Wild/Natural Bonsai

kvnharv29

I havent been practicing bonsai for very long, but Ive read a couple books and learned about the history of bonsai in china and japan. The most interesting thing was how the guys in japan would collect wild bonsai in the mountains.

I know they have collected almost every wild bonsai in japan right? But the question i raise is what exactly happens to a tree that is "naturally bonsiaed"?

Is the main factor the weather that it fights through way up in the mountains or does it have something to do with how the roots are growing in the ground?

Now, If we know how a bonsai can grow wild, then isnt there a way to simulate this in our back yard, or some kind of special grow box, with a seedling or from seed?

Or am i dreaming?

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Jay

kvnharv29
You left out one (very important) variable (actually a few but) the one variable is time. Some of the collected trees are over a hundred years old... some several hundred and even other well a lot more. So add to the weather, and the watering and the wind, and the snow, and the climate, and the altitude and the air quality and the natural effects of the wildlife and others, Add to this vast amounts of time and you could duplicate almost, growing in the wild.

Sorry
Jay

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Jonny D

The problem as i see it is that the creation of a tree in nature that has all the right attributes for bonsai and is therefore worthy of collection, will have may have been affected by one condition or several conditions, kind of a heterogeneous mix of conditions, this makes it more difficult to achieve this sort of thing in your back garden, there is may also always be an unknown element that might be vitaly important.

The other problem would be to recreate things like wind, it would be very difficult, I suppose you can have a giant fan going for 50 years ;-) which might do the job.

Jonny

K.A. Rutledge

Hi kvnharv29 (??),

You write:
"The most interesting thing was how the guys in japan would collect wild bonsai in the mountains.

I know they have collected almost every wild bonsai in japan right? But the question i raise is what exactly happens to a tree that is "naturally bonsiaed"?"
--------------

Not sure if you meant this, but you may have an important misconception... There are no "wild bonsai," but rather trees in nature than can be collected and made to become bonsai. Trees in nature are not "naturally bonsaied" either. The trees in nature that are most conducive to bonsai are the ones that have had hard lives or that have interesting configurations, etc...

This is something of a technical point, but a bonsai is a tree growing in a pot that has been subjected to techniques to become a work of art. Trees in nature, no matter their size, composition, traits, etc... are just trees. They are not bonsai until they've been put into an appropriate pot and have been worked on to become an artist's expression of nature.

In answer to your question (to whatever degree I can), any tree can be made to be a bonsai. Some will be nice, others not so nice, but most trees and many shrubs can be made into bonsai. The evidence of natural harshness can either be there naturally or by means of many clever techniques.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your endeavor!

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com
zone 8, Texas

kvnharv29

Thanks rutledege, i said natural bonsai because i didnt want to say "a tree that has been subjected to harsh weather and growing conditions that has dwarfed it in some way."
I understand what you mean though. thanks

Also, you have in mind any clever techniques so natural harshness?

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Robert

Andy,
One of the MANY things I like about you posts is your kindness. You are always informative, and I read all of your posts with pleasure. I appreciate your gentle manner and kindness even to what may appear to be a naive queston. It is honestly asked, and you respond in a like manner.
Robert.......in Sta.Cruz

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K.A. Rutledge

My pleasure, kvnharv29 (??). You ask:

"Also, you have in mind any clever techniques so natural harshness?"

This all depends on the species, age and development of the tree in question. You can:

- create shari (deadwood elements on the trunk)
- create jin (deadwood branch elements) from live branches
- add jin by inserting them into the trunk
- create hollows
- induce tortuous branch lines
- reveal more structure (eleminating foliage)
- graft surface roots onto the base
- remove/jin the leader and let another shoot take over
- lay the trunk down horizontally and let the branches on one side become new trunks
etc...

Have a look at examples of nature's harshness in the wild and I'll bet that you can devise any number of ways to reflect or represent those elements on a tree in a pot. Have fun!

Kind regrds,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

Tony

Naturally dwarfed trees in the wild will usually have their roots restricted in some way. This could be from growing in a small pocket of soil on a rock slab or growing in mostly gravel or growing very poor unfertile soil. Other things can play a part too, like harsh weather or animals eating the foliage keeping it constantly pruned thereby keeping the tree short in stature and slow growing.

You may be overlooking an important point though. Most trees placed in these extreme conditions will die. Mimicking harsh conditons really isn't the best way to grow potential bonsai unless you have alot of growing space and time to wait and are prepared to lose bunches in the process.

When you look at those pictures of nice collected trees that have been made into bonsai you have to realize that you are seeing the few that managed to live long enough to be spotted by a bonsai grower then managed to live through the collection process. Most of them will never make it to this point of development.

For growing bonsai from seeds or young trees you would do better to keep them healthy and use some of the bonsai techniques that Andy describes to give them the attributes of naturally dwarfed trees growing in harsh conditions.

Tony

FredL

Kvnharv29, I don't know whether you are familiar with the publication "Bonsai Today", but it has contained a number of really fine articles over the years dealing with the subject of preparing both collected material and material grown from seed to become Bonsai. Two issues back, there was a particularly memorable article on creating Japanese Black Pine from seed over the course of about 12 to 15 years.

Sure it can be done. As you suggest, it is becoming very widespread in Japan as the result of extensive collection of the best material for many years. The fact is, collecting well developed older trees from nature is generally considered only one of the several generally accepted ways of creating mature bonsai.

If you are able, subscribing to BT or buying back issues is an excellent way to become more knowledgeable about working with pre-bonsai material. Incidentally, the very kind (wow! That's a new description of Andy!) Andy Rutledge is a contributor to that fine magazine (just kidding with you Andy. He is very kind!).

Fred