GaryS

Well with a degree in horticulture, forgive my bias.

After doing bonsai for 27 years I'd say it sure helps to understand how a plant lives and survives from day to day. I personally think a knowledge of the external and internal dynamics of plant growth is important to successful bonsai growing. Once understood, you have a better chance keeping them alive for a long time, which is what we all try and do.

I only have a few trees that have been with me from the start.

The Art of Bonsai combines horticultual understanding with the Art of living sculpture. Here lies the rub.

I think if you study trees in Nature and see how they grow and the different shapes they take on as the years go by and understand why they look as they do you can let your imagination take over and see what results with your trees over a span of time.

It also helps in the early stages of learning to study the great bonsai trees that have lived and died over the past couple of centuries.

So, in the end, it's a mixture of horticulture and the Art of training plants.

An excellent book for beginners as well as long time growers is "The Art of training Plants" by
Ernesta Drinker Ballard. Along with all of the other excellent books by Murata, Yoshimura and Naka, along with the contemporary authors.

IMHO, in the end it's 25% Horticulture-25% Sculpture and 50% blood, sweat, and tears.

__________________
GaryS