Like many other gardeners, I became familiar with the art of growing miniature trees in containers, known as bonsai, from watching films such as The Karate Kid. This art form started in Japan over 1,000 years ago and is also known to have been popular in China and other areas of Southeast Asia in that time period. The Western World truly became aware of the art of Bonsai after World War Two and it became much more popular several decades later when the tools for growing bonsai and the knowledge on how to do it became widely available. Bonsai has truly become a worldwide phenomenon as statistics indicate there are over 1,500 clubs worldwide, dozens of magazines, and over 1,200 published books on the subject available in at least 26 languages.
While bonsai are truly meant to be grown outdoors it is possible and has become popular to grow them indoors as well. It certainly is possible to start a bonsai of your own but it takes a great deal of knowledge and training to be able to do this. There are classes that are available all over the country that can teach you this technique but for a beginner, it is probably better to purchase a bonsai that has already been assembled to learn how to care for it. A bonsai can live for decades and while they do require specialized care in many ways they just need the attention that any other plant requires to flourish.
The first order of business is to choose your bonsai plant carefully. As I mentioned previously the traditional bonsai plant is meant to grow outdoors. Junipers and other pine trees are what we often think of as bonsai plants but they are not really meant to be grown indoors and may not be the best candidate for a beginner. It is better to look for a typical houseplant such as a jade plant or ficus tree that has been trained into a bonsai. Since these plants are easily acclimated to indoor growing conditions it makes it easier to meet their basic needs such as the amount of light they require.
Due to their small size bonsai may require more frequent watering, depending upon the requirements of that particular plant. They may also require routine misting to maintain a humid environment that is usually lacking in a home or office. One way to maintain a more humid environment is to place small pebbles in a shallow tray, water the tray, and then place the bonsai container on top of the pebbles. You can then check the tray every few days and put more water in the tray as needed. The size of the container also allows the soil to leach out nutrients quickly so regular fertilization is also required. This should be done monthly during the growing season and less frequently during the winter months.
Perhaps the most challenging part of growing a bonsai is the trimming and pruning required to maintain its shape as well as the need to repot the plant every 2 to 3 years. New growth should be pruned carefully with an eye toward maintaining the existing shape of the plant but you never want to remove all of the new growth on the bonsai or it could die. The repotting is necessary as the soil nutrients, even in spite of regular fertilizing, need to be replenished and the roots of the bonsai need to be pruned to help maintain its miniature size. When pruning the roots you should only remove up to a ¼ of the root system to minimize the stress on the plant. While growing a bonsai can be challenging their beauty makes the risks worthwhile.
