Bonsai Art » Ethics & History

Ever Expanding Collection

Adam — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:49:09 +0000

How many can one man amass before he has too many bonsai? Sometimes I fear that I have too many trees in my collection. I have about 15 nice bonsai and 20 or 30 sticks in pots and in the ground. Even though I have that many bonsai I still have a list of ones that I want.

Bald Cypress
Gingko Biloba
Wisteria Sinesis
Black Pine
Larch

Probably when I get nice specimens of the above I’ll think of some more that I want. Woe be to my partner who has to put up with my crazy hobby…

How many bonsai do you have? When do you think enough is enough?

What is Penjing?

Adam — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:49:58 +0000

Penjing is where bonsai has it’s roots from. It is a landscape of rocks and trees instead of a single tree as the standard bonsai form. Put simply, it’s a landscape in miniature.

Penjing is very important to bonsai because bonsai is actually a refined version of the art. When we add rocks, models and accent plants to our pots we are actually crossing the boundary into another art form called penjing. Sometimes we cross into this art by accident in bonsai. I am not too sure about this, but it seems the Chinese call bonsai penjing as well as the penjing that we know. Over at Mai Lung Penjing they give a great explanation of how to create penjing and also a good example of junipers in the style on this page. It seems a good site to learn all about the art.

At the Chinese gardens of Yangzhou this have some very dramatic examples of penjing.

Bonsai Fanatics Unite

Adam — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:32:58 +0000

As you may have noticed, I am a little obsessed with bonsai and trees.Â Just how fanatical are you about your bonsai?Â For most of us it is a hobby which keeps us entertained (and out of trouble!).Â For others it is a way of life which includes working with them all day, going to shows, clubs and meets.

One thing that we all have in common is bonsai’s uncanny ability to take over your garden.Â It seems to fill it full of mysterious mini trees and sticks in pots that cannot really be called bonsai.Â It means that you have to make special arrangements to get your trees watered when you are away on holiday and entices you to stare at trees out the car window.

I even have a tattoo…

How fanatical are you about your tiny trees in pots?Â Please tell us below.

Bonsai Popularity and Attitudes

Adam — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 08:05:02 +0000

Bonsai have increased in popularity immensely recently. Every week there seems to be more and more on ebay for sale, some going for huge amounts of money. The bonsai population has certainly increased in my garden also, I think they are starting to take over.

Of course in Japan they are common place in most people’s lives. Mind you, I tell you this as an outsider looking in and have never been there myself! But it seems to me that they embrace the culture a lot more over there and here in britain you are considered a bit of an oddball to be obsessed with bonsai. It is not considered “British” to partake in such a hobby and it should be confined to your garden and your own spare time and not shared with the world. This is strange because it is definitely “British” to have a hobby such as gardening which is very similar indeed.

That being said I am happy to be in the minority of people with bonsai as a hobby.

Origins of bonsai creation

Adam — Fri, 04 May 2007 05:30:43 +0000

Although bonsai is thought of being of a Japanese origin it is infact from a different region originally. The art of bonsai that we know today however was refined in Japan.
It is hard to tell exactly who created this first although a lot of history books seem to point to China. These early creations of bonsai were called penjing which is basically a miniature landscape of small trees and rocks. These started appearing in the Tang dynasty (618- 907).
I read one article that was saying that even before this the roots of what we know today were being formed. The earliest known date of literally growing a tree in a container is at the hanging gardens of babylon. Wikipedia gives a description of the Hanging Gardens as, â€œThe Greek geographer Strabo, who described the gardens in the first century BC, wrote, “It consists of vaulted terraces raised one above another, and resting upon cube-shaped pillars. These are hollow and filled with earth to allow trees of the largest size to be planted.”
That put aside I still believe it was the chinese who should be credited with inventing the art. They designed penjing and the Japanese refined it at a later date (probably at around 1200) to bonsai that we know today.

Bonsai Ethics

Adam — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:05:46 +0000

Is it right to stunt the growth of a tree? Many people think that it is wrong to create a reduce the size of a tree by placing it in a pot. My answer to this is of course it’s not wrong to do this! Bonsai are one of the most loved plants you can get. Many of the trees that we own would not have even grown in nature as they were grown especially for this purpose from seeds. I even think of a bonsai owner as being someone who is doing something good for the environment by making it just a little bit greener.

Do you disagree? Please comment.