Why do bonsai artists call multiple trees of the same kind a forest?

 Hi there and welcome to yet another of my many rants. The correct terminology would be to call it a grove of trees and not a forest. To further bolster my opinion then please if you will, can tell me the last time you were any where in the world in a forest and seen only one kind of a tree growing? 

No indeed in a forest of trees there are many varieties and types not to mention many other types of vegetation growing all over and around rocks, stumps, and ferns and all sorts of other things alive and or dead.

The Chinese are famous for plantings they call Penjing which often result in a very wonderful and beautiful looking bonsai display of many trees almost always of the same verity and kind of material.

Although this may not always be the case as in my personal Penjing for instance I have three different types of tropical trees and three ferns and a couple of Azaleas growing so it could sort of be a tropical forest I guess but I prefer to not call it that but a grove of trees and other materials.

 I personally only have one of such type plantings and it is a tropical indoor bonsai and consists of a Saikei Penjing planting of Ficus Benjamina, little gems as they are called, dwarf Hawallan Schefflers and small little Azaleas Kakuo some various small ferns and they were all taken as cuttings and grown on to be a nice grove of tropical trees in a lovely small shallow pot and all the material is growing on a hand made concrete slab and with various rocks and other items to represent some what of an island scene placed into a very shallow cheremic dish type bowl.  

Any way I guess the point of this rant is to indeed try to get other bonsai artists to call it what it is and not something else it is not. I will try to take a picture for you of the Saikei Penjing tomorrow and along with some other small bonsai I have planted.  I do know that when the Japanese plant these type of plantings they always use an odd number of tress for what ever reasons they believe that even numbers of trees in a planting is bad luck and so every one of there grove type plantings consist of odd numbers of tress and or other items rock ferns and such.

I also purchased a couple of small variegated ivy and one that was a little larger and had already been started as a bonsai. I do not know much about ivy but I will learn and start growing some varieties for my garden. I do know that we have an English verity here that is very strong growing and can be somewhat of a pest in the garden if not kept in check. I have some growing in my garden as ground cover and it does well as long as you do your diligence and keep cutting it back and keeping it under control.

I have a very nice Fukin Tea and it needs a hair cut very bad as it went nuts this summer and I did not trim on it and now it looks out of control but tomorrow I will prune it back and try to regain some control over the plant. I will try to root the cutting material off of it but do indeed not know if I will have any success in rooting any of it as it should be rooted from cuttings in the summer and or planted and grown from seeds. I have never done either so we will see what happens by just keeping the cut material in a jar of water and see if any of it forms roots.

No harm in trying as I hate to throw any material away that could possibly be grown on to make a nice little future tree. I got my hands on some very nice material this year and will be posting articles about the trees and pictures here in the next few weeks. So in closing for now until tomorrow when I attempt to get some pictures of the materials I purchased today I say good evening to you and have a good one.

As promised here are my pictures. Above is my Penjing planting I really enjoy this bonsai and it is of course tropical so needs to be indoors other than in the late spring or summer time. Can also be kept in a heated greenhouse in the winter.

This is my heart Ivy so named because the leaves are heart shaped.

As promised here are some pictures of my Ivy and my Penjing plantings one of the pictures of the heart ivy is to kind of show you the trunk girth. I will take a picture of my Fukin tea at another time because I will at that time write a post about that species of plant as a bonsai.

Here is a variegated ivy I planted from a cutting so far it's doing fine. It's just very small yet and will take at least three to five years to develop. I hope that I  have peaked your interest and maybe you will also try a Penjing planting as well as grow some ivy as a bonsai. Almost any material can be made into a bonsai and grown on for many years. It just takes time an patient's. Of course also knowing the material species helps so before jumping in do your home work..

By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2021 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me: h.yearout@gmail.com