Bonsai Art

In just a few days it will be a whole year since Bonsai Art was first put online! The 1st of May is the official birthday. I am pleased with it’s first year on the internet. I think it’s definitely got a lot more potential for growth in it and I look forward to seeing it grow even more in it’s second year. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported the site and helped it along the way.

Here’s the stats that It’s managed to achieve in it’s first year:

8,393 visits with 20,428 page views
106 countries/territories
7 RSS readers
34 Technorati authority
2,360,989 Alexa ranking
1,936 IZEA rank
3 Page Rank

Top 10 visiting countries

1. United Kingdom—-3,032
2. United States—-2,819
3. Canada—-298
4. Australia—-291
5. India—-161
6. Philippines—-106
7. Malaysia—-101
8. Germany—-86
9. Portugal—-81
10. France—-73

Thanks everybody again for your support! Please stick with us for the future!

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What shape should you be trying to achieve with your bonsai?

There are basically three different styles of bonsai which you can train your tree into. All of them are fine and none of them are the wrong style. When you style your bonsai you can do it any way you want to, it’s completely up to your own taste. You will find that everybody has different tastes when it comes to them. Because of this there is bound to be some famous bonsai artists whose trees you will dislike! It’s all down to your personal tastes.

1: Fantasy style - This bonsai will look very strange indeed, in fact the stranger the better. They will be very twisty and turny or have leaves/needles much bigger than they should look. This is the most popular type.

2: Well aged style - This bonsai will be made to look very old and replicate a full sized tree. It will most likely be carved to give a ‘lightning struck’ look or be hollowed out. It is a popular style and easy to do with yamadori.

3: Full sized tree style - This one is made to look like a fully sized tree with the branches well spaced and with good taper. The more it looks like a real tree, the better. The leaves should be made small and it will normally need a fairly big sized bonsai to get the style right.

The most popular of these three is probably the first one - ‘the fantasy style’. It is the bonsai you most see in garden centres and is commercially produced quite a lot.

My friend once said to me “I don’t like your bonsai they look like miniature trees”. Which I took as a major compliment because my favorite style is the ‘Full sized tree style’! But it’s all up to your personal preferences.

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Every year the oak and the ash have a race to see who can open it’s leaves first.
The oak and ash are both completely different in that they respond to different factors to whether they open their leaves or not. The oak responds to warmth. Periods of more warmth in early spring will cause it to open it’s buds and come into leaf.
The ash responds to daylight length which is the same each year.

The saying goes as follows:
“Oak before ash, there’ll be a splash.
Ash before oak, there’ll be a soak!”

It could be considered a a bit of a wives tale

The bad news is… ash has started to leaf first in this area meaning that we could be in for a wet one this year!

There is another reasoning behind the saying:
In warmer springs oaks will leaf first and in colder ones they will take longer to leaf so the ash will beat them to it. Apparently 70% of the time the trend continues into the rest of the year.
So if an oak leafs first it should be a warm summer but if an ash leafs first it will be cold.

Only time will tell if it’s going to be a cold wet summer but one things for certain… The ash has won this year.

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Heres an example of a well set out bonsai garden. Found on youtube

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We had some snow last night here in Wales which left the garden looking very pure and white. I was considering covering up the trees which have come into leaf last night but I prefer to let things happen naturally, plus I was feeling ill. They might have a little bit of frost damage as a result but it shouldn’t last too long until new leaves appear again. Quite a lot of the bonsai have not sprouted leaves yet anyway, it’s mainly only the smaller more eager shrubs such as berberis, hawthorn and cherry. Hazel is starting to come into leaf also but this late snow might knock it back a bit.

Here are some pictures of my snow covered trees for you:

Juniper

Hinoki Cypress

2 junipers and a japanese maple

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