Bonsai Tree Care
Gardening tips: The Helpful Gardener brings the pleasure of gardening
to your home. You will find our Bonsai
articles collected in one spot. Check back often because we are constantly
adding new tips and articles.
Bonsai Gallery
Be sure to check out our new bonsai
pics. We have two galleries of photos that were taken at the 2004
San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. The first Gallery
and the second batch of Bonsai
photos. Don't miss the 150 year old California Juniper.
While I have covered plant dormancy briefly elsewhere on this site, we
continue to get a lot of questions concerning the topic, so I will cover
some more ground here. This is not a simple topic; it is of great concern
to the scientific community, even more so now with global warming. In
fact there is to be a world wide symposium in May on just this topic (in
Holland I believe), so with that thought in mind, let’s start with
a scientific explanation. read
more
Bonsai
Care - Watering
Watering - The most important part of Bonsai care
This is the crux of the art of bonsai. Most Bonsai Tree that die (I
prefer the phrase “permanent dormancy”) are lost to dehydration,
either from lack of watering or from being kept in a low humidity environment
(indoors) too long. read
more
The soil you use affects rooting, feeding, watering and transpiration;
it is where half your tree lives so this is our second biggest consideration
in maintaining your bonsai. While the needs of individual species vary
greatly a good rule of thumb is 30% grit, 70% humus for deciduous trees,
and 70% grit, 30% humus for evergreen needled plants, but these are just
general guidelines. read
more
BONSAI
How to choose your Tree
The history of bonsai goes back countless ages, with the first evidence
of small potted trees showing up in Egyptian tombs over 2000 years ago.
Records show Indian herbalists keeping prized plants dwarfed in containers
to increase their mobility 1500 years back. read
more
We have covered root pruning in another article; branch
pruning is the other side of this coin. There is an old bonsai saying
“As with the bottom, so with the top.” A root pruning really
needs a top pruning to balance the plant; less foliage up top is less
foliage the roots need to support. But what to cut? There are three basic
goals to top pruning. read
more
BONSAI
CARE
Changing the shape of your tree
One of the great differences between pen tsai and bonsai tree
is the latter’s use of wiring as a common technique for changing
the shape of the tree (pen tsai relies heavily on the clip and grow
method, supplemented by hanging weights). Wiring can do a great deal
to change the shape of the plant, but it can also do a great deal of damage
to the plant if done incorrectly. read
more
BONSAI INFORMATION
Bonsai
Societies of Florida
Edited by Tom Zane, one of the top bonsai people in the United States.
Here you will find solid information including the Intermediate
Bonsai Syllabus written by Mr. Zane, which he has graciously made
available free of charge for personal or club use.
Yahoo
bonsai directory
This is a great place for bonsai heads to browse. Yahoo is one of the
oldest web directories out there and it's a great place to start when
browsing for bonsai tips.
Open
Directory Project's bonsai category
The ODP is an all-volunteer web directory that concentrates on listing
only the best websites available. Because the ODP is a human edited directory
you will find that the quality of websites listed will be much higher
than what you will find through an ordinary web search. No wonder Google
uses the ODP data for their own bonsai
directory!
From the Bonsai
Forum
Have a question about your Bonsai Tree? Ask it at our forum.
Birch
tree
New
to Bonsai
New
bonsai question
New
bonsai owner having problems
Chinese
elm
Surinam
Cherry bonsai
Desert
bonsai training
Beginners
tips for Bonsai
Banyan
dormancy
Walnut
tree bonsai
Bonsai
in Español
Bonsai in Spanish.
Bonsai online:
Amazon sells bonsai. Many qualify for free shipping. They also carry indoor
bonsai, which makes them a thoughtful gift, or for your home or office.
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