.

"Don't be drawn into the trap of taking everything that this person says as gospel!"

This applies especially if you are using a book as a reference when you are situated in a different part of the world from where it was written.

If a beginner is unable to have the experience of being taught the important principles of bonsai by an expert, he must obtain as much material on bonsai as possible - whether this may be just pictures of trees, discussions on the different styling processes involved or lists of suitable species to use. This mass of information will familiarise them to bonsai and help them gain experience by experimenting on cheap bonsai material. Frequently going to bonsai nurseries and bonsai shows will also allow the beginner to see true bonsai in real life from all sides, opposed to the usual 2D format. This will enable the beginner to see the way bonsai should be displayed and what the end result will be like

The two basic styles of bonsai are the classic (koten) and the informal or 'comic' (bunjin). In the former, the trunk of the tree is wider at the base and tapers off towards the top; it is just the opposite in the 'bunjin', a style more difficult to master.

Over the years, bonsai enthusiasts have frequently tried to reclassify the styles, and their many sub-divisions into which plants can be trained. Once you understand the principles behind these designs/styles, you will have a reference point from which to assess a tree's potential for bonsai and to decide what style suits it.

If you study very carefully the way trees grow in nature, it is possible to design a realistic bonsai without knowing the names of these styles. You do not need to stick strictly to the precise rules of your chosen style: adapt them to suit a plant's natural habitat.

When you start a bonsai, always remember that you are working with a living plant. Look carefully at its natural characteristics and you may discern within them a suitable style, or styles. All conifers are reasonably unsuitable to the 'broom' style, for example, but are very suitable for all other styles, especially formal and informal upright - to which they are particularly suited. Often you can train a plant into several styles, even if it is basically upright like a beech or elegantly slender like a maple. Even if one style only really suits a particular plant, you still can interpret this in many different ways.

Shrubs like azaleas that are not tree-like in nature have fewer restrictions in the style you choose, but, generally, it is best to base any design on the way a tree grows in nature. People that are still learning the basic principles of bonsai should not try to train a bonsai into a style totally unlike a tree's natural growth pattern, although this is quite possible as you gain more experience.