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Taking Care of Your Tropical Bonsai Tree

March 31st, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Bonsai plants are plants or trees that have been specially cultivated to be miniature versions of the bigger trees or shrubs. This is done by the regular pruning of their roots and crown to maintain their size. Bonsai started out in China and then spread outwards to the world a few centuries later. Many kinds of plants and trees can be made into bonsais. Some tropical trees have been successfully made into tropical Bonsai trees. Several other tropical Bonsai plants are shrubs in real life but have been miniaturized to create a small version.

Tropical Bonsai Trees Are Most Popular

The more popular tropical Bonsai trees are serissa, ficus and bougainvillea. These plants are commonly grown and are not as difficult to maintain as the other tropical Bonsai trees.

A tropical Bonsai usually stays outdoors along with tall the other plants. Plants were never meant to stay indoors for very long and if they are to stay indoors for a long time, they need light.

Your tropical Bonsai tree may need to be kept indoors when the winter months hit your state. These are tropical tree species and they are used to humid temperatures. The cold can kill these plants even if they are left near a closed window during a snowy winter night.

Taking Car of the Tropical Bonsai Tree Indoors

You will need to keep the Bonsai away from the radiator as this will give it desert like aridness. The dryness produced by the radiator can dry up the tropical Bonsai plant quickly and you will need to monitor it constantly. You might also try to spray some water on the Bonsai’s leaves by misting to keep the plant humid.

Tropical Bonsai trees prefer hot and humid temperatures. To mimic humidity during the winter months, you can place your Bonsai on a tray filled with pebbles and a liberal amount of water. The Bonsai pot must not be immersed in the water but stand on the pebbles. As the water from the pebbled tray evaporates, it mimics the humidity of the rainforest and this will suit your tropical Bonsai best.

If the tropical Bonsai tree needs to stay indoors for a long period of time, you must supply it with fluorescent lamps to give it chlorophyll for food production. Expose it to the fluorescent lamp lights for a good 12 hours every day especially if no other source of light is available in the house. You can keep the lights not less than 12 inches or a foot away from the plant to keep the heat from the lamp from affecting the plant.

How To Cultivate A Trident Maple Bonsai

March 28th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Bonsais are miniaturized versions of large trees and plants around the world. One of the most popular bonsais is the trident maple Bonsai. This is because of the spectacular foliage it has during fall and the capacity of the plant to be trained well in many different styles of Bonsai.

The trident maple Bonsai is common in the United States of America and many are also available in Europe and Asia. Not a lot of beginners try their luck with a trident maple Bonsai because these trees need continuous care and extra attention regarding the pruning and the pinching of the plant itself. The attractive plant is in its full glory during the fall season while its leaves change color from green to orange or gold.

Maintaining the Trident Maple Bonsai Tree

Maintenance on the trident maple Bonsai is just similar to the other Bonsai plants. It needs to be repotted every one or two years regularly to maintain the roots and its size. Pruning the trident maple Bonsai is no hardship because the plant easily grows and has small leaves for better aesthetic value.

You can prune the trident maple Bonsai roots extensively and it can still grow large trunks and buttresses quickly. Branch ramification of the trident maple Bonsai can be developed easily and quickly, too. It adapts well to being placed in a small container and usually grows upright which makes it easy to develop into any Bonsai form you might want.

Trident maple Bonsai trees love to stay out in the sun all day long and can withstand being without water for a day or two but they will need to be watered daily for better health and growth. Just like most, if not all bonsais, they need to be potted in a well drained pot to facilitate better drainage.

Trident maple Bonsai plants may be defoliated for an out of season transplant, pest bitten foliage or to promote better color and smaller leaves in time for an exhibition. Trident maple bonsais need to be defoliated entirely if you plan to take out some leaves, this is so that the tree will grow leaves evenly or will not kill off the branches that have been plucked bare. Defoliating is not advisable procedure because the Bonsai trees are stressed when this is done to them and it may make the plant unhealthy if done frequently.

The trident maple Bonsai makes for an ideal Bonsai tree because of its aesthetic value and trainability.

March 25th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Repotting Adds Life To Dying Trees

First, it’s a good idea to think about re-potting a Bonsai tree every couple of years. Early spring is a great time to do this and the gardener will need some good quality potting compost with a mix of sand or grit that will help the drainage. Repotting a Bonsai tree will hopefully put a new lease of life into it with new soil and drainage and help on the way to reviving Bonsai trees.

Another good way for reviving Bonsai trees is to trim the roots of the tree, as often the roots become very compacted and confined and give it a dying appearance. Roots may also become too big for the pot that the Bonsai is growing in, so cutting the roots can be a good move. Old soil will need to be removed first to expose the roots.

It has always been recommended that Bonsai trees be situated outdoors because of the temperature and the fact that they need to be exposed to at least 3 hours of sunlight each day. However, a lot of people still keep them indoors, and do find that their Bonsai tree begins to wilt and needs revival. If this is the case the best move is it place it outside, and it hopefully will help in reviving Bonsai trees.

Watering And Pruning Issues Can Help Tree Growth

Water is also an issue when it comes to reviving Bonsai trees. The soil needs to be kept moist all of the time, yet some people allow the Bonsai to become waterlogged, and this trapped water will rot the root system and kill the Bonsai tree quite fast. The Bonsai pot therefore has to have enough holes to allow drainage of the water. Letting the tree dry out from lack of water is also an issue.

Bonsai trees are always in need of pruning. If a Bonsai tree gets to big, cutting off the top will stop it growing even taller, and should be done using a sharp pair of scissors or secateurs to prevent infection. This will allow the Bonsai tree to grow new branches and spur a new lease if life into the plant, allowing it to appear wider and fuller.

Originally, Redwood Bonsai Trees Were Found In Manchuria, China

March 22nd, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Bonsai is a century’s old practice of the Chinese and Japanese people in reproducing natural trees in a miniaturized form and these Bonsai trees lend a lot of elegance, beauty and value especially when they start to mature with time. There are different types of trees that lend them well to Bonsai and among them is the Redwood Bonsai which is a very exciting tree form of which the Dawn Redwood variety is especially most suitable for a Bonsai tree.

Planted In The US In 1948

The Dawn Redwood Bonsai tree was originally found in Manchuria in China and it was once feared to have become extinct until it was rediscovered in the forties and this particular Redwood is a true Redwood that is quite like the American Redwood and they are really relics of bygone times being living fossils. From the early times, such Redwoods were found growing in forests and since 1948 they were planted in the United States, and now-a-days the Redwood Bonsai has become very popular.

The original Dawn Redwood Bonsai trees have a lacey type of foliage as compared with the American version and it is also deciduous and quite pretty in the fall when their light green spray turns to yellow and then to bronze before shedding from the trees.

The redwood trees grown in America in California are close relatives to the Dawn Redwood Bonsai starters and are generally two year old trees that look a lot like cypress trees though they can exist in slightly less wetter climes and are wonderful for forest building.

Redwood Bonsai are also well suited for growing indoors and it may not always require to be grown inside a home or beneath shade. And, people may also be under the wrong impression that growing Redwood Bonsai trees indoors means not exposing it to sunlight. The truth is that when you grow Redwood Bonsai trees indoors or even in the outdoors, it should be given plenty of sunlight, and have humid conditions while there should also be moistness and fertilizer added in order to get the best results.

Redwood Bonsai trees make wonderful sights and this can be attributed to the way in which the Redwood tapers away from its root flare that is heavy and also broad. You can find Dawn Redwoods growing in Wisconsin though they need good protection from especially strong winds. The smaller Dawn Redwood Bonsai trees are well grooved and have one to two inch trunks and if the trunk is especially large and heavy it will be well suited as a formal upright.

A Few Essential Things Worth Learning About Preserved Bonsai Trees

March 19th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

A preserved Bonsai tree is a wonderful way of expressing your love for Bonsai and it allows you to keep the natural beauty of it as it adorns your home, and the wonderful part about such trees is that there is no need to water, add fertilizer or trim them. However, when choosing the preserved Bonsai tree, you may want to opt for one that is made from the genuine juniper tree which has already been shaped properly by those who are masters of their trade and these trees can also be preserved through an absolutely normal process.

Real Feel And Smell

With preserved Bonsai trees you get the real feel as well as smell which are just like those of live plants and so you don’t even have to let anyone know that your Bonsai tree is preserved and not natural, though you will need to work hard at getting the preserved Bonsai tree properly grown in the first place.

The majority of preserved Bonsai trees is mounted in resin or foam and is generally contained in ceramic pots and there may also be some river rocks and stone as well as moss to enhance the appearance and make it look like a real tree. In fact, the beauty of such preserved Bonsai trees is such that they lend them to be ideal gifts and it would be quite possible to pick up one for fewer than one hundred dollars.

Another feature about the preserved Bonsai tree is that they are usually very unique and you won’t find another quite like the one you buy and so they can be used in different rooms because they make unique and marvelous additions. In addition, the preserved Bonsai is ideally suited for anyone who is strapped for time, but who loves the Bonsai art and wishes to have a Bonsai tree.

In essence, buying a preserved Bonsai tree means buying a real and live plant which has been preserved and even when it is touched and felt, it is often very difficult to believe that the tree is not actually real and to the naked eye it will not appear to be artificial at all. For those who are interested in how the preserved Bonsai tree is kept in such pristine condition all that one can say is that there is a very complex process behind this particular method, and without going into all the details suffice to say that the end result is excellent and proof of how well a living plant can be preserved for future use.

A Few Simple Tips To Ensure You Get The Best Out Of Your Outdoor Bonsai Trees

March 16th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

No doubt a lot of people that are interested in Bonsai are taken up with the growing of miniature Bonsai for the indoors, though some people would much rather opt for outdoor Bonsai trees because they find it a more appealing activity. There is no difference between the indoor and outdoor Bonsai trees and the style too is the same though the scale is larger and the environment is also different. Also, there are two types of outdoor Bonsai trees which are the evergreens such as pine and juniper, or you could choose the deciduous variety which is trees that are given to losing their leaves in the fall months and rebudding once more in the springtime. And, you can choose between planting them directly into the earth or grow them in containers.

Don’t Let The Trees Freeze In Winter

Another feature of outdoor Bonsai trees is that they won’t grow well inside for extended periods and they also must not be allowed to freeze in the winter months. In addition, you need to properly water the outdoor Bonsai trees which is of utmost importance and you can often is fooled when you look at the top soil which may look dry, but will still have some moisture in it. Once the outdoor Bonsai trees are planted you will need to keep a close eye on its water level and for this you may even need to poke the soil with your bare fingers till they go down to about an inch to find out how much moisture it really has.

Dry soil must not be allowed, and it requires that you immediately water it thoroughly while you may need to measure the water levels every two weeks which should be enough to ensure that there is proper moisture in the soil. However, you can relax the watering periods during the winter months and also ensure that in the winter, you only water when temperatures hover at forty-five degrees or more.

Outdoor Bonsai trees also require fertilizers and depending on the type of fertilizer you use, the frequency should be enough to ensure that the tree grows as is recommended. Fertilizing once in two weeks may be just fine though you must never use fertilizer during the winter time, and use of liquid fertilizer on the foliage is the best course of action.

Besides fertilizing your outdoor Bonsai trees, you must also remember to prune and trim the trees using specialized trimmers as well as sharp shears in the case of deciduous trees. Following these simple leads should ensure that you enjoy your outdoor Bonsai trees and they grow to reach their full potential

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