Bonsai class 2
[This is a continuing series of spontaneous and unrehearsed "classes" on the subject of bonsai. Many new readers were coming on board asking about how to get started. I believe you should just start making bonsai. So, I will try to lead you through creating your first. Besides this gentle counsel, be sure to read the FAQ (which appears periodically) and search out some good books or people to introduce you to the subject. I will post sporadically with a subject containing the word "Class". I am going slow, so be prepared to be frustrated. If you have questions or comments about building your own first bonsai, post them "Re:" this thread (and if you have other questions, try to avoid a subject containing "Class").]
OK. Step two: Now take the material you have collected, and cut away everything that doesn't look like a bonsai.
Just kidding!
Last time I left you to seek out some material to bonsai, and to then contemplate that material with regards to turning it into a bonsai. Really, one of these days we will start hacking at it.
I left you thinking about mature natural trees, for, after all, a bonsai is a scale-model rendition of such a tree. What are some of the signs of a mature tree? A larger size, of course. Mature trees have a different branching structure; while young trees grow vigorously vertical, older trees have branches that spread out and even down, showing the effects of fighting gravity year after year. Often, too, a mature tree will have a few dead and broken branches. A mature tree usually has thick, rough bark. A mature tree usually has roots with character, often visible on the surface of the ground. A mature tree usually has a thick trunk in relation to its height.
And what makes a bonsai different from a mature natural tree? Obviously, scale. Also, a bonsai is in a pot, and that means it is very dependent on a human for care and maintenance. A bonsai is often chronologically much younger than a mature tree, and that means it must be given the characteristics of a mature tree that it would otherwise lack.
And, oddly enough, a bonsai often "out-natures" nature. While a bonsai is intended to evoke a feeling of nature, it usually possesses an aesthetic appeal rarely found in nature. Our tree aesthetics are based upon nature, no doubt the result of our arboreal ancestors' intimate relationship with trees. But, they go beyond that, seeking an ideal seldom seen in nature.
Unlike a tree, a bonsai has a front side, the one that is most beautiful. Branches are carefully chosen and developed to compliment this front-ness. The first branch up from the ground is usually one to the left or right, and should be approximately one-third of the way up. The "second" (not necessarily numerically second) branch goes in the opposite (but not exactly opposite) direction. A bonsai has a back branch, one that goes away (but not directly away) from the front, yielding a feeling of depth; the back branch should not be the first branch up from the ground, but should be among the first few. A bonsai's front branch is further up, usually above normal eye-level. A bonsai usually has a single apex, or highest point. Usually the apex leans slightly toward the front.
(No. You will not be shot if you fail to follow these rules. They are just rules of thumb that can help you produce something beautiful. Above all, please yourself. Sometimes the rules must be broken because the tree, still a piece of nature, has its own rules to live by. And, sometimes the rules are even broken on purpose, for effect.)
If you can picture what I just described, you will notice that the front of the bonsai provides an open view of the trunk--by design. We want to see the trunk and the branch structure.
Usually, the outline of a bonsai will yield a triangular shape, with one corner of the triangle lower than the other, and the top of the triangle being the apex of the tree. Why? Triangles look good. (However, someone once taught me that the corners of the triangle symbolize heaven, earth, and mankind somewhere in between.)
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I should mention a couple of skills you will need (or need to develop) to create and maintain your own bonsai. First, you need to be good with plants. If you don't already have a "green thumb", grow a lot of plain house plants before you tackle a bonsai. Second, you need an eye for form. You need to be able to know what looks aesthetically pleasing, and what doesn't. This is not a critical skill, as long as you are making bonsai only for yourself, and you think you can please yourself. If you are making bonsai for others, though, you need to have an idea about what pleases others. I thought I should warn you.
Hey, if you try making a bonsai, and don't like the results, there is plenty more material to be had. Try, try again. Just take each mistake out into the country and put it in the ground to live its own life. It will revert back to whatever it was going to be before it met up with you.
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I am sorry to be making you think so much. You probably want to dive right in and start pruning your tree, but as with creating most things, time spent up front in design usually results in a better product.
Have you picked out a first branch for your tree? How tall will your tree be?
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From: rkn@apple.com (Richard K. Nordin)
Subject: Re: Class 2
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 23:37:27 GMT
Via mail, someone asked me about getting started and about where to find material. I decided to post my reply here. (Really, feel free to post your questions to this group. There are no dumb questions. I you are wondering, someone else probably is, too.)
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Hmm, no green thumb? It will be a challenge for you. But, hey, you learn by doing. Just don't get discouraged, and if you happen to kill a plant or five, well, just try to learn from the mistakes. (You might want to practice growing non-bonsai, just because if you do kill a houseplant it means you have a little less effort invested in it.) Also, it might be easier for you to keep a first bonsai alive if you give it a nice, deep clay pot to grow in rather than the prettier shallow bonsai pots that are typical. Most of my trees are in regular flower pots because I don't have proper facilities designed for their care. In the hot San Jose sun, they have a little better chance of surviving. If they were in shallow pots, I might have to water them 2 or 3 times a day.
The ready-mades are usually of an inferior quality to what you can create. I see them for sale in the $10 to $20 range, but to sell at that low a price they have to be mass-produced, and not much care goes into the design. A better bonsai will have many hours of care invested in it (like you will do if you build your own) and goes for a steeper price of $50 or $100 and up.
Most of the fun, for me, is creation of a bonsai from raw material. I think your money is better spent buying several $4.00 plants and sculpting them yourself. Besides, you'll learn more about the process, and, having invested energy in the creation, maybe pay it a little more attention.
A nursery sells plants in pots, usually plastic half-gallon and up. Finding free material is tricky. My best source is either the yards of people I know, or picking seeds off trees in the city. Nobody much minds you removing a few seeds, or digging up a wild sprout from their yard. Public parks are bad because they often have rules against disturbing the plants. Public lands, like national forests might be OK. Never tried it. I know they sometimes allow firewood gathering, so it wouldn't hurt to ask. My favorite source for pine trees in Minnesota was my uncle's Christmas tree farm. I have heard of people asking permission to search in Christmas tree farms in the off-season. Bonsai people usually want the leftover trees that would never sell. (Once you get into bonsai, you have a natural method of getting permission from people to hunt on their land: present them first with a tree you collected elsewhere.)
Several of the trees I have now were just "weeds" that grew on their own in the yard of the house I rent--oak, and a couple species I do not know. In fact as I scan my collection of some 120 trees (actually mostly seedlings), I see only 1-1/2 that I bought: a juniper and half a gingko (I paid for one, but there were two in the pot by accident). Most are seeds I planted last spring. My best are Scots pines from the Christmas tree farm. Seedlings take patience, because it takes a few years before you really have anything to work with. Quickest is to just buy a many-year- old tree in the making from a nursery. Again, I like junipers. Almost any pine will do, except those with very long needles. Most deciduous trees in nurseries have been grown too lanky to use, but occasionally (like the gingko I bought) you can find something good.
Well, good luck!
