Bonsai Art

Leaves are there to build up a tree’s strength. Cut down a small sapling to below the leaves and chances are it will not survive. The leaves actually convert sunlight into sugars which can then be used to heal broken bark, grow extra roots and branches and generally get stronger.

Use leaves to help yamadori recover

With collected trees, you will most likely need to chop off a lot of the roots leaving very weak defenses. The best way to let the tree recover is to let it grow very bushy for the first year in the ground.

Less leaf growth shows a weak tree

Again the best way to let a tree recover is to let it grow on in the ground making sure it’s got water and not too much sun. Hopefully by letting it grow leaves naturally this way it will get back to health. But lack of leaf growth or brittle/wilted leaves definitely show an ill tree.

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Leaves are there to give the tree strength and you should not cut off too many or the tree will suffer.

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Planting a bonsai tree in the ground is the best thing you can do for a sickly tree in a pot. fact.
I have tried many many different techniques but found this to be the best option for you if you think your tree is dead or has lost all it’s leaves.

If you have been reading the previous articles on the site you would have seen that I had a hawthorn and an oak that I thought were dead. I am pleased to say they are on their way to making good recoveries and are now looking nice and green. The only part which I am concerned might not have survived is the top of each tree. The new buds are opening halfway down the tree, this is usually a sign that above that part it has died.

Buds tend to open and grow first from the top of the tree. All the nutrients seem to be sent straight to the top first of all and work their way back down the tree slowly.

Collected trees should also go straight into the ground if you have space for them. It helps them to recover from the stressful move they have just gone through. As I pointed out on goarticles the other day it is totally unnatural for a tree to move! Place your yamadori in the ground for a year before it’s pot and it should recover nicely.

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I spotted a row of trees today which I was told had all been planted the same time. You would expect them to be more or less identical in height but these ones are all completely different to one another. What is more amazing is that these are Leylandii, which were planted some 10 years ago. Leylandii are renowned for their extremely fast growth of 1 meter (3.28 foot) a year!

It’s puzzled me a bit as to why there are all different sizes but they are planted in quite rocky and soil which is lacking in goodness. It was soil which was scooped out of deep in the ground and dumped to make a bank.

I may be completely wrong about it, but this is what I have come up with…

So there’s two factors as to why some are only 2 foot and their neighbours are up to 10 foot. The first is that theres not a lot of room for root growth which would stunt the growing of the main tree. The second is that they are not getting enough goodness to grow any bigger.

Which teaches us we should feed our bonsai regularly to ensure they grow and are healthy and also to not leave them in the same pot too long so that they slow down in growth that way.

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Scientists are contemplating the idea that trees could start to reduce the effects of global warming. The extra CO2 in the air which trees and other plants depend on to survive could make them thrive even more and give out more oxygen than usual. This is by no way proven, but it is a theory nevertheless. The process that we’ve probably all heard about is photosynthesis. It is a fascinating process that plants have adopted and is the reason we are all here today.

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The redwood is the tallest tree on earth. Fact.

How do they grow to this enormous size? They think big! It sounds silly but everything about their structure is set up to be huge. I have a 1 year old tree (see below). The strange thing about it is that its tiny. You would expect a tree like a redwood to shoot up very quickly to gain great height. This is not the the case. This tree is slowly setting itself up to reach for the stars.

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