| "Bonsai: Culture of Dwarfed Trees in Japan" by Kiyosh Sakamoto
in Gardeners' Chronicle of America (1922):
THE Japanese people love to rear flowers and herbs in a porcelain or earthen pot. Such a culture is distinguished by the name of "Bonsai" (literally, pot-cultivation). This domestic horticulture is a favorite hobby both for high and low throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. As for the size of the pots, used in this special art, these range from large ones to be carried about by several strong hands to small ones that will roll off at a slight push with a single finger. A pot portable with two hands is the most general size, as is easily inferred from the nature of the art. The secret of the delight of "bonsai" lies in the reproduction of a piece of natural scenery in a tiny spot. Seen in such a light, mere rearing will not serve the purpose. A plant must be made to appear in a pot as if it were standing on a hillside. "Bonsai" embraces many methods with special names respectively, according to kinds of plants and their different ways of rearing. For example: (A) Solitary style: a single tree set up straight and towering in a pot. (B) Twin style: a tree parting at or just above the root into two great trunks and looking like the letter "U" or "V" at a little distance. (C) Bristling style: many branches coming up from the same trunk, with the appearance of a brush laid in a pot. (D) Promiscuous style: several trees or plants of the same kind or of different kinds mixed so that a little piece of ground in a pot may appear like a plain or a hill. (E) "Neagari" style: a fork-like root peeping high about the ground. (F) Cliff style: the trunk and branches bent downward as will be seen on the surface of a hillside or a cliff. (G) Half-cliff style: this is a mixture of a combination of the solitary style and the cliff style. (H) Embracing style: a tree planted on a piece of rock and the foliage embracing the rock. Pots to be used in "bonsai" should be carefully selected, and the choice depends upon contours and colors of plants. The pot and the plant must harmonize with each other. If you fail in this first step, the finest plant and the costliest pot will avail nothing. Pots are as a rule of porcelain, or earthen. Their shapes are circular, square, oblong, oval, etc. Unfigured pots are in great favor. Dark-brown color is most desired. These dark-brown pots originated in China, but recently many imitations have been produced in Japan. (a) The which harmonizes with an oval or circular pot must have a round profile, no ins and outs being seen along the lines from the top to the lowest branches. (b) The square-shaped pot wants the plant to be long-branched in its lower part and remarkably short-branched in its upper part. (c) The deep-bottomed pot is used to fit in well with the "cliff" style plant. (d) Rodea japonica and the orchid are proverbially planted in the pots of genuine Chinese make. (e) Water-plants and sea-weeds are placed in water basins. Judging from the aforementioned statement one might imagine that "bonsai" costs pretty dear, quite beyond the reach of those of moderate means. Far from it. A pine-tree which you get for a few cents, if planted properly in a pot, will prove a feast to your eyes. The essence of the art lies in cultivation and method of protection. You will become a skilled "bonsai artist" only after many years of close study and experience. The plants to be used in "pot horticulture" had best be reared from young sprouts. By this means you can modify them in any way or form you like. Young sprouts can be had on occasion of your rambling in the fields or mountains. If you tend them with care for three years, you will be blessed with a little luxury for your eyes. Two years more, and your favorite plants will be the center of admiration from your friends and neighbors. The sprout must have a shapely contour and fantastical branches. Its lower branches and the root are expected to be specially strong. The trunk should be as straight as straight can be. According to such a standard selection must be made. The young plant is to be placed first in a rough-baked earthen pot. Such a pot makes irrigation easy and seldom spoils the root by the stagnation of water or fertilizer in the soil. Yet in Summer watering is indispensible at least twice a day. The sprout, fresh from plain or hillside, usually has a straight root. When you transplant this into a pot, you must not forget, first of all, to cut to a proper length and then put the plant into a deep pot after the remaining root is coiled. The soil in the pot should be a compound of 60 per cent of ordinary soil and 40 per cent of decayed leaves; if the plant is taken from a deep valley among large mountains. If the plant happens to hail from a hillside near a village, 80 per cent of ordinary soil and 20 per cent of horse manure will afford a suitable culture medium. After all, the soil should be kept as near as possible to the natural soil native to the plant. A sprout that is one or two years old requires more fertilizer than its older brothers. If the sprout grows old enough to be provided with "chief" branches, "small" branches and "bag" branches (these three kinds of branches are indispensible elements in forming a piece of "bonsai" art), the next step to be taken is to transplant the plant into a larger pot. If you leave your plant in the pot too long, it will have its upper boughs strong and its lower boughs weak. On the other hand, to transplant it when too young is out of the question. In the process of final transplantation special attention must be paid to the position of the plant. If you fail in this part of the procedure, you will do gross injustice to your pot, however much of a rarity it may be. If the top of the plant tends to the left, you should set it a little to the left side of the pot, and vice versa. To place your plant just in the middle of the pot is the last step you should think of taking. To plant one tree in a pot is an easy thing, but to place two trees requires much skill and tact. In such a case you should select a tall tree and a little shorter tree. These two are to be planted, one a little nearer to represent a forest in miniature in this small world of a pot. The maximum to be used in a pot is ten plants of one genus. The soil in the pot should be so heaped that the part where the plant peeps above the surface is the top of a small mound. The root of the plant appears a little above the top. The foot of the mound is a little lower than the brim of the pot. To cover the surface of the soil with deep green moss largely contributes to the elegance of the potted tree. There are mosses and mosses: for example, the mildew-looking moss which grows on a forest tree among mountains, the beard-like silvery moss which is found on the shady side of a trunk, and what not. Whatever kind of moss you may select, the first thing you should keep in mind is to reproduce Nature in the pot. If you find a group of moss suited to your purpose, shake off the clinging earth and dry it in the sun. The next thing to do is to tease apart the gathered moss easily and scatter it on the surface of the soil and give it a little watering. A good rain or two will deck the pot with a piece of verdure. It takes not a small quantity of time and labor to improve the appearance of a plant. In Spring when the sprout begins to branch, you must take away all leaves except the upper two. In about a month new sprigs will come out, but these again must be got rid of. The remaining twigs will develop enough to bear some minor twigs. The infancy of a plant is the best time to correct or straighten the ill-shaped branches. If you happen to find a sprig growing just where you wish it to come out, see that the sprig be tended with more than usual care, cutting off all other unwished-for twigs and thus making it easier for the pet twig to become large. Spring is the season when the circulation of the plant-juice is most active; and so this is the best time for transplanting. Every "bonsai-ed" tree, whether it is growing in natural soil or in a pot, requires transplanting at least once a year. The following is one way of transplanting: First of all, wash the roots clean. If you find any decaed matter among entangled threads on the roots, take that away, together with mould, which you will surely come across when unearthing a plant. The washing done, dry the roots and then set the plant in a pot. Take the pot out of doors in the day and indoors at night. In Summer the scorching sun dries the sun rapidly and frequent watering is necessary. But beware of giving too much water at long intervals. Whenever you see the soil dry, don't neglect watering your pet plant. To tell you the truth, water somewhat prevents the plant from wearing "antiquated" color, but insufficient water soon kills the plant. Transplanting can be done about the time of the autumnal equinox without impairing the beauty of your tree. But the sprouts coming out at this time ought to be nipped or they will mar the graceful appearance of the tree in Winter. Watering should be avoided in Autumn lest it should rot the roots. Those trees which turn red, such as maple trees and wax trees, are specially lovely in Autumn with their crimson leaves. If you want to retain the gorgeous color on the leaves, take care not to expose the tree to rain or dew after it begins to be tinted. When the dwarfed tree undergoes "hibernation," so to speak, the only care you should take of your pet plant is to keep the soil in the pot from freezing. For this purpose place the pot in the sun on fine days with a little watering before or after the noon. The most effective way of fertilizing is first to make a slight hollow circle, two or three inches in diameter, around the root, and then pour fertilizer into this hollow on fine days. Just before the sprouting period and the period of propagation is the time when fertilization is more necessary than at other periods. When giving fertilizer to your tree, do not apply too much at a time, but give the plant its nourishment little by little. Old plants require more fertilizer than young plants. For watering purposes, rain is most suitable; next comes the water drawn from the water. Water fresh from the well is not so welcome to the plant. The older the water, the more nourishing it is. Trees adapted to this special kind of culture can be grouped into three main classes. If we add some shrubs that can be cultivated as pieces of "bonsai" art, we have four kinds in all, namely, "leaf-cultured trees," "flower-cultured trees," "dwarfed trees," and "herbs." Space does not permit the giving of detailed description of the different methods of culture, according to each of these classes. Therefore I will here epitomize some of the popular ways resorted to on this side of the Pacific. In "bonsai" art red pines are in high favor, as they can be very tastefully cultured. They like to be planted on the red soil. The shelf on which they are placed should be set up in a well ventilated part of the garden. Beware of exposing them to rain. The soil should be kept as dry as possible and fertilized with powdered oil-cake. Maple trees must be placed in a shallow pot. The soil to be used for them is red soil or mountain soil. They want much water. Therefore frequent watering is necessary. Fertilizer should be as thin as possible. If you leave the trees in the scorching sun in Summer, you will get the tips of their leaves brown. After their leaves have all fallen, their bare branches present a most graceful aspect. The cedar tree has so many small branches that it is an easy matter to train it as you choose. The use of fertilizer is not necessary, but watering must not be neglected, as the tree likes wet soil. When you plant a cedar tree in a thin pot you have a deep valley in miniature before you. The elm tree also branches profusely. Look at the tree after all its leaves have fallen. Even then you will find the thick branches interrupt the view beyond. In course of cultivation the root will become, in too many cases, thicker than the trunk. Then cut away the root, leaving about three inches from the top of the root, and transplant it in another place. Such a process will have the result of more small trunks coming up from the root, which is exactly what the "bonsai" artist wants the tree to do.--The Canadian Horticulturist |
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1 Sakamoto, Kiyosh "Bonsai: Culture of Dwarfed Trees in Japan"
in Gardeners' Chronicle of America, January 1922, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, pp.
18-19.
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