Flower Garden Care

Many consider Bonsai an ancient hobby or form of art, originating to allow the bonsai tree or plant to live independent or apart from the earth. It is a plant considered complete, capable of sustaining life on its own. This is one-reason bonsai plants or trees often live in a potted area or in a special place separate from other forms of vegetation.

The ancients believed bonsai held many mystical and magical powers. Today, many believe the bonsai plant provides good energy, truth, goodness and beauty into the homes and lives of those that care for this life-providing plant. Most bonsai plants live for hundreds of years, outliving many other plants and species of similar size. This is one reason people can pass their bonsai plants from one generation to the next.

Many people do not realize most bonsai are everyday trees and plants that people shape and create into a specialized form, creating the typical appearance one associates with a bonsai plant. Bonsai come from maple trees, elm trees, cedar, pine and many other common trees and evergreen shrubs. The distinguishing feature of bonsai is that bonsai is a plant that one modifies to grow in a distinct shape and size. The goal of someone growing bonsai is to create something that looks natural in most cases, with few exceptions where bonsai tree shapes represent something symbolic. This is more common among those where the practice of bonsai first originated…

The first bonsai plants originated in China several thousand years ago. Many consider the first bonsai plants primitive when compared to their modern-day counterparts. Early bonsai, often called punsai, typically consisted of small plants with little foliage. The trunks often represented twisted and gnarled edges. Many Chinese artists shaped bonsai to look like dragons or other mythological creatures. Some did this for fun, while others believed these symbolic bonsai might bring good fortune to their homes.

The Japanese soon followed the Chinese in their love of bonsai. It was during the time Zen Buddhism arose that bonsai became a popular pastime in Japan. For a short time, only Buddhist monks practiced the art of bonsai, believing it was a sacred form of art reserved for spiritual purposes of enlightenment and meditation. Some time later, the monarchy took up the idea that having bonsai trees stood for aristocracy, power, luck, and honor. Thus, bonsai became popular among the wealthy.

Today bonsai is a popular pastime of the wealthy and ordinary alike. Anyone can enjoy this calm, relaxing and peaceful pastime, whether for profit or personal fulfillment. You do not have to have a degree in horticulture; you do not have to know a thing about landscaping. That is the beauty of professional and amateur bonsai today… anyone can enjoy it!