Can Anyone Create A Bonsai?

Let me answer a question with a question. Are you at all creative? Yes indeed I think most of us have a creative side but most of the time we simply do not use it a lot.

It is said that our brain is divided into two parts at least as far as the aspect of thinking goes.

And I have also read and heard that the right side of the brain is the creative side while the left side is the more dominate side and seems to try and over take when ever you want to try or do something creative.

So then the real secret is to try and concentrate and shut out the left side and let the right side do what it does best and that is create.

But getting back to the question at had can anyone create a bonsai? Well unless you’re totally disabled I would have to say the answer is yes.

But let’s take a look at the basics of what you’ll need and want to acquire before you start out to create your first bonsai.

Fist off pick a material that you really are excited about and have some interest in. I for instance have always loved maples and so that would most always be my first choice of material.

I would first pick the type of maple that I wanted to work with. Let’s say I choose Trident Maple because perhaps I have seen examples of finished bonsai in pictures or perhaps even in the real setting in a nursery and I have fallen in love with this type of maple and just have to have one.

The next thing I want to do then is to read all of the articles I can find that are free on the net and then I would make a trip to the library and see what I could scare up on this particular maple variety.

Learn as much as you can about this tree before you make your final decision. Study first before you leap because there might be something that you will read or learn along the way that will sway your decision about this material.

I have always taught that it is much better to be prepared and too no what your up against before you start out. Don’t wait until latter to find out that you really did not make a wise choice and then for some unseen reason you wind up disappointed.

Once I have done my home work then I will go out in search of a starter tree and by a starter I mean one that is already nursery grown and established in at least a one gallon pot.

You could accept a plant that is smaller in size and do well but for my self personally I prefer my starts to be at least one gallon size this way I know that they have been around for a while and survived the elements for at least a couple of seasons and personally I do not have a life time to wait until a plant begins to show some sings of being mature.

Plant that are at least one gallon size are less likely to die from movement and they will have been tended for some time already in the nursery and most likely been fed good with fertilizer and have a nice root system developed.

Next once I have picked out a reasonable plant starter then I will proceed to find a suitable pot. Now this is a matter of choice and you need not have a pot right off to start with.

In fact some bonsai masters as well as other growers will tell you that they will train a plant for many years before putting it in a final pot.

Makes sense because if you were to follow the rule of bonsai and plant the plant in a pot that is of the right size for the plant you have chosen then yours may look fine in that pot to you but will really never grow to any size at all because you have essentially all ready stopped the growth by selecting its confines.

In other words give it time to grow in a much larger pot so it will establish root structure and gain a nice size trunk and establish a nice limb growth over all. Then work the plant down into the smaller sized pot.

You will then appreciate your plant a lot more because you will have worked with it over the course of a few years and you’ll have also have learned what it entails to make that variety of plant material bonsai.

Thanks for reading.

BY: Harold Yearout