Getting Started with Bonsai

Starting your bonsai journey can be exciting, but beginners should keep a few key points in mind. While the internet offers a wealth of information, it’s important to approach online advice critically and watch out for misleading guidance or those simply seeking profit. Building your skills takes time, so it’s advisable to practice on inexpensive plant material until you’re comfortable with bonsai care. The foundation of a great bonsai is high-quality plant material, but before focusing on aesthetics, prioritise learning how to keep your tree healthy and alive. As you gain experience and learn to interpret your bonsai’s needs, caring for these living trees will become a rewarding and adventurous pursuit.

Understanding Your New Bonsai

Bonsai trees are admired for their artistic beauty, reflected in their shape, form, composition, and colour. They are living sculptures, carefully cultivated in small pots and pruned each year to replicate the grandeur of full-sized trees in miniature. The challenge lies in maintaining both their health and beauty. Your starter bonsai has the potential to become an impressive specimen within ten years with ongoing care and maintenance.

Daily and Seasonal Care

Bonsai trees thrive outdoors and should be kept outside to ensure proper growth. While you may bring your bonsai indoors for a few days to enjoy, be sure to return it to its regular

outdoor spot afterward. Select a location for your bonsai that suits its species. During autumn, winter, and spring, ensure your tree receives at least half a day of full sunlight. Most evergreen species can tolerate full sun throughout the summer. For deciduous trees, after spring, move them to a spot with morning sun and afternoon shade.

Monitor the moisture content of your bonsai’s soil daily. The soil should remain slightly moist—never completely dry or overly saturated. Water your bonsai in the morning, continuing until water runs out of the drainage holes. During hot summer days, daily watering may be necessary.

Fertilizer

The soil mix in your bonsai pot is crucial for proper moisture retention, drainage, and air circulation. Use a liquid organic fertiliser, such as Seabrix from Biogrow, once a month—diluted according to the product instructions. In spring and autumn, your watering routine may change. Stop fertilising after autumn and resume when new leaves emerge in spring.

Pruning: Branch, Needle and Leaf

Your bonsai has been shaped and maintained through careful wiring, pruning, and root pruning during repotting to achieve its bonsai form.

In spring and summer, evergreen bonsai need occasional pinching of new needle clusters or candles to maintain their shape and encourage dense foliage. For pines, new candles are pinched or broken off once each spring.

Deciduous trees require occasional trimming of branch tips and leaves. Allow new shoots to develop two or three sets of leaves before pruning back to a single pair. Use clean scissors or sharp pruning cutters for this task. This practice encourages new buds to grow closer to the trunk, resulting in a compact and attractive branch and twig structure. Over time, this technique enhances the illusion of a mature, miniature tree.

Repotting

Your bonsai should be repotted every one to three years. Repotting prevents the roots from overcrowding the pot, which could restrict drainage and air flow. Additionally, root pruning during repotting promotes the development of fine, twiggy branches that enhance the tree’s appearance. Replace the old soil with fresh mix, and consider using the same or a slightly smaller pot for better visual balance.

Repotting and root pruning rejuvenate the root system, ensuring your bonsai’s longevity and health for decades. While this process is straightforward, it does require some guidance—such as understanding how much to prune, which soil to use, and how to care for the tree afterward.

Branch Wiring and Shaping

Many bonsai have their trunks and branches wrapped with wire during initial styling. This technique allows you to bend and position branches artistically without causing harm.

Wires should not be left on indefinitely, as the bark may eventually grow around the wire, leaving unsightly marks. Remove the wire after several months—once the shape is set, but before marks develop—by uncoiling or snipping it with wire cutters. The timing varies according to tree species, growth rate, and environmental factors, so inspect the wires and bark monthly. For slow-growing evergreens like pines, spring wire removal is typically needed three to five months after new needles appear. For fast-growing deciduous species, removal is usually required two to four months after leaves emerge. Wires applied in autumn or winter may remain until late spring or mid-summer.

Wiring may need to be repeated several times before the branches hold their intended shape. Once the desired form is achieved, wiring is no longer necessary.

Bonsai Age

Creating the illusion of age is a key goal in bonsai art. Although having an old tree is interesting, it’s not essential for achieving a classic bonsai look.

A mature appearance is developed over several years, as branches become more twiggy, the trunk base thickens, and the bark takes on a mature texture. These qualities improve with age and are enhanced through the proper daily and seasonal

Bonsai trees can live for a very long time. In Japan, there are bonsai that have been kept alive for over a hundred years, with some royal specimens known to be more than three hundred years old.